Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Dead Man Falling

1996 novel by Randall Silvis

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera — Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas

Record originEnglish Wikipedia

Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0

Source revisionAug 23, 2026

Entity authorityQ5245301 ↗

Source-derived summary

Dead Man Falling is a crime novel by the American writer Randall Silvis.

Set in 1990s in the Allegheny National Forest of Western Pennsylvania on the upper Allegheny River Valley, including the Kinzua Dam north Pittsburgh, it tells the story of wildlife filmmaker Mac Parris, who has spent most of his adult life hiding from the FBI and his own past, as he helps a young woman find her brother's killer.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Dead Man Falling” as 1996 novel by Randall Silvis. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current 71-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1996. The account is most persuasive where Dead, Falling and novel can be independently traced.

Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1996 novel by Randall Silvis. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5245301. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for

Identifying works and editions
Tracing reception history
Finding collection records

Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

Establish the record: confirm the title “Dead Man Falling”, its source revision and the description used here.
Expand the search: follow Dead Man Falling primary sources, Dead Man Falling archive and Dead research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dead Man Falling”?
Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?

Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Dead Man Falling history →Dead Man Falling primary sources →Dead Man Falling archive →Dead research →Falling research →novel research →Randall research →

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Dead Man Falling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.