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A Life
(Harper & Row, 1989; HarperPerennial, 1990; University Press of New England, 1999)
From: Publishers Weekly:
“This biography, the first to draw on sources unavailable during O'Keeffe's lifetime--and the first to be granted her family's cooperation--offers a persuasive feminist analysis of the life and work of an iconic figure in American art. Inspired by strong women in a Midwestern family that stressed a sturdy sense of self-reliance, O'Keeffe bucked oppressive social conventions to become one of the first female American artists to lead a professionally successful and emancipated life. But along the way lay struggle: O'Keeffe had to fight for emotional and artistic independence in her public and private lives, experiencing particular difficulties in her relationships with men, most notably her benefactor and husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Novelist Robinson's ( Summer Light) detailed, sensitive critique of O'Keeffe's work, tracing the development of the artist's esthetic, alternates with an absorbing, intimate narrative of O'Keeffe's personal life (including her notorious relationship with Juan Hamilton, six decades her junior, and the public battle over her estate) to provide a resourceful, imaginatively rendered portrait of a dauntingly difficult subject.”
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From: The New York Times Book Review
“Does much to give body to the O’Keeffe myth. The author presents a person who was both vulnerable and fierce, passionate and coolly withholding, sensuous yet oddly unsexual. Benefiting from the O’Keeffe family’s cooperation, Ms. Robinson…draws on correspondence that was inaccessible to scholars during the artist’s lifetime. Ms. Robinson assiduously interviewed people who knew O’Keeffe and deftly collated masses of information.”
From: Ms. Magazine
“Chockablock with intriguing detail, some apt insight, and best of all, O’Keeffe’s own voice – in her letters - and in the words of her family and friends who wouldn’t talk to anyone before the artist’s death at the age of 98 in 1986. It gives us the first sensible discussion of how photography influenced O’Keeffe’s paintin – her closeups, wide angles, cropping, distortion of scale, and zooms.”
From: The New Yorker“This is without question the best book ever written on O’Keeffe, and an invaluable resource not only for scholars but for the general public. It is accurate, insightful, and beautifully written.”
- Calvin Tomkins, Staff Writer
“This biography, the first to draw on sources unavailable during O'Keeffe's lifetime--and the first to be granted her family's cooperation--offers a persuasive feminist analysis of the life and work of an iconic figure in American art. Inspired by strong women in a Midwestern family that stressed a sturdy sense of self-reliance, O'Keeffe bucked oppressive social conventions to become one of the first female American artists to lead a professionally successful and emancipated life. But along the way lay struggle: O'Keeffe had to fight for emotional and artistic independence in her public and private lives, experiencing particular difficulties in her relationships with men, most notably her benefactor and husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Novelist Robinson's ( Summer Light) detailed, sensitive critique of O'Keeffe's work, tracing the development of the artist's esthetic, alternates with an absorbing, intimate narrative of O'Keeffe's personal life (including her notorious relationship with Juan Hamilton, six decades her junior, and the public battle over her estate) to provide a resourceful, imaginatively rendered portrait of a dauntingly difficult subject.”
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From: The New York Times Book Review
“Does much to give body to the O’Keeffe myth. The author presents a person who was both vulnerable and fierce, passionate and coolly withholding, sensuous yet oddly unsexual. Benefiting from the O’Keeffe family’s cooperation, Ms. Robinson…draws on correspondence that was inaccessible to scholars during the artist’s lifetime. Ms. Robinson assiduously interviewed people who knew O’Keeffe and deftly collated masses of information.”
From: Ms. Magazine
“Chockablock with intriguing detail, some apt insight, and best of all, O’Keeffe’s own voice – in her letters - and in the words of her family and friends who wouldn’t talk to anyone before the artist’s death at the age of 98 in 1986. It gives us the first sensible discussion of how photography influenced O’Keeffe’s paintin – her closeups, wide angles, cropping, distortion of scale, and zooms.”
From: The New Yorker“This is without question the best book ever written on O’Keeffe, and an invaluable resource not only for scholars but for the general public. It is accurate, insightful, and beautifully written.”
- Calvin Tomkins, Staff Writer