Alfred Stieglitz: A Biography [Hardcover]

Richard Whelan (Author), Jennifer Josephy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1995

A comprehensive biography of Alfred Stieglitz, pioneering photographer, influential tastemaker, and husband of Georgia O'Keeffe, offers an intimate look at his brilliant circle of artists and intellectuals, his innovative work, and his tumultuous personal life. 12,500 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Curiously enough, Whelan's is the first comprehensive biography of Stieglitz, master photographer and tireless arts crusader, though there have been a staggering number of books about his marriage to Georgia O'Keeffe. Naturally, O'Keeffe plays a major role here, but Stieglitz had 23 years on her, so Whelan has plenty of territory to cover before O'Keeffe enters the picture and rescues Stieglitz from his long-standing but loveless first marriage. Whelan analyzes the dynamics of Stieglitz's lively but extravagantly moody family and describes Stieglitz as an insecure child, so intensely preoccupied he earned the nickname Hamlet. Once he got hooked on photography, it didn't take Stieglitz long to formulate his revolutionary aesthetics or to set himself up as a notoriously garrulous gallery owner, critic, and champion of photography as a fine art. Whelan is equally articulate whether he's analyzing Stieglitz's radically evocative photographs, highly influential theories of art, vociferous support of the artists he exhibited (including Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and, of course, Georgia O'Keeffe), or the messier aspects of his hectic personal life. Whelan succeeds in bringing Stieglitz--brilliant and mercurial, creative and indefatigable, maddening and lovable--and his awesome accomplishments into gratifyingly sharp focus. Donna Seaman

Review

The virtue of Mr. Whelan's biography is that it meticulously documents the dozens of people whose paths crossed those of Stieglitz, and enumerates the public and private episodes that make up this long and dynamic life. Mr. Whelan, a freelance writer about art and photography, has traced letters and other papers that reflect Stieglitz's career as a guru of art ever prone to passionate affinities and quarrels. -- The New York Times Book Review, Roger Cardinal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 662 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316934046
• ISBN-13: 978-0316934046
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,165,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars American photography and art in New York early 1900's, July 6, 2007

By 

Craig Dokken (Chandler, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alfred Stieglitz: A Biography (Paperback)

A very interesting read on photography and modern art in America. It builds a foundation of knowledge on this subject. So many famous names of that era are mentioned and how they got involved in the art world. With out this man the art world would have been so different.

The author does a good job of describing Alfred's life and all the exhibits in room 291 and 303.The beginning of great museums in New York and all the European artist that displayed and sold art in New York.

This book was a great source of information to get other books on this subject.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and fascinating, December 12, 2010

By 

Anthony Peterson "ajpn photo" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alfred Stieglitz: A Biography (Paperback)

This is a great biography. Well written and painstakingly researched. The amazing thing is how involved Stieglitz was in exposing the United States to modern art in general.