The Lives of Lee Miller [Paperback]

Antony Penrose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 1995

"Part memoir, part photo essay, part search for the real woman behind an unconventional mother....Should ensure Miller the place she deserves in future histories of the period."—Art in America

• Lee Miller: 1927: New York. Classically beautiful, she is discovered by Condé Nast and immortalized by Steichen, Hoyningen-Huene, Horst, and other famous photographers.
• Lee Miller: 1929: Paris. Protégé and lover of Man Ray, she invents with him the solarization technique of photography and develops into a brilliant Surrealist photographer.
• Lee Miller: 1939-1945: Europe. She becomes a U.S. war correspondent and covers the liberation of Paris. Her photographs of the Dachau concentration camp shock the world.

These are but three of the many lives of Lee Miller, intimately recorded here by her son, Antony Penrose, whose years of work on her photographic archives unearthed a rich selection of her finest work, including portraits of her friends Picasso, Braque, Ernst, Eluard, and Miró. To these are added many other photos that complement Penrose's highly readable biography of this uniquely talented artist. 171 duotone illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Lee Miller exemplified the restlesness of the Lost Generation. She was a stunningly beautiful Vogue model, a fine photographer who studied with and was the lover of Man Ray, a war correspondent, and in later life a gourmet cook. She was married twice: first to an Egyptian businessman and then to British surrealist Roland Penrose. Lavishly illustrated with Miller's own work, Penrose's tribute to his mother brings to life a uniquely talented women and the turbulent times in which she lived. This opulent book, like its subject, is multi-faceted. Penrose has produced a work that is part picture book, part biography, part social history, and successful in all aspects. Highly recommended. Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Comm. Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Part memoir, part photo essay, part search for the real woman behind an unconventional mother . . . Should insure Miller the place she deserves in future histories of the period. -- Art in America

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (April 5, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500275092
• ISBN-13: 978-0500275092
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,121,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a friendly bio, March 30, 2004

By 

S. A Troutt (MURFREESBORO, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lives of Lee Miller (Paperback)

First I want to state that this is a very fine biography, the author (Miller's son) does an admirable job of showing the many different sides and personalities of a multi-gifted woman whose life spanned the tumultuous revolution of women's roles in society. But Lee Miller led a very complicated and somewhat contradictory life and the author manages (artifully, I admit)to avoid probing too deeply into the dark corners that would truly flesh out her life. There are crucial points in the book where a gentle fog of vagueness creeps in where an objective biographer would have strove for clarity, i.e. what exactly was the nature of her relationship with her father? He clearly had a huge role in her life and career (he began photographing her nude at a very early age)but the treatment of their relationship is ginger to say the very least. But issues outside the family are well covered, inside not so much. So to sum up, a good general bio but it is neither too critical nor too in depth on certain issues.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Intrigue Cintinues, January 23, 2012

By 

loveofbooks52 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lives of Lee Miller (Paperback)

I ordered this book from Amazon because I couldn't find it in any local book shops luckily the book has certainly not let me down. Beautiful photographs illustrating the lives this beautiful and highly interesting photographer led. Well researched, even though the book was written/compiled by her son, he was not necessarily born with the knowledge and skill that such a book requires. I would recommend this book to other artists, photographers, writers or simply folks who might be interested in finding out more about Lee Miller.The Lives of Lee Miller