Margaret Bourke-White: A Biography [Hardcover]

Vicki Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1986

Biography of the famed photographer and documentary photographer. Best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent (and the first female permitted to work in combat zones) and the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine. Hardcover. Original jacket. Stated First Edition, number line counts to 1. Edges starting to fade on back. Crease on front flap of jacket. Light edge wear. Very Good/Very Good.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Goldberg, a freelance journalist, recounts Bourke-White's achievements as the first woman photojournalist accredited to the U.S. armed forces. PW called this an "insightful, impressively researched biography that portrays a brave, dramatic and oddly vulnerable woman."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A talented photography critic offers by far the best portrait of the super-star of photojournalism who died 15 years ago. Goldberg has made sensitive use of rich archival materials and interviews with Bourke-White's family, friends, and colleagues at Fortune and Life. Analyzing style and methods of work, she focuses on the tremendous drive to be not only the best but a celebrity. She also details the many love affairs and offers dramatic accounts of personal daring on assignments worldwide. Too manipulative, selfish, and demanding, Bourke-White is for much of the book unappealing. But in the Thirties her self-involvement gave way to social conscience, and her bravery during the long years with Parkinson's that ended her life wins the reader's admiration and sympathy. Milton Meltzer, New York
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 426 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1 edition (June 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060155132
• ISBN-13: 978-0060155131
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,399,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and well-researched biography of such an unusual woman, January 20, 2011

By 

Beverly Appel (Las Vegas, New Mexico United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Margaret Bourke-White: A Biography (Radcliffe Biography Series) (Paperback)

I totally loved this book. The author seemed to be inside Margaret Bourke-White's skin in her ability to take a very complex woman and make her come alive to the reader. After coming across a book of photos by Bourke-White of the horror that hit India after Pakistan came into existence, I wanted to read her biography only to find out how she could take these photos, and her concentration camp photos, and have them all in focus. I thought her hands had to shake looking at the scenes she was photographing, and knowing the equipment she was using, I couldn't figure out how she did this. There are a lot of books on Maragaret Bourke-White, so I selected this one at random, but was really pleased to find the answer to this very question quoted directly from Bourke-White herself. So I figured the author must have put a lot of thought into this book, knowing that might be a question readers would have about this amazing woman--who insisted on wearing high heels as she walked across steel beams to get her photos!