Women of Our Time: 75 Portraits of Remarkable Women [Paperback]

Frederick S. Voss (Author), Cokie Roberts (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007

This book presents a glorious celebration of seventy-five of the most creative, controversial, witty, brave and inspirational women of the twentieth century. Revealing portraits, by an array of distinguished photographers, show women who have reached the summit of achievement in politics, business, art, sport, the performing arts and science - women such as Billie Holiday, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Martha Graham, Maya Lin and Gloria Steinem. The photographs are accompanied by brief biographies that highlight the distinctive contributions of these women and describe how they were viewed by their contemporaries. This new compact edition of a bestselling title includes rarely seen photographs of Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Graham, Joan Baez and many others.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The book provides a fascinating between-the-lines study of the passage of portraits and people from the noisy sea of celebrity culture - ARTNET.COM

About the Author

Frederick S. Voss is former Senior Historian at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He has published extensively on American portraiture. cokie roberts is Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR) and Political Commentator for ABC News.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Merrell Publishers; 2nd edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858943965
• ISBN-13: 978-1858943961
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,366,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars could offer a more inclusive pallet, September 4, 2007

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Elevate Difference "Elevate Difference" (worldwide) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women of Our Time: 75 Portraits of Remarkable Women (Paperback)

Opening this book, I expected to find glossy photos of Eleanor Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe, and other names and faces I recognized. While I found summaries of the lives of Roosevelt and Monroe beside typical portraits, I also found glowing descriptions and realistically unflattering pictures of women whose names I had never heard or whose faces I had never seen. Among the familiar list of names and unfamiliar faces were Margaret Sanger, pioneer of birth control rights; Anne Sexton, a poet who wrote with heart-gripping emotionality; and Pearl S. Buck, whose works I had read in high school with little context. Among the women whose stories had been hidden to me until now were Rosalyn Yalow, a medical physicist who made in-roads into male-dominated fields; Frances Perkins, the first woman to hold a post in the U.S. Cabinet; and Zitkala-Sa Bonnin (also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), an author and activist for Native American rights.

As broad and deep as the selection of featured women is, my only complaint is also about the selection. While a number of black, white, Asian and Native American writers, artists, activists, politicians and scientists are featured, nearly all of the subjects whose fame was acquired outside of the arts are white. The inclusion of Congresswoman and lawyer Barbara Jordan and Vietnam War Memorial architect Maya Lin is heartening, but surely a broad survey of ground-breaking women in the 20th century could offer a more inclusive pallet.