Synopses & Reviews
Dorothea Lange chose to be an "artist" during a time when family was supposed to come first for a woman. Her passion was photographing people. During her career, Dorothea Lange captured some of the most desperate and beautiful faces America has seen in photographs. She did her most celebrated work in the 1930s and 40s during the depression years and the second World War.
Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange includes over sixty of Lange's extraordinary photographs printed in high quality duotones, and chronicles Lange's life from her childhood on the Lower East Side of New York, through her early years as a portrait photographer in San Francisco, to her famous work for the government photographing starving migrant workers in California. Also included are her heart-breaking photographs of Japanese Americans interned on the West Coast during World War II.
Author Elizabeth Partridge has woven Lange's own words into her book, creating not just another biography, but an intimate portrait of the artist who put faces on some of the darkest episodes in America's history Restless Spirit presents a magnificent showcase of work that will not soon be forgotten.
Review
"The book is a model of scholarship and narrative history, the text offers intimate glimpses of a socially responsible and creative American life." New York Times
Review
"Lange's story resonates with issues of gender, social policies, artistic merit and human interest. This well-constructed, sympathetic biography deserves many readers and is a must for every library." School Library Journal (Starred Review)
Review
"Partridge's conversational tone and intimate details of the Lange household will draw readers in...She also makes vivid Lange's lasting contributions." Kirkus Reviews
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"Lange's stirring black-and-white photographs provide the drama in this biography of the famous camera artist....This fine photo-essay invites you to come back and look at her work." Booklist (Starred Review)
Synopsis
Dorothea Lange's desperate and beautiful pictures of migrant workers in California and her heartbreaking photographs of Japanese Americans interned during World War II put human faces on some of the darkest episodes in America's history. Restless Spirit is an intimate portrait of a woman who struggled to balance her passion for her career and her love for her family, all while producing some of the most celebrated, powerful photographic works of their time. Told by Lange's goddaughter, National Book Award finalist, Elizabeth Partridge, Restless Spirit is a testament to this brilliant photographer's work.
Synopsis
A biography of Dorothea Lange, whose photographs of migrant workers, Japanese American internees, and rural poverty helped bring about important social reforms.
Synopsis
Award-winning biographer Elizabeth Partridge dives into Lennon’s life from the night he was born in 1940 during a World War II air raid on Liverpool, deftly taking us through his turbulent childhood and his rebellious rock’n’roll teens to his celebrated life writing, recording, and performing music with the Beatles. She sheds light on the years after the Beatles, with Yoko Ono, as he struggled to make sense of his own artistic life—one that had turned from youthful angst to suffocating fame in almost a split second.
Partridge chronicles the emotional highs and paralyzing lows Lennon transformed into brilliant, evocative songs. With striking black-andwhite photographs spanning his entire life, John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth is the unforgettable story of one of rock’s biggest legends.
About the Author
"I grew up in a large, eccentric family in the San Francisco Bay Area. My grandmother was photographer Imogen Cunningham, and my grandfather, Roi Partridge, was an etcher. There were five kids in my family, and we lived in an enormous house full of dogs and cats, chameleons, fish, tortoises, and even a pet tarantula.
My father, Roi Partridge, grew up loving photography and helping his mother, Imo, in the darkroom. When he was just seventeen she sent him to apprentice with her friend, photographer Dorothea Lange. Over the next few years he was gradually drawn into Dorothea's family. When he married and my parents had kids, we were included in the diverse bunch of children, step-children and grandchildren that made up Dorothea's family. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Fourth of July were all made magical by Dorothea's extraordinary celebrations and rituals.
In 1974, I was the first student to graduate with a degree in Women's Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. A year later I went to Great Britain to study Chinese medicine, earning a Licentiate of Acupuncture in 1978 and returning to the Bay Area to practice acupuncture and herbal medicine.
In the early nineties I began writing books as well as practicing medicine. I love the wide array of genres within the field of children's books, and especially enjoy writing biographies, historical fiction, and picture books.
My first book, Dorothea Lange: A Visual Life (Smithsonian, 1993) was followed by a middle grade novel, Clara and the Hoodoo Man (Dutton, 1996), and Restless Spirit: the Life and Work of Dorothea Lange (Viking, Fall 1998), a photo biography for young adults. Pig's Eggs came out last year (Golden Books, Spring 2000). Oranges on Golden Mountain has just been released (Dutton, Spring 2001), and will soon be followed by an easy reader, Annie and Bo (Spring 2002) and my biography on Woody Guthrie (Viking, Spring 2002).
I still live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my husband and two sons, practicing Chinese medicine and writing books."
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