A fascinating biography of the world-famous photographer, written by the daughter of Lange's assistant in the 1930s. Born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn in 1895 in New Jersey, she was stricken with polio at age seven, and later spoke of it as "the most important thing that happened to me. It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me, and humiliated me." Taking her mother's maiden name when she began her professional photography career, Lange went from portraits to documenting the "disastrous human consequences" of the Great Depression. "I had to get my camera to register things that were more important than how poor they were_their pride, their strength, their spirit," she wrote about photographing migrant workers in California. She also photographed sharecroppers in the South and Japanese-American internment camps during WWII. Lange's life has been well-documented, but Partridge's conversational tone and intimate details of the Lange household will draw readers in. She also makes vivid Lange's lasting contributions; her photographs_many of which have been reproduced in these pages_captured some of the darkest episodes in American history and continue to touch all who ponder them. (b&w photographs) (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-87888-X
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1998
Developing the theme that paying attention can lead to sometimes revolutionary discoveries, Fradin presents 11 case studies in serendipity, from fossil-hunter Mary Anning and Newton’s apple to Jocelyn Bell’s discovery of pulsars. He not only writes clearly and forcefully, but brings uncommon authority to several of his profiles. He interviewed or corresponded with not only Bell, but Clyde Tombaugh (discoverer of Pluto), a surviving son of Maria Sanz de Santuola, who as a child found the cave paintings at Altamira and a scholar familiar with Muhammad Ahmed el-Hamed, the Palestinian who as a lad found the Dead Sea Scrolls. The author rightly notes at the outset that preparation and particular traits of character, such as innate stubbornness or strong curiosity, played roles at least as vital as luck did in each discovery—but he urges readers to follow the advice of Dr. Alex Wolszczan (first extra-solar planets): “Keep your eyes wide open for something unusual at all times.” Not bad advice. An exhilarating companion for the likes of Charlotte Jones’s Mistakes That Worked (1991). (photos, source notes) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-525-47196-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Veteran author Nixon (Gus and Gertie and the Missing Pearls, 2001, etc.) offers a lighthearted biography, with each chapter connected to something she’s loved or learned about writing. She grew up in Los Angeles in a duplex occupied by her grandparents as well as her own parents and siblings, and evokes an idyllic childhood. She loved words from a very early age, recounting her mother’s story that before she could even read or write, she would come to her mother and say, “I have a poem, Mama. Write it down.” She loved hearing family stories and radio dramas, learning pacing and dialogue, and did puppet shows for neighborhood children using her mother’s scripts and the portable stage built by her father. In high school in the ’40s, she and her friends wrote many letters to servicemen in the war, most of them barely older than she was. She tells, with exquisite timing, how she got her first payment for something she wrote, and how it felt. Young readers (and would-be writers) might be most interested in the last chapter, her Top Ten Tips for Writers, which includes such basic advice as “Read!”; “Show, don’t tell”; and “Trust your characters.” It’s a bit preachy in spots, and even her large fan base might not be completely engaged, but it is a nicely focused take on something about the author. (Biography. 10-12)
Pub Date: May 14, 2002
ISBN: 0-385-73000-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
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