My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz

My Faraway One:

Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz

It’s a book review! And in what will probably be a big surprise (NOT!) to anyone who’s regularly on my website, I absolutely love this book and could not recommend it more.

Let’s get to some details. Even if you have no knowledge of the art world, the name ‘Georgia O’Keeffe’ has been dominant in American and world culture for many years, and this book is a collection of letters between her and Alfred Stieglitz the man she eventually married and helped her become GEORGIA O’KEEFFE. This book is THICK; the two of them wrote many letters to each other (sometimes multiple times in one day) over a period of many years. And, some of them are STEAMY!

Book cover

The most important part of this collection is witnessing the two ‘Georgia’s presented. The first Georgia is teaching in Texas, and she’s Ok with her job for the most part, but she prefers largely to be on her own and free to practice her art the way she wants. When Alfred Stieglitz acquires some of her drawings, they begin a communication wherein he tells her exactly what she needs to hear, and she figuratively eats…it…up. She hangs on to his every word. After her WWI attitudes began to make waves in Texas, and she gets sick in 1918 during the flu epidemic, she at last makes her way to New York City, and the two of them are inseparable even though he was still married to his first wife and the father of his daughter. He’s taking very intimate pictures of her and displaying those pictures with her paintings in shows, and she’s absolutely mortified and worried (rightly so) that critics would view her art as something especially sexual or especially feminine even though she meant nothing of the kind. HOWEVER, she also soon realizes that the talk that went with his pictures and her paintings generated publicity, and that publicity more often than not produced sales.

After she becomes more successful on her own as an artist and takes some trips away from Alfred Stieglitz, we see the second Georgia O’Keeffe begin to emerge. She is always grateful for his role in bringing her to public notice, but she’s more confident to defend herself and her art when she feels like she needs to. And, when Mr. Stieglitz’s hypochondria and “extra curricular” activities get to be too much, Georgia leaves. And, she stays true to herself by STAYING in New Mexico during those summers when she knows she will be all the better for it. Mr. Stieglitz continues to want the ever-adoring ever-worshipping woman in his life, but Georgia has moved on because she trusts her judgement, her art, and herself - a good lesson for all of us!