The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Author to discuss O’Keeffe book at Kent library
KENT — Kent Memorial Library and House of Books are presenting a book talk with author and Cornwall resident Roxana Robinson, who will discuss the new edition of her biography, “Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life.” The event will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 on Zoom.
“One of the greatest and most admired artists of the twentieth-century, Georgia O’Keeffe led a life rich in intense relationships — with family, friends, and especially with fellow artist Alfred Stieglitz. Her extraordinary accomplishments, such as the often eroticized flowers, bones, stones, skulls, and pelvises she painted with such command, are all the more remarkable when seen in the context of the struggle she waged between the rigorous demands of love and work,” Robinson said in a statement.
When Robinson’s biography of O’Keeffe was first published in 1989, it received rave reviews and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The new edition features a new foreword by the author setting O’Keeffe in an artistic context over the last 30 years since the book was first published, as well as previously unpublished letters of the young O’Keeffe to her lover, Arthur Macmahon, according to the statement. The book also relates the story of Robinson’s own encounter with the artist. As interest in O’Keeffe continues to grow among museum-goers and scholars alike, this book remains indispensable for understanding her life and art.
“Brandeis University Press is delighted to be publishing a new, expanded edition of Roxana Robinson’s classic and acclaimed biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. We are thrilled that Roxana wrote a new foreword for this edition, which was reprinted in the New Yorker last month. The preface tells of her meeting with O’Keeffe, and it also sets O’Keeffe in an artistic
context of the last twenty years. The new edition also features letters which O’Keeffe wrote to Arthur Macmahon from 1915-1938, which have never before been published,” said Director of Brandeis University Press, Sue Berger Ramin.
Robinson is the author of six novels, three collections of short stories, and the biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Four of these were chosen as New York Times Notable Books, two as New York Times Editors’ Choices. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, Tin House and elsewhere. Her work has been widely anthologized and broadcast on NPR. She makes her home in nearby Cornwall.
This event is free and open to the public. To register or for more information, go to: kentmemoriallibrary.org
House of Books, located at 4 North Main St., features a large selection of current releases, literature and children’s books in addition to a carefully curated selection of cards, gifts, calendars, reading glasses and journals. For more information or to order books, go to: houseofbooksct.com.