Lee Miller

October 3, 2005
Miller (1907–1977) began her career as a fashion model, and quickly decamped for Paris, where she became Man Ray's muse and student. After they split, she returned to Manhattan for a brief stint as a studio photographer, but eventually returned to Europe. Her surrealist background led to her taking stunning photos of the London Blitz, but she shot her most memorable—and disturbing—images accompanying American troops from Paris to Dachau as a war correspondent for Vogue
. Burke's meticulously detailed biography reveals how keenly Miller's wartime experiences haunted her during her final troubled decades, but it also probes sympathetically into the artist's other significant trauma: a childhood rape, which was, Burke conjectures, exacerbated by her father's practice of photographing her nude well into early adulthood. Burke (Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy
) writes with a careful sense of how Miller might have approached her work and of how it is perceived by modern viewers. Her descriptions of Miller's imagery are so vivid that, despite the dozens of photographs reproduced here, readers will find themselves wanting to see more. As the first major biographer outside the Miller family, she traces a dynamic life that embodies the spirit of the 20th century's first half. Photos. Agent, Georges Borchardt.

January 15, 2006
A great beauty, Lee Miller (1907 -77) started modeling at a very early age, eventually appearing in the pages of Vogue. Behind the camera, the intrepid, creative, and talented Miller went on to work as a portraitist, a fashion photojournalist, and a war correspondent. She covered the London blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the burning of Hitler's house, all the while creating striking and haunting images that reflected her surrealist sensibility. Given Miller's involvement with dozens of the last century's major artists -Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, and Man Ray among them -this biography reads like a social history and who's who of the era and its luminaries. Biographer, art critic, and translator Burke (Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy) discusses many of Miller's photographs in depth, but the 24 pages of stills here (and the 58 that appear in the text) are probably not going to satisfy readers. It may be advisable to order books solely covering Miller's photographs to complement the biography. Otherwise, this meticulously researched chronicle is a valuable contribution to World War II literature, photography, Surrealism, and biography collections. Highly recommended." -Ann D. Carlson, Oak Park and River Forest H.S. Lib., IL"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2005
Burke is a fluent, illuminating biographer who chooses her subjects wisely. First came poet Mina Loy (" Becoming Modern," 1996); now Burke recounts the galvanizing story of Lee Miller. A native of Poughkeepsie, New York, Miller, already a head-turning beauty as a girl, survived the horror of being raped at age seven and maintained a weirdly intimate relationship with her father, who took nude photographs of her for decades. A glamorous phoenix, fearless and defiant, Miller had a knack for securing mentors. A chance encounter with Conde Nast led to her long, fruitful association with " Vogue." In Paris, the surrealist Man Ray, who loved her madly and used her image in many works, encouraged her artistic pursuits. But Miller always set her own course and reinvented herself at will, ultimately becoming a gutsy photojournalist in London during the Blitz and one of the first war correspondents to confront the death camps. Miller's experiences are heart-stopping, her virtuoso photographs indelible, but she has been largely overlooked. Now, thanks to Burke's masterful portrayal, readers will know the entire kaleidoscopic life story of this inspiriting survivor, extraordinary photographer, and daring witness to humankind at its dazzling best and monstrous worst.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)