Laurie Lisle

Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life
Simon & Schuster/​Summit Books, 1990
Pocket Books/​Washington Square Press
iUniverse/​Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition

Also
"Louise Nevelson," Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary (Volume Five)

Book Reviews
“The prize comes at last. Louise Nevelson: A Passionate Life just won’t be put down. This biography of a monstre sacre is a tale of hard-tacks heroism and heedless swipes at those who dared to love her.” Interview

[This]"is a levelheaded biography. It is neither hagiographic nor snide. It is not sensational, even though the life recorded here had its tabloid moments. Ms. Lisle...has no cause to plead. Her admiration and respect for Nevelson's long struggle and enchanted cabinets and walls are always evident, but she lets the evidence speak, and sometimes she seems to be shocked herself at the abruptness, vindictiveness and cruelty of which this great personage was capable." Michael Brenson, The New York Times Book Review

“Lisle’s view of Nevelson’s often ruthless behavior is both compassionate and clear-eyed. While noting the difficulties of interviewing a subject who willfully forgot appointments, blurred history and refused to speculate on the key events in her own life, Lisle has constructed a colorful, rich study of Nevelson’s creative evolution...Lisle brings to especially clear light Nevelson’s personal, if chilly, flair [and] give A Passionate Life, its gritty richness.” Sarah Wright, The Boston Sunday Herald

“By carefully compiling information from archival research and numerous interviews with Nevelson’s friends and lovers, Lisle...succeeds in not making her a romantic counter-heroine. She balances facts and opinions, citing sources accurately, which assures us that she is not reporting simple gossip nor embroidering the facts. The book is free of moral conclusions, leaving those to the reader...With plentiful descriptions of friendships that endured, the remarkable atmosphere of freedom and support shared by young people working in her studio, and the unabashed humor of many of her ‘indiscretions,’ Lisle presents a figure whose eroticism seems far richer, far more complex than mere sexual appeal...Lisle’s book is impressive in its thoroughness, which nonetheless results in ‘good reading’ by virtue of its interweaving of personal and professional information, its eclectic introduction of psychological analysis, and a phraseology that appreciates both the pain and the joy surrounding Nevelson’s eccentric behavior.” Woman's Art Journal