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A Writer's Jottings
 
 

Remembering Writing About O'Keeffe

On the set of my interview for the forthcoming Georia O'Keeffe Documentary

I recently had a reason to reread my biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, Portrait of an Artist, the initial biography of the artist, originally published in 1980 and still selling well today. 

 

It was because prize-winning filmmaker Paul Wagner and his wife, Ellen, had asked to interview me for his forthcoming documentary about O'Keeffe. Remembering was easy since I had recently described the daring adventure of writing the biography during O'Keeffe's lifetime in Word for Word

                                                        

I told them about the way first seeing O'Keeffe's gorgeous paintings at the Whitney Museum in 1970 had astonished me. It was a time when young feminists like myself were searching for the stories of inspiring older women, and soon I got to work on the biography.

 

Writing it was an extraordinary experience--both deepening and broadening--and it was an experience that changed my life. 

 
Paul Wagner is an Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, whose many films have premiered at the Sundance, Toronto, Telluride, and Rotterdam film festivals and have been broadcast on PBS.

 

For this documentary, he has obtained the cooperation of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. I've read his script and expect that the documentary will be thorough and excellent.

 

With Warm Regards,
Laurie 
 

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"In immaculate prose, Lisle shares her sometimes lonely and exhausting rebellion against the dictates of her Wasp background...I mightily admire her achievements, and highly recommend this book as a really good read, a penetrating insight into the struggles faced by the women of our generation to live and love and work fully, and an inspiring and thoughtful reflection for young women considering a writing life."
Sharon Charde, poet and author of I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent

 

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