Key to understanding these tumultuous lives, Laskin believes, is recognizing that the women of the Partisan Review coterie were the last generation to come of age before the social and ideological revolution unleashed by feminism--and they never accepted the validity of "women's lib." Although they struggled desperately with their duty to protect the creative and thinking time of their Great Men husbands, and at the same time eke out time to work, it never occurred to them to question the justice or logic of the domestic arrangements they inhabited. And success often came at a terrible personal cost. Laskin quotes Delmore Schwartz: "All poets' wives have rotten lives." And, he adds, "when the poets' wives were themselves poets of some sort, their lives became 'rotten' in some truly strange and fascinating ways."

David Laskin writes about the New York intellectuals of the 1930s as if he'd known them--watched them found Partisan Review; drink themselves to blackout night after night; marry, support, divorce, criticize, and betray one another over three decades from a vantage point close enough for clarity but distant enough for fairness and thorough, well-disciplined research. He also definitively proves that gender need raise no barriers to insight and compassion for a writer with the requisite courage and imagination. His sympathy, respect, and admiration for his subjects shine through his book, and make the lives of these four women unforgettable. --Jan Bultmann

The artists featured have come up with decidedly different ways of doing things. For instance, painter Robert Bateman--famous for his paintings of wild animals in their environments--has created a garden so "natural" that it feels almost ancient. What is surprising is that he has done so using painstakingly fabricated fake rocks to create cliffs and a meandering stream that provide the backbone for this stunning space. Ceramicist Anne Hirondelle uses every horizontal space--indoors and out--as an opportunity for display. A stone bench, for example, holds a series of vessels that collect rainwater, reflect the sky, and provide a shimmering surface for floating blossoms. Glass artist Ginny Ruffner, not satisfied with an unadorned 4-foot stone head that rises out of the center of her garden, devised a canopy of bright pink blossoms that suggests a colorful bonnet or a cascade of flower hair.

The authors provide lovingly intimate portraits of the artists and their gardens. Stunning photographs by Allan Mandell show off these gardens for the works of art that they are, while a section in each chapter called "The Artist's Eye" shares tips and inspirations that readers will surely want to use in their own home gardens. After reading this book, you'll come away with not just inspiration and a few new ideas, but a whole new way of looking at the act of gardening. --Robin Donovan