What do you think?
Rate this book
Margaret Bourke-White
Covers the dreams and achievements that marked the childhood of Margaret Bourke-White, who was the first woman to attempt industrial photography, the first successful woman news photographer, and the first woman war correspondent. Reprint.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
1 person is currently reading
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 17, 2020
Margaret Bourke-White was a pioneering photographer and photojournalist with many "firsts" to her name: the first photographer for Fortune, the first Western professional photographer permitted into the Soviet Union, Life magazine's first female photographer, and the first female war correspondent credentialed to work in combat zones during World War II. If you know nothing about her or her work, do yourself a favor and at least read a few internet articles about her. I admired the courage it took to do industrial photography, which was not only beyond the typical "woman's realm" but also brought dangers such as working around molten metal or climbing scaffolding high in the air. I was even more inspired by her change in interests after photographing farmers during the Dust Bowl. After that, she turned away good jobs in advertising photography and others she now felt were empty compared to the problems real people were facing. I was also fascinated to learn a little about the processes of photography in the early 1900s, such as her tenacity in trying to photograph inside a steel mill and the challenges with lighting.
As for the book itself, it was okay, but nothing special, IMO. Montrew Dunham wrote many books in the Childhood of Famous Americans series but none have been among my favorites so far. She does a good job at covering main events and the story moves along at a good clip, but I don't feel that we really get a sense of the personality of the people she writes about. Also, many of the events shared from Margaret's childhood just felt very ordinary and typical of many children of that era. I think they were meant to show her interest in biology (her passion outside of photography) but many children enjoy watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon or going for a nature walk with their father... I'm not sure if her childhood really wasn't that unique or if Dunham just didn't highlight the right parts. Still, it was a pleasant enough read and my seven-year-old son enjoyed it. I'm surprised there are no other reviews of this book, given the popularity of the COFA series, so I would not discourage children with an interest in the subject from reading it. However, I think most adult readers might be better served by some of the adult biographies out there. I've never read anything else about her so I can't say how accurate this book is (as with most COFAs there is no bibliography which annoys me greatly though the author thanks several people who helped provide information for the book). I've read some reviews of the novel written about her that paint a perhaps less flattering portrait of MWB than this book did.
As for the book itself, it was okay, but nothing special, IMO. Montrew Dunham wrote many books in the Childhood of Famous Americans series but none have been among my favorites so far. She does a good job at covering main events and the story moves along at a good clip, but I don't feel that we really get a sense of the personality of the people she writes about. Also, many of the events shared from Margaret's childhood just felt very ordinary and typical of many children of that era. I think they were meant to show her interest in biology (her passion outside of photography) but many children enjoy watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon or going for a nature walk with their father... I'm not sure if her childhood really wasn't that unique or if Dunham just didn't highlight the right parts. Still, it was a pleasant enough read and my seven-year-old son enjoyed it. I'm surprised there are no other reviews of this book, given the popularity of the COFA series, so I would not discourage children with an interest in the subject from reading it. However, I think most adult readers might be better served by some of the adult biographies out there. I've never read anything else about her so I can't say how accurate this book is (as with most COFAs there is no bibliography which annoys me greatly though the author thanks several people who helped provide information for the book). I've read some reviews of the novel written about her that paint a perhaps less flattering portrait of MWB than this book did.
Displaying 1 of 1 review