Legends: Women Who Have Changed the World; Through the Eyes of Great Women Writers

by John Miller (Editor), Gloria Steinem (Contributor), Cynthia Ozick (Contributor)

s/t: Women Who Changed the World Through the Eyes of Great Women Writers
This provocative salute to both the accomplishments and imperfections of 50 courageous pioneers is a beautiful volume that spans the 20th century and all the flavors of American culture. Penned by women artists and writers influential in their own right, these intimate essays reveal both writer and subject in 50 inspired pairings. Among them, Terry Tempest Williams writes about Rachel Carson, Gloria Steinem profiles Marilyn Monroe, and Francine du Plessix Gray remembers the shy grace of Princess Diana.

Each of these personal essays is accompanied by a striking duotone photograph produced by an eminent photographer. The portraits illuminate their subjects and help to capture the rich texture of their extraordinary lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Photography, Coffee Table Books, Womens, History, Biography Memoir

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

John Miller has edited a number of intriguing anthologies for Chronicle Books, including Lust and White Rabbit. He runs Big Fish Books, a packaging company in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Robyn]

I read this when it was first published in 1998, though I no longer recall how I came across it in the first place. What I mainly recollect was that it included a few women I'd never previously even heard of, each of whom I researched and have ever since been glad of the introduction to.

[Kellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great coffee table book. I read it all one morning over coffee and fell in love with these women who have influenced the world and in turn inspired me.

[Krissi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all the individual stories of each women. You must read!

[A Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book.
I passed it on to my teenage daughter & her friend.
I shared some wonderful insights on a variety, of influential women.
An interesting read.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This was such a promising premise: awesome women, written about by other awesome women. For everyone in it, there is a 2-page spread, one side is an amazing photograph and the other side is a write up.

But than at some point I noticed that some of the write ups included little to know context for who the women are. And others had tons of quotations, editing signals and "..."'s, which made me investigate further to realize that all of the write ups are from other publications. Therefore, there is zero consistency is style. That really bummed me out. I guess I really value consistency, especially in a collection. Anyway, I did end up enjoying it from the perspective that all of the women were amazing, but many I didn't have context for and what was provided only gave me enough to see if I wanted to seek out more or not. Often the significant contribution, discoveries and barriers broken were noted, but even when they were it was often with the perspective of the reader already having a fair handle on things.

All that said, I'm glad that I read it and I did find lots of new-to-me inspiring women, but it also is a reminder that when you don't look too close to what you are getting into, it may be different than you expect!

Note: This is biography, not autobiography but I so rarely read biographies that I don't have a need for a shelf for it.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8 stars to exact. More to come later.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved this series of essays, although a few of them were a little...creative in format. It is a great reminder that women have had just as much to do with the building of our world as men.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8 stars.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hit or miss descriptions.

[Beth Bonness · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the mother of three daughter, finding role models and women in history takes a bit of effort. This little gem was delightful. Especially loved it being written by great women writers.

For example:
Georgia O’Keefe
written by Joan Didion
Loved to draw trees and nature, was appalled when mins and teachers corrected her trees by painting over them, moved to Texas and painted the night star and trees her way, Texans didn't have trees.

Helen Keller
written by Mary Jo Salter
She learned Greek, Latin, French and Latin and by the time she graduated her four years at Radcliffe, she’d also written her autobiography. In the end, questions about what was original versus Annie Sullivan - since Helen only had three senses. How could she know pink?

Zora Neale Hurston
written by Alice Walker
She’s a writer who enjoyed the “chaos” she often left behind, she loved her community, culture and traditions as a black american and didn’t want to be white or bourgeois, just herself.

Marilyn Monroe
written by Gloria Stein
Foster child, discovered by Hollywood and all that goes with it; asked during her last interview to be asked to end the article with what she thinks, to take her seriously: everyone should get along. When Ella Fitzgerald couldn't get into a club, Marilyn said she'd sit in the front row every night of Ella could sing.  

Lynn Margulis
written by Elizabeth Royte
Scientist. Created the Gaia hypothesis. “People think the earth is going to die and they have to save it. That’s ridiculous. If you rid the earth of flowering plants, people would die, period. But the earth was without flowering plants for almost all of its history. There’s no doubt about Gaia can compensate for out output of greenhouse gases, but the environment that’s left will not be happy for any people. It will, however, be happy for microbes. She debunks neo-Darwinism and has a spirochete theory.
she used her eyes. She thought of a movie as “not even a dress rehearsal” relative to the stage.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a "fast" read. Easy to pick up and put down in between other things.

I found this very enjoyable as each woman(legend) was given two pages; 1 photo and one "story". There was no favouritism as each legend received same pages as another.

This book would be good book to share with a tweens / teens to educate and inspire from these amazing legends (woman). Also those who enjoy non-fiction books such as these styles. It is a great "coffee table" sized book too!

[Meena Bosshard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read as a lot of the woman I see as role models, people I look up to in my life were noted on in this book. The differences in writing styles was at times difficult as some writings did little to describe who or what the women accomplished in detail and gave more of a personal note on them from their own perspective. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it.

[Taffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED the pictures and stories of amazing women!