LETTER: Autograph letter signed.
Bourke-White, Margaret. Autograph letter signed, “Margaret Bourke White,” April 22, 1956; three leaves of her printed stationery, rectos only.
Bourke-White writes about a future lecture, refers to her autobiography, and apologizes for misplacing her correspondent’s letter about her Chicago lecture:
Your letter, which Life’s publishers passed on to me, is one of the most wonderful I have received on the subject of lecturing. There was a kind of magic among us all that morning in Chicago…of the Advertising Federation’s Conference…they gave such a feeling of communication…Your letter arrived at my home just as I was leaving on Life assignment…As for your idea about the University of Toledo and the possibility of my speaking there – this is something I should love to do…Usually, I go on a lecture tour every spring, but…I told my lecture bureau that I did not want to take lecture engagements for two years. I have been working for some years on a book…my lecture tours, and …my regular Life photographic work…there just hasn’t been any free tranquil time to make headway with the book…Simon and Schuster are eager for me to get it finished….
She is likely referring to “Portrait of Myself,” started in 1955 and completed in 1963. Her best known book is “You Have Seen Their Faces” (1937), written with her then husband, writer, Erskine Caldwell.
American photographer, pioneer of the photo essay and photojournalism, as a photographer for ”Life Magazine” Bourke-White was the first female photographer to serve with the US armed forces covering World War II. She is also remembered for her images of the American South in the 1930s during the Depression, the horrors of Buchenwald concentration camp, the effects of South African apartheid, Gandhi and India’s campaign for Independence.
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