Diane Arbus's startling photographic images of dwarfs, twins, transvestites, and freaks seemed from the first to redefine both the normal and the abnormal in our lives; they were already becoming part of the iconography of the age when Arbus committed suicide in 1971. Arbus herself remained an enigma until the publication of this first full biography. Patricia Bosworth examines the life behind the eerie, mesmerizing photographs: Diane's pampered childhood; her passionate marriage to Allan Arbus and their work together as fashion photographers during the fifties; the emotional upheaval surrounding the end of that marriage; and the radically dark, liberating, and ultimately tragic turn Diane's art took during the sixties. Bosworth's engrossing book is a compassionate portrait of the woman behind some of the most powerful photographs of our time.

'Fascinating... A compelling biography...valuable in its insights into the cultural history of the 50s and 60s as well as its understanding of the special place Arbus occupies in it.' Washington Post Book World

About the Author
Patricia Bosworth is an American journalist and biographer. She has written frequently for the New York Times and Vanity Fair and is the author of Montgomery Clift: A Biography (1978), Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story (1997) and Marlon Brando: A Biography (2000).

Reviews
A biography that seems to have more than enough material for several art legends. Patricia Bosworth has created a spellbinding portrait * New York Magazine *
Sensitive...detailed...balanced * New York Times *
An excellent biography * Times Literary Supplement *
A biography that seems to have more than enough material for several art legends. Patricia Bosworth has created a spellbinding portrait * New York Magazine *
A spirited biography * Time *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099470366
Author Patricia Bosworth
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 277g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 24mm