Georgia O'Keeffe

One of 50 titles in the American Women of Achievement series for young adults, this is a well-written, accessible account of one of the century's foremost artists. O'Keeffe was a strong-minded and unorthodox painter determined not to compromise her artistic vision. These qualities are revealed in the book's opening scene, which recounts the 28-year-old artist's outrage when a prestigious gallery mounted her first exhibition--without her permission. And they remain in evidence throughout Berry's discussion of her years as a student and teacher of art, wife and protegee of the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and resident of the New Mexico desert that fired her imagination. Berry makes good use of anecdotal detail as well as quotations from O'Keeffe, her contemporaries and her reviewers, and he is perceptive about both her life and art. The text is supplemented by a variety of photographs and reproductions, including an eight-page color insert. Chronology, bibliography and index are included. Other figures profiled in the series are Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart and Margaret Bourke-White. Ages 10-up. (Apr.)