Reaches of the Heart: A Biography of Charles White

This account of the 29-year marriage of black artist Charles White (1918-1979) and Frances Barrett White, his white, social worker wife, and of their family life with two adoptive biracial children is an affecting encomium to the husband, father and artist. His drawings and murals brought White recognition in the U.S. and abroad in the form of many one-man shows, awards and acquisitions by museums. From his base in Southern California, where the family moved from New York City in 1956 because of the tuberculosis that ultimately killed him, White fought for equality for African Americans, pressuring museums to train blacks as docents and to stock books by black artists. Writing with freelancer Scott, his widow presents her very personal recollections. (Dec.)