June 1, 1934
Alfred Stieglitz
The American Place Gallery
508 Madison Avenue
New York, New York

My Faraway One

I must admit that I was upset when you so vigorously objected to my thoughts of possibly buying a home out here. When you said ‘Dammit woman –it’s because of me that you have the money to buy it.’ Well, this was profoundly offensive. Alfred might I remind you again that you just brokered the deal on that last record-breaking price for a painting of mine. Then you had the audacity to say that I should not be so vulgar as to use such a term as ‘brokered’.

Alfred do you know what it means to me to spend time out here in this country? The landscape is like music because it moves and changes constantly. There is a sense of light that I find like no place else on earth. And the bones! Bones of antelope, cattle, that cut sharply to the center of something that is so alive on the desert even tho’ it is vast and empty and untouchable.

Yesterday evening I climbed a pale hill and looking off to the west. I saw other hills caught in the sunset, some burning like embers, others with streaks of blue green as if captured from a distant ocean. The sickle moon will soon rise and slice open the night. I shall be up at dawn and step out into the morning to paint the new day.

Georgia

Light on Bone, A Georgia O’Keeffe Mystery #1
Genre: Historical
Release: September 2022
Purchase Link

Kathryn Lasky has written an exciting new adult amateur sleuth mystery set in New Mexico in the 1930s. The sleuth is Georgia O’Keefe, who actually did suffer a nervous breakdown in 1933 when her husband Alfred Stieglitz had a somewhat public affair, was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment, and then traveled to the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico to paint. O’Keefe was approaching the peak of her fame and success, having just sold a painting for a record price.

The narrative begins when she discovers the slain body of a priest in the desert. The plot includes several other murders, Georgia’s burgeoning romance with the local sheriff, an international espionage plot involving Charles Lindbergh (who is staying at the ranch with his wife Anne), and lots of intricate twists and turns leading to a thoroughly unforeseen denouement. The strength of this story is how Lasky’s elegant writing captures the emotional depth of this artist’s turmoil and so stunningly reveals O’Keeffe’s perception of the landscape that moves her to paint. It is not simply a who-dunnit mystery, but much more: It is a narrative of healing and resurrection of spirit.

Meet the author
Kathryn Lasky is an award winning children’s book author whose series the Guardians of Ga’Hoole was turned into a Warner Brothers movie Legend Of The Guardians. Her previous adult mysteries were about Calista Jacobs a children’s book illustrator whose paths cross killers more deadly than any Grimm’s fairytale in such books as Trace Elements, Mortal Words, Mumbo Jumbo, and Dark Swan.

Kathryn was a Newbery Honor medalist as well as a two-time winner of the National Jewish Book award and a nominee for an MWA Edgar award in children’s fiction. Light on Bone got a starred review in Library Journal.

All comments are welcomed.