cerpting what purports to be a seriousnpiece of literature. With this in mind,nmagazine publishers pander to a pantingnpublic.nThe commerciali2ation of the artistnand his art is something that AlfrednStieglitz abhorred and fought againstnthroughout his life. Stieglitz insisted onnthe intrinsic value of amateurism, on artnfor art’s sake. He refiised to fiinction as andealer in the ordinary sense or to run angallery that was interested in profits. Instead,nhe sought for his artists—who includednEdward Steichpn, Paul Strand,nOiarles Demuth, and Georgia CKeeflfe—anform of patronage on the Medici patternnand operated his gallery on a collectivenbasis, with the artists themselves contributingnwhat they could afford. Rank commercialismnwas, to Stieglitz, equivalentnto whoring—^it was also at the bottom ofnhis long-standing rift with onetime disciplenSteichen. It was Stieglitz who introducednSteichen to the Conde Nast organization,nwhich resulted in a long-livednrelationship between the publisher andnthe photographer. Steichen was originallynhired to provide art portraits of celebritiesn—^firom writers to statesmen to movienstars—^and quality fashion illustrations.nIt was not long before Steichen becamenFrank Crowinshield’s prize photogr^hernat Vanity Fair, and soon he was takingnon assignments in advertising as weU.nThat is not to say that Stieglitz totallynrejected the idea of the marketplace.nDuriag the summer of 1939, he raisednfew objections when Georgia O’Keeflfe,nto whom he was married, undertook ancommission for the Dole Company. Innexchange for two paintings, not necessarilynof pineapples, which Dole wouldnuse as advertisements, die got an ejqjensefreentrip to Honolulu. While O’Keeflfenpainted prolifically when she was innHawaii, it seems she did not producenone pineapple. After returning to NewnYork, she presented Dole with two smallnoils: one of a ginger flower and the othernof a papaya tree. Dole, whose majorncompetitor marketed papaya, flatly rejectednthe latter. O’Keeflfe, who had beenntold she could paint whatever she chose.nwas fiirious. Dole responded by shippingna huge pineapple plant to the Stieglitz-nO’Keeflfe household, which O’Keeflfe reiuctantiynagreed to paint. This is one ofnthe few light moments in a book that isnotherwise rather dry and turgid.nSue Davidson Lowe is Alfi-ed Stieglitz’sngrandniece, the granddaughter of hisnbrother, Leopold. Stieglitz: A Memoir/nBiography is her first book. While anbook’s first par^raph is not necessarilynan accurate indicator of all that follows,nit is unfortunately true here:nIn my sixth summer—^Uncle Al’snsixty-fifth—^I was invited for the firstntime to watch him and his friend LouisnKalonyme play a round or two of TomnThumb Golf, the rage of the 1929 season,nfollowing their morning walk tonthe village, three-quarters of a milensouth of the Hill. The village, formerlynknown as Caldwell, was the small townnof Lake George, on the southwestnshore of the lower Adirondack lake.nKalonyme was a journalist and artncritic, a witty, olive-skinned man withnhooded peridot eyes. The Hill—thenforty-acre upland remnant of a waterfrontnestate, Oaklawn, bought in 1886nby Edward Stieglitz—was the summerncompound of his children, amongnwhom were my maternal grandfethernLee and his elder brother, Uncle Al.nUncle Al was Alfred Stieglitz—photogr^hernextraordinaire, art entrepreneur,none-time publisher and editor, andnfiill-time idiosyncratic moralist.nIn the MailnWhat follows is a tale of too many pettynand prolonged domestic squabbles atnLake George, punctuated by visits fromnthe famous and the nearly so, and verynlittie emphasis on the development ofnStieglitz as artist and the relevance of hisnart to its time. A recitation of eccentricitiesnmay have some merit if it leads to annunderstanding of artistic genius, butnLowe seems to fed compelled to catalognthose of the entire Stieglitz clan. Whatnshe ends up with is more a history of thenStieglitz femily than a biography of AlfrednStieglitz the man and artist. Appropriatelynfor a book whose subject is a mannwho elevated photography to an artnform, Lowe represents Stieglitz bothnpictorially and in prose. In her selectionnof photos, though, she again errs innfocusing too much on the man and hisnfamily and too little on his art. Of thenmore than 50 illustrations, most are femilynsnapshots, many of them by Stieglitz himselfnNot one of Stieglitz’s famous imagesn—“Spring Showers,” “The Steerage,” “IcynNight,” and “Winter—Fifth Avenue” —isnreproduced.nIronically, Stieglitz has become, atnthe hands of his grandniece, just anotherncommodity for sale in the modem marketplace.nThe book’s dust jacket carriesna portrait of the artist as a young man—andark-eyed, brooding, mustachioed fellownwhose good looks are sure to turn a fewnheads, even among the stiff competitionnon the bookseller’s shelves. CaveatnWhy Strategic Superiority Matters by Robert Jastrow; The Orwell Press; New York. ThenSoviets are convinced. The U.S. may not be until it really doesn’t matter any longer.nOur Enemy, The State by Albert Jay Nock; Hallbei^; Delavan, WI. Still accurate after all thesenyears (nearly 50).nA Variorum Edition of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Vol. II, The Canterbury Tales,nPart Three, the Miller’s Tale edited by Thomas W. Ross; University of Oklahoma Press;nNonnaii. Chaucer scholars need only be alerted to the existence of this finely prepared book.nMr.Jefferson by Albert Jay Nock; Hallberg; Delavan, WI. Rare insights about the famousnredhead.nnn17nOctober 1983n