Prophets of the Avant-Garde

FOURSOME: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury

BY CAROLYN BURKE

Knopf, 432 pp., $30

THIS IS THE STORY OF FOUR talented people: Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Rebecca Salsbury, who met by chance and remained involved with one another for the rest of their lives. Rather like partners in a quadrille, that 19th-century British craze and forerunner of the square dance, they bowed, circled, advanced, retreated, formed new patterns, and incidentally brought further perspectives to the often-told story of their lives. This latest attempt was made possible by newly available collections of letters, the raw material for Carolyn Burke, widely