Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
Author of Carrington: A Life
About the Author
Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina is a professor of English at Barnard College, Columbia University, and an honorary fellow at the University of Exeter.
Image credit: Photo by Joseph Mehling
Works by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
Associated Works
The Annotated Secret Garden (The Annotated Books) (2007) — Editor; Introduction, some editions — 246 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Other names
- Gerzina, Gretchen Holbrook
Gerzina, Gretchen - Birthdate
- 1950-09-06
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- Places of residence
- Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Vermont, USA
Canada
California, USA
England, UK
New York, New York, USA - Education
- Marlboro College
Simmons College
Stanford University - Occupations
- professor
radio show host
biographer
editor - Organizations
- Dartmouth College
- Awards and honors
- National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
Fulbright Fellowship - Agent
- Neeti Madan
Members
Reviews
Carrington: A Life by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
Connections, connections, connections. I am going from one biography to the next, each connected to the one before and the one after through a lover, a sibling, a group like Bloomsbury, type of lifestyle, political affiliation, ancestors and marital connections. The arts, the literati and what most of them have in common is....they were prolific letter writers, journal/diary keepers, they painted each other, they wrote biographies of each other and they gossiped.
My thoughts and comments:
I just read a beautiful biography on Dora Carrington entitled "Carrington: A Life" by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. This book was a wonderful study of a fascinating woman who lived on the cusp of the "Bloomsbury Group"; not quite within but not quite without. She was a painter and did mainly stills that are quite different but beautiful. She spent her adult life loving and in love with Lytton Strachey, who was a homosexual. He loved her madly as well, but not romantically. And they continued those feelings right to the end.
She did marry but felt very coerced into it. And she had affairs; one of which was with another woman. But I don't believe that she was a lesbian. She just love Strachey so much and couldn't have him romantically. They did share a house and it was quite an open house with other artists & "Bloomsburies" coming and going at all times.
If you like bios of artists of any kind and are not turned off by the homosexual aspect (which I was not), I think you would like/love this book.… (more)
I just read a beautiful biography on Dora Carrington entitled "Carrington: A Life" by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. This book was a wonderful study of a fascinating woman who lived on the cusp of the "Bloomsbury Group"; not quite within but not quite without. She was a painter and did mainly stills that are quite different but beautiful. She spent her adult life loving and in love with Lytton Strachey, who was a homosexual. He loved her madly as well, but not romantically. And they continued those feelings right to the end.
She did marry but felt very coerced into it. And she had affairs; one of which was with another woman. But I don't believe that she was a lesbian. She just love Strachey so much and couldn't have him romantically. They did share a house and it was quite an open house with other artists & "Bloomsburies" coming and going at all times.
If you like bios of artists of any kind and are not turned off by the homosexual aspect (which I was not), I think you would like/love this book.… (more)
5 
rainpebble | 3 other reviews | Mar 17, 2010 |
rainpebble | 3 other reviews | Mar 17, 2010 | Unimpressed by Gerzina as a biographer - judgemental and not beautifully written. But the fascination of Carrington's life is there.
Bought 12 Dec 2008 - The Works
Biography of the author. At pains to explain she was not just a children's writer (I have The Shuttle on my TBR although I'm worrying that it's much darker than I'd realised now I've read the biog), this also goes to great pains to record every year of the subject's life. There are a few clunky passages and while workmanlike, it didn't really set me alight and looking to gallop through it, like a good biography can for me (cf Cecil Beaton or any of the Holroyds)
But a well researched and put together book with a lot of information and great photographs.… (more)
Biography of the author. At pains to explain she was not just a children's writer (I have The Shuttle on my TBR although I'm worrying that it's much darker than I'd realised now I've read the biog), this also goes to great pains to record every year of the subject's life. There are a few clunky passages and while workmanlike, it didn't really set me alight and looking to gallop through it, like a good biography can for me (cf Cecil Beaton or any of the Holroyds)
But a well researched and put together book with a lot of information and great photographs.… (more)
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