Georgia and Anita: The Lifelong Friendship of Georgia O'Keeffe and Anita Pollitzer

By: Liza Bennett

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Synopsis: Georgia O&’Keeffe knew as soon as she met Anita Pollitzer that they had nothing in common. Anita looked like a china doll, small boned and delicate, and obviously well-to-do in her fashionable tunics and hobble skirts. She had the kind of mouth that settled naturally into a smile, which irritated O&’Keeffe, who had no time for dewy-eyed girls. Yet this first impression was the beginning of a lifelong friendship that had a tremendous impact on both women and on twentieth-century America. In Georgia and Anita Liza Bennett tells the little-known story of their enduring friendship and its ultimately tragic arc. It was Pollitzer who first showed O&’Keeffe&’s work to family friend and mentor Alfred Stieglitz, the world-famous photographer whose 291 Gallery in New York City was the epicenter of the modern art world. While O&’Keeffe, Stieglitz, and their circle of friends were at the forefront of American modernism, Pollitzer became a leader of the National Woman&’s Party and was instrumental in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Based on extensive research, including their fifty-year correspondence, Georgia and Anita casts light on the friendship of these two women who, in different ways, helped to modernize the world and women&’s roles in it. For more information about Georgia and Anita, visit georgiaandanita.com.