Avedon
Something Personal
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Narrated by:
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Coleen Marlo
About this listen
An intimate biography of Richard Avedon, the legendary fashion and portrait photographer who “helped define America’s image of style, beauty and culture” (The New York Times) by his longtime collaborator and business partner Norma Stevens and award-winning author Steven M. L. Aronson.
Richard Avedon was arguably the world’s most famous photographer - as artistically influential as he was commercially successful. Over six richly productive decades, he created landmark advertising campaigns, iconic fashion photographs (as the star photographer for Harper’s Bazaar and then Vogue), groundbreaking books, and unforgettable portraits of everyone who was anyone. He also went on the road to find and photograph remarkable uncelebrated faces, with an eye toward constructing a grand composite picture of America.
Avedon dazzled even his most dazzling subjects. He possessed a mystique so unique it was itself a kind of genius - everyone fell under his spell. But the Richard Avedon the world saw was perhaps his greatest creation: He relentlessly curated his reputation and controlled his image, managing to remain, for all his exposure, among the most private of celebrities. No one knew him better than did Norma Stevens, who for 30 years was his business partner and closest confidante. In Avedon: Something Personal - equal parts memoir, biography, and oral history, including an intimate portrait of the legendary Avedon studio - Stevens and coauthor Steven M. L. Aronson masterfully trace Avedon’s life from his birth to his death, in 2004, at the age of 81, while at work in Texas for The New Yorker (whose first-ever staff photographer he had become in 1992). The book contains startlingly candid reminiscences by Mike Nichols, Calvin Klein, Claude Picasso, Renata Adler, Brooke Shields, David Remnick, Naomi Campbell, Twyla Tharp, Jerry Hall, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Bruce Weber, Cindy Crawford, Donatella Versace, Jann Wenner, and Isabella Rossellini, among dozens of others.
Avedon: Something Personal is the confiding, compelling full story of a man who for half a century was an enormous influence on both high and popular culture, on both fashion and art - to this day he remains the only artist to have had not one but two retrospectives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during his lifetime. Not unlike Richard Avedon’s own defining portraits, the book delivers the person beneath the surface, with all his contradictions and complexities, and in all his touching humanity.
Photograph of Richard Avedon © Gideon Lewin
©2017 Random House Audio (P)2017 Norma Stevens & Steven M. L. AronsonListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"It's a good time, this book.... [Norma] Stevens is most illuminating in her behind-the-scenes glimpses of [Richard] Avedon's work.... Everyone saw one side of him - but together the testimonials of his assistants, models and lovers add up to a mosaic of the man. The snapshots are affectionate and admiring, and the contradictions in them can give you whiplash." (The New York Times)
"Intimate and dishy in its conversational tone, the book makes you feel as though you are nose to nose trading stories with a vivacious confidant.... It's a saucy meandering from anecdote to anecdote.... Stevens and [Steven M. L.] Aronson have telescoped Avedon's star into much clearer view." (Chicago Tribune)
"Although the bitchier and more salacious anecdotes...will likely earn the book a good deal of attention, the cast of characters is most interesting when discussing Avedon's central struggle: Should he direct his talents to selling the lie or revealing the truth?... The composite portrait that emerges...depicts a frantic, insecure artist consumed by ambition. Testimonies...also reveal a man capable of great generosity and unadulterated joy." (The Wall Street Journal)
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Story
Adrienne Barbeau never set out to be a sex symbol, and she never planned on giving birth to twins when she was 51, but both those stories and a lot more are detailed in this witty, revealing memoir. With humor and fearlessness, she shares her romance with a superstar, her marriage to a famous film director, her marriage to a much younger man and her successful battle with infertility.
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Excellent book
- By Jill on 01-05-10
By: Adrienne Barbeau
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The Price of Illusion
- A Memoir
- By: Joan Juliet Buck
- Narrated by: Joan Juliet Buck
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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From Joan Juliet Buck, former editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue, comes a dazzling memoir: a fabulous account of four decades spent in the creative heart of London, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, chronicling Buck's quest to discover the difference between glitter and gold, illusion and reality, and what looks like happiness from the thing itself.
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Narcissistic name dropper
- By Marlette on 12-03-19
By: Joan Juliet Buck
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By Myself and Then Some
- By: Lauren Bacall
- Narrated by: Lauren Bacall
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Abridged
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The epitome of grace, independence, and wit, Lauren Bacall continues to astound generations with her audacious spirit and on-screen excellence. Together with Humphrey Bogart, she produced some of the most electric scenes in movie history, and their romance on and off screen made them Hollywood's most celebrated couple.
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Wish it had been unabridged
- By Grace on 04-28-14
By: Lauren Bacall
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Dropped Names
- Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them
- By: Frank Langella
- Narrated by: Frank Langella
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Captured forever in a unique memoir, Frank Langella's myriad encounters with some of the past century's most famous human beings are profoundly affecting, funny, wicked, sometimes shocking, and utterly irresistible. With sharp wit and a perceptive eye, Mr. Langella takes us with him into the private worlds and privileged lives of movie stars, presidents, royalty, literary lions, the social elite, and the greats of the Broadway stage.
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Delightful
- By Kathy on 04-03-12
By: Frank Langella
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I Blame Dennis Hopper
- And Other Stories from a Life Lived in and out of the Movies
- By: Illeana Douglas
- Narrated by: Illeana Douglas
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1969, Illeana Douglas' parents saw the film Easy Rider and were transformed. Taking Dennis Hopper's words - "That's what it's all about, man" - to heart, they abandoned their comfortable upper-middle-class life and gave Illeana a childhood filled with hippies, goats, free spirits, and free love. Illeana writes, "Since it was all out of my control, I began to think of my life as a movie, with a Dennis Hopper-like father at the center of it." I Blame Dennis Hopper is a rollicking, funny, at times tender exploration of the way movies can change our lives.
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Loved Every Moment of this Book!
- By Susan Van Allen on 01-20-16
By: Illeana Douglas
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Legs Are the Last to Go
- By: Diahann Carroll
- Narrated by: Diahann Carroll
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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With wisdom that only aging gracefully can bestow, Diahann Carroll talks frankly about her four marriages as well as her other relationships, including her courtship with Sidney Poitier; racial politics in show business; and the personal cost, particularly to her family, of being a pioneer.
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Magnificent
- By Rhonda G. on 04-02-21
By: Diahann Carroll
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Make 'Em Laugh
- Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends
- By: Debbie Reynolds, Dorian Hannaway
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Debbie shares memories of late-night pals and some of the greatest comedians of all time, stories from the big screen and small, and tales of marriage, motherhood, and children. Combining her wicked sense of humor and appealing charm, she reveals the personal side of show business and fame in funny, poignant, and delightful reminiscences. Nothing is off limits: Debbie talks about her sex life, her family drama - and even shares a few secret recipes.
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Love the book just wish it had been Debbie.
- By Kristopher's Korner on 08-13-16
By: Debbie Reynolds, and others
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Gods and Kings
- The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano
- By: Dana Thomas
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Sastre
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In February 2011 John Galliano, the lauded head of Christian Dior, imploded with a drunken, anti-Semitic public tirade. Exactly a year earlier, celebrated designer Alexander McQueen took his own life three weeks before his women's wear show. Both were casualties of the war between art and commerce that has raged within fashion for the last two decades.
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Captivating
- By kpaige on 04-15-15
By: Dana Thomas
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Daring
- My Passages - A Memoir
- By: Gail Sheehy
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Candid, insightful, and powerful, Daring: My Passages is the story of the unconventional life of a writer who dared - to walk New York City streets with hookers and pimps to expose violent prostitution; to march with civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland as British paratroopers opened fire; to seek out Egypt's president Anwar Sadat when he was targeted for death after making peace with Israel.
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Enjoyed unexpectedly
- By Corinne O'Rourke on 09-06-23
By: Gail Sheehy
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Pieces of My Heart
- A Life
- By: Robert J. Wagner
- Narrated by: Robert J. Wagner
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
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Robert J. Wagner has starred in more than 100 films and television series over the past 50 years. In this deeply personal story, he recalls his rise to stardom. He talks candidly about his relationships with some of the greatest stars of the 20th century, including Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, and, for the first time, he shares the details of his two marriages to Natalie Wood. Wagner also offers a fascinating look at Hollywood during the last half of the 20th century.
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Wagner's life, told in a gracious manner
- By Chris on 12-18-08
By: Robert J. Wagner
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Robert Altman
- The Oral Biography
- By: Mitchell Zuckoff
- Narrated by: Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, Cher, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Altman - visionary director, hard-partying hedonist, eccentric family man, Hollywood legend - comes roaring to life in this rollicking cinematic biography, told in a chorus of voices that can only be called Altmanesque.
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Enthralling!
- By Wise & Careful Shopper on 10-17-10
By: Mitchell Zuckoff
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Unsinkable
- A Memoir
- By: Debbie Reynolds, Dorian Hannaway
- Narrated by: Debbie Reynolds
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive memoir by legendary actress and performer Debbie Reynolds - an entertaining and moving story of enduring friendships and unbreakable family bonds, of hitting bottom and rising to the top again - that offers a unique and deeply personal perspective on Hollywood and its elite, from the glory days of MGM to the present.
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Loved Loved loved IT!
- By Virginia on 12-07-17
By: Debbie Reynolds, and others
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Growing Up Fisher
- Musings, Memories, and Misadventures
- By: Joely Fisher
- Narrated by: Joely Fisher
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Actress, director, entertainer Joely Fisher invites listeners backstage into the intimate world of her career and family with this hilarious, irreverent, down-to-earth memoir filled with incredible, candid stories about her life, her famous parents, and how the loss of her unlikely hero, sister Carrie Fisher, ignited the writer in her.
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Not what I thought it would be but I loved it.
- By Kristopher's Korner on 01-15-18
By: Joely Fisher
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Fairy Tale Interrupted
- A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss
- By: RoseMarie Terenzio
- Narrated by: RoseMarie Terenzio
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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To everyone else, John F. Kennedy Jr. may have been American royalty, but to RoseMarie Terenzio, he was an entitled nuisance—and she wasn’t afraid to let him know it. RoseMarie was his personal assistant, his publicist, and one of his closest confidantes during the last five years of his life. In this, her first memoir, she bravely recounts her own fairy tale interrupted, describing the unlikely friendship between a blue-collar girl from the Bronx and John F. Kennedy Jr.
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Mediocre read
- By Rachel on 05-28-12
What listeners say about Avedon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- B. L. Russo
- 12-18-24
The story was interesting. Avedon was my favorite photographer.
I didn’t like the reading. It was difficult to know who was speaking. It seemed like a female voice read everything. I think it would have been better if a male voice was heard speaking for the man.
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Overall
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- Melis S.
- 01-16-18
fantastic and love this narrator
wonderful and thorough book with an excellent narrator who is good at keeping it interesting.
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1 person found this helpful