Alex: The Life of Alexander Liberman

by Dodie Kazanjian

Profiles the life and career of the Russian-born photographer, art director of Vogue for twenty years, and editorial director for all Conde+a7 Nast magazines for three decades. 12,500 first printing.

385 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 1993

Reviews

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A skillfully written book about awful people. I do think that Kazanjian and Tomkins whitewashed their protagonist…after doing some research on Alexander Liberman it’s clear they left out some of the more unsavory aspects of his character (his cowardice in dealing with difficult situations in life, his ignoring of his monstrous wife’s bullying and mean-spirited character) and downplayed others—his relentless social climbing and effete snobbery, their scarring influence on Tatian’s daughter, the author Francine du Plessix-Gray (about whom I would have liked to know more—her moral compass is certainly much more sturdy than either Alex or Tatiana’s).

I get this impression that the authors have been surrounded by people like Alex and Tatiana for so very long that they can no longer see how truly awful they are.