Review of A Life in Photography by Edward Steichen [NYT, 1963]
Citation
[Author unconfirmed.] [Review of A Life in Photography by Edward Steichen.] The New York Times, 1963. [Date, section, page, and author NOT confirmed this session.]
Tier justification
Tier 3: New York Times with named author is Tier 3 in CREDIBILITY.md. However, the author of this review is unconfirmed in this session. The entry is created as a placeholder for the NYT review of Steichen’s 1963 autobiography, which was a major publishing event covered by the press.
Relevance
Steichen’s autobiography A Life in Photography (Doubleday / MoMA, 1963) was published in the year following his retirement from MoMA. As a major retrospective autobiography by the most prominent American photography curator of the postwar period, it would have received substantial coverage in the NYT Book Review and the cultural press. A NYT review of this book is a key data point for understanding how Steichen’s self-presentation was received by the press establishment, and how the Family of Man was positioned in historical retrospect by Steichen himself.
Key excerpts / pages
- No review text was accessed in this session.
- NYT Book Review and NYT main section coverage of the book: NOT accessed (paywalled; ProQuest and TimesMachine not consulted this session).
- The book itself is confirmed: Doubleday / MoMA, 1963, Garden City, N.Y. (confirmed via archive.org metadata, fetched in prior session — cited in
src-steichen-1963-life).
Notes
- Flagged
verified: falsebecause no review text was accessed. - This entry should be merged into a full record when the review is located via NYT TimesMachine or ProQuest.
- Candidates for NYT reviewer in 1963: Jacob Deschin (NYT photography critic), Howard Devree (art critic, retired 1959 — unlikely), or a Book Review-designated critic. Note added 2026-05-17: Jacob Deschin is now confirmed as the NYT photography critic active in the 1960s, based on Wikipedia’s New Documents article (fetched 2026-05-17), which names him as having written a skeptical review of Szarkowski’s 1967 New Documents exhibition. This makes Deschin the most probable author of any NYT notice of the 1963 autobiography. His exact authorship of the 1963 review remains unconfirmed.
- Sister entry:
src-nyt-1963-life-reviewcovers only NYT. Reviews in Saturday Review, Time, Newsweek, and New York Herald Tribune were searched but not located in sources fetched this session; those reviews are listed under Open questions below. - Cross-references:
src-steichen-1963-life,src-deschin-1955-nyt.
Open questions
- Was there a dedicated NYT Book Review piece as well as a news-section notice? If so, who wrote each?
- Saturday Review coverage of the autobiography: NOT found in sources fetched this session.
- Time magazine 1963 review: NOT found.
- Newsweek 1963 review: NOT found.
- New York Herald Tribune 1963 review (likely the Books section): NOT found.