Norman, Dorothy, 1905-1997

Dorothy Norman (1905-1997) was a photographer from New York, N.Y.

Photographer, writer, editor, arts patron, advocate for social change.

Photographer; New York, N.Y. d. 1997.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Journalist. Dorothy Stecher Norman was active for many years in a wide range of social and political movements.

d. 1997.

Dorothy Norman was the editor of Twice A Year, a semiannual journal on literature, the arts and civil liberties.

Journalist.

Dorothy Stecher Norman was active for many years in a wide range of social and political movements.

Dorothy Norman (1905-1997) was an American photographer, writer, editor, arts patron and advocate for social change. Born in Philadelphia, Norman is perhaps best known for her long and intimate relationship with photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom she met in 1927 and who became her lover and mentor. Stieglitz encouraged Norman in her photography, and her work includes numerous photos of Steiglitz as well as portraits of Lewis Mumford, Theodore Dreiser, John Cage, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Indira Gandhi.

During the 1930s and 1940s the two became involved in various liberal causes, particularly civil rights, education, and independence for India and Israel. Norman was a founding member of New York City's Liberal Party, the American Emergency Food Committee for India, and The American Citizens' Committee for Economic Aid Abroad. She was a member of the Americans for Democratic Action and served on the boards of both the New York Urban League and the National Urban League.

In addition to her social activtism and photography work, Norman wrote a weekly column in The New York Post (1942-1949) and edited and published Twice a Year, (1938-1948), a journal of literature, the arts and civil liberties whose contributors included Richard Wright, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Bertolt Brecht. She wrote or edited numerous books including The Selected Writings of John Marin (1949), Nehru: The First Sixty Years (1965), a two-volume collection of the Indian leader's writings, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer (1970), the first full-length biography of the American modernist, Indira Gandhi: Letters to an American Friend (1985), and Encounters: a Memoir (1987).

[Portions of this biographical sketch adapted from "Dorothy Norman, 92, Writer Who Sought Social Change" by Roberta Smith, New York Times, April 14, 1997.]