It is not clear why Milton Meltzer wrote [Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life]. She was a fine photographer, but that is not reason enough for a biography; she suffered misfortune—polio and a long and painful illness before death—but that, without illuminating insight into its meaning, is also not reason enough for a biography; and neither in a preface nor in the body of the text is sufficient reason for the work shown, either explicitly or implicitly.

This is a straight narrative that begins by detailing Lange's family background—nothing unusual there; her childhood—polio, the departure of her father—fully linked to her photographic work later on; and then a chronological narrative of her life—hardly gripping. Most biographies, in fact, are written as straight narratives, often successfully—a recent, superb example is Ronald Clark's biography of [Albert] Einstein. But Meltzer's work falls far short of...