The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Penrose, Antony. The Lives of Lee Miller. Thames & Hudson Inc., 2021.

Antony Penrose's The Lives of Lee Miller is a biography detailing Lee Miller's life from her birth in 1907 to her death in 1977. The text abides by a linear structure and is written in the past tense.

In 1907, Lee Miller was born to Theodore and Florence Miller in Poughkeepsie, New York. She grew up on her family farm, Kingdom Park, with her parents and brothers, John and Erik. From a young age, Lee proved adventurous and spirited. She also had a curious mind and relied on her father to teach her about new sciences and arts, particularly taking and developing photographs. When Lee was 18, she briefly attended a school in Paris. She later returned to the States and moved to New York City, where she met Condé Nast and secured work in the modeling industry with Vogue. Condé Nast then put her in touch with French Vogue and Lee moved to Paris. While here, she apprenticed under the photographer Man Ray and started producing pieces of her own for Vogue.

In 1932, Lee was living back in New York City. She and her brother Erik opened a photography studio in the city called Lee Miller Studios. Despite the bad economy, she and Erik succeeded in the industry by taking advertising jobs with top fashion magazines. Then in 1934, Lee's friend Aziz Eloui Bey came to see her in New York. Shortly after she took him to meet her parents in Poughkeepsie, she and Aziz eloped. The new couple then left New York for Cairo, where Aziz lived full time. Unable to run Lee Miller Studios without Lee, Erik closed the business.

Throughout the late 1930s, Lee struggled to adjust to life in Egypt. Realizing her discontent, Aziz encouraged her to return to Paris. The couple remained married, but Lee moved back to Paris. She soon met and began an affair with Roland Penrose. She and Aziz continued to communicate, but Lee ultimately failed to settle back in Cairo despite Aziz's patience with her and continued love for her.

When WWII broke out in the early 1940s, Lee was living in London with Roland, where he had a house in Hampstead. She and her photographer friend Dave Scherman collaborated on a book project to inform American readers about the European conflict. Not long later, Lee began working as an American war correspondent, primarily producing written articles and photojournalistic pieces for Vogue. Her new work took her around Europe and gave her a sense of meaning and purpose. After the war ended, Lee continued traveling, disinterested to working for the fashion industry in light of her wartime experiences.

When Lee learned that Roland was seeing someone new in her absence, she ended her overseas adventures and returned to England to be with him. Not long later, Lee discovered that she was pregnant. She stopped working and the couple bought Farley Farm in Sussex. After she gave birth to her son, Antony, Lee struggled to settle into motherhood. She became increasingly reliant on alcohol and her relationship with her son was fraught throughout his childhood and adolescence. Then in the 1950s, Lee discovered an interest in the culinary arts. She took classes, collected countless cookbooks, and practiced adventurous recipes independently. Meanwhile, she began hosting elaborate dinner parties at the farm for her artist friends. Throughout this era, Lee and Antony gradually healed their relationship. Not long after he married and started a family, Lee was diagnosed with and passed away from cancer.