Someone Always Nearby

In 1940, art-world icon Georgia O’Keeffe bought a house in a mountain-rimmed New Mexico desert, planning to live there for six months every year. To manage her remote household while she paints, O’Keeffe invited Maria Chabot–a young and naïve would-be writer–to join her.

​Their tempestuous relationship endured throughout the chaotic years of WW2; the death of Georgia’s domineering, philandering husband (famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz); and Maria’s design and building of a remarkable ad...