BOURKE-WHITE, Margaret.

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Eyes on Russia. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Margaret Bourke-White on the front free endpaper: "To Fred - one of the characters in this book. Without whom I might never have gotten into Russia at all, or succeeded in getting my films out again. Gratefully, Peggy." The recipient, Frederick Kuh (1896-1978), was instrumental in securing Bourke-White's entry into the Soviet Union, making her the first Western photographer to work there.Chapter III recounts Bourke-White's six-month wait in Berlin for a Soviet visa, during which she describes an unnamed American correspondent - identifiable as Kuh - whose connections ultimately proved decisive. Kuh was among the most resourceful American reporters of his generation: after early work in post-war Europe, he became United Press's Moscow bureau chief, later reporting from Berlin until his expulsion in 1933, shortly before he broke the story of the Reichstag fire.One of the most important photographers of the 20th century, Bourke-White was the first female photographer for Fortune and Life, the first female US war correspondent, and the first woman to photograph combat zones in the Second World War. Her reputation was established in the 1930s through major photo-essays on Germany, the Dust Bowl, the Depression-era Midwest, and the Soviet Union. In Chapter II, "Why I Went," she insists on her neutrality - "Russia to me was a land of embryo industry" - describing herself simply as an "industrial photographer." A later, h

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