She was a model and photographer, muse and reporter, sexual adventurer and domestic goddess. Yet Lee Miller’s stunning beauty has made it difficult to evaluate her work in its own right, according to biographer Carolyn Burke, who made it her mission to reveal the woman behind the legend. “Writing her story, my heart broke several times.”

Marlies: I’ve always admired Lee Miller as an artist and an icon, but I didn’t love her until I read your truly remarkable biography ‘Lee Miller: A Life’. Through your words, I got to intimately know a woman so brave and vibrant, so full of life. How did your fascination with Lee Miller start?

Carolyn: I was working on a biography of the English poet Mina Loy when I saw a striking portrait of her, taken by Lee Miller. I was immediately interested. A few years later, I went to a talk in Paris on Lee Miller’s lover and collaborator Man Ray. Having arrived late, I sat down all flustered when I realized I was sitting next to Lee Miller herself! She didn’t look like the young Lee we know from the Vogue portraits, but I recognized her profile right away. Awestruck, I blurted out: “Are you Lee Miller?”, and she said: “Yes, and who are you?”. We then spent hours talking.

Marlies: You make her sound so spontaneous and open.

Carolyn: Oh, she was! She spoke so frankly and openly with me right away. Sadly, she already had terminal cancer then. When Lee told me that the next day, I was completely undone. I had only just met her and wanted to get to know her so much better. She would die two months later. Yet, even in that short period, I learned so much from her honesty and acceptance of her situation.

Marlies: Were you convinced at that point that you wanted to write about her?

Carolyn: Writing a biography requires a lot of determination and perhaps even a bit of courage. I used to think of Lee Miller as this free spirit, the epitome of the modern woman. But when I saw her war photography, I realized: good Lord, not only was she an artist with an amazing eye, she was also a woman of tremendous courage! I wanted to show my intense admiration for her by writing about her, and Lee’s courage awakened my own, enough to get started.

Marlies: What was it like to immerse yourself in her world?

Carolyn: When you do biographical research, you inevitably run into reluctance or resistance. Some people who just don’t want to share their memories of that person. But Lee’s friends and associates were all more than willing to talk to me, because they wanted to transmit their affection and admiration for her. They invited me into their circle for the time being, which felt like a great privilege.

Marlies: How wonderful. I do have to admit that reading her story, my heart broke several times.

Carolyn: Mine did too, both early and late in the writing of the book. It was heart-breaking to write about Lee’s rape at only seven years old and the aftermath: the daily, extremely painful gonorrhea treatment administered by her own mother. Then there were various other episodes, leading up to World War II, when she visited camps like Dachau as they were being liberated. Believing that she may have suffered from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, I did a lot of reading on the subject. And it seems that the victims of rape suffer equally and as intensely as those who have experienced war. So, it is my thesis that Lee, seeing the horrors of the camps, would have experienced a double trauma. According to her friends, she would never talk about those days except late at night when they had been sitting up drinking.

Marlies: I think a lot of people don’t know these things about Lee Miller, seeing her mostly as this glamorous model and surrealist icon. As you describe so beautifully in the biography: mesmerized by Lee’s beauty, we look at her, but not into her.

Carolyn: There was her beauty, but also her daring spirit, the fact that she never held back. The combination must have blown away a lot of people! So much so, that we reduced her to a stereotype: the timeless icon, which has made it hard to evaluate her work in its own right. Lee Miller is not the only one, of course. My next subject, singer Edith Piaf, has also been turned into reductive versions of who she really was. With my books, I try to break these stereotypes.

Marlies: And we love you for it; such a great, literary form of feminism! Would Lee have considered herself a feminist?

Carolyn: She was a trailblazer, determined from the beginning to have the same freedoms her brothers had, all the way up to her World War II experience, when she wanted to live like any soldier. That is, until she could go to an elegant hotel to take a nice bath. [laughs] She refused to be restricted by typical roles for women. During my research, talking to her nieces and young female friends, I also found out that Lee had a strong sense of wanting to transmit her knowledge and experiences to younger women, telling them to stand up for themselves, but at the same time protect themselves. So, in her own way, Lee was definitely a feminist.

Marlies: She also didn’t seem afraid to use her feminine capital to get what she wanted.

Carolyn: I agree. She used her feminine wiles, her beauty and her daring to create opportunities for herself. That, combined with her sharp intelligence took her far.

Marlies: In other words, a ‘feminine feminist’ avant la lettre! At the beginning of our conversation, you called Lee ’the epitome of a modern woman’. That hasn’t really changed, has it? She still seems so relevant. I believe there’s even a biopic featuring Kate Winslet as Lee in the making.

Carolyn: Yes, my biography will be credited, but the movie is based on the book written by Antony Penrose, Lee’s son. And indeed, you can say that Lee was modern then, and modern now. I see it in people’s eyes when I do book signings: the fascination and admiration. They want to know: who was this woman? How did she do all these things? How was this possible? Lee Miller still very much strikes a chord in people.

Marlies: Not least as a result of your efforts, Carolyn. Thank you so much for passing on Lee’s courage and lust for life!