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Essay on Florence Price

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Florence Price, Composer
The purpose of a biography is to enhance the reader’s knowledge about a particular person’s life, in this case, Florence Beatrice Price, and offer a sort of historical background focusing on significant events, accomplishments, and personal aspects of that particular individual’s life. Ideally, the writer molds complex biographical facts—birth and death, education, ambition, conflict, milieu, work, relationship, accident—into a book [or article] that has the independent vitality of any creative work but is, at the same time, "true to life." Barbara Garvey Jackson, author of the biography on Florence Price chosen for this class, has noted that the purpose of her article is …show more content…

Jackson’s article seemed to portray Price as more than just a composer, but rather as a woman who successfully and honorably acquired a special talent – music. Her knowledge about Price’s life and the events that occurred during that particular era seemed to be extremely abundant. There were several mentions of historical events such as the great Chicago fire of 1871, political references, and World War I, which enhance the ambiance. Unfortunately, it seemed to me that she over did it a bit. I realize that her objective is to “…assess the cultural world in which she [Florence] grew up, her own life and professional career in Little Rock and Chicago, and the present states of study about her”, but during the course of the article, I found myself straying away from the main idea. As if I were loosing track of the importance if the musician herself, and focusing more on the intimate details that Jackson described. I assume that her purpose for inserting such irrelevant points or topics and then elaborating on them is to capture a sense of reality and cultural sympathy. Which, in a way did exactly that, but I soon became uninterested and had to force myself to continue reading.
Within this article, there is a wealth of both personal and professional information. Much of the information was on Price herself, but there were moments that Jackson elaborated on rather

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