Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones

HAILED BY CRITICS AS ITS "FIND OF THE YEAR" IN 1908, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones was the art world’s "golden girl." She knew the spectacular was within her reach. And then she disappeared.

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Fine Art Connoisseur, May-June 2013

Featured for the first time in 71 years in a national art magazine, "An Overlooked Phenomenon", written by Barbara Lehman Smith, highlights the life and career of painter Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones.

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Biographers International Organization Conference 2013

Held in New York City, announced its first annual Plutarch Award for Best Biography of 2012 (Robert Caro), selected by members after a nominating process by a committee that included Barbara Lehman Smith. The three-day event also featured a keynote by Ron Chernow, research tours at the Grolier Club, New York Public Library, and Columbia University, and a fantastic series of panels.

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Biographers International Organization

The story of Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones shared a stage with the biographies of Lyndon Johnson, Jim Thorpe, Cleopatra, and Oprah Winfrey at May 2011's Biographers International Organization Conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Inspiring weekend. Kitty Kelley (center in photo) called the quest to spread ESJ's story the kind of "passion" she loves. Barbara Lehman Smith is on the right.

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New Jersey Book Festival

Local and national authors show support and appreciation for readers at the annual New Jersey Book Festival, BookNJ, held in June. The Biography panelists (left to right) Marjorie Jones, Sheila Isenberg, and Barbara Lehman Smith during the panel on "Writing about the Lives of Others."

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WYPR - Maryland Morning

Barbara Lehman Smith is a guest on the WYPR Maryland Morning program discussing her book Elizabeth Sparhawk Jones: The Artist Who Lived Twice with the wonderful Tom Hall.

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Canton Public Library Book Lecture Series

Visiting her hometown of Canton, Massachusetts, Barbara Lehman Smith signs some books after being part of the Canton Public Library's successful lecture series.

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Baltimore Book Festival, Greetings & Readings

Getting a hug from the popular local symbol "Miss Baltimore Hon" 2009, the beehived and cat-eyed Charlene Osborne, and fellow author at the well-attended event.

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PAFA Art-at-Lunch Lecture Series

During the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts popular lunch speaker series, Barbara Lehman Smith discusses PAFA star Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones in a topic called "Painting on the Pulse."

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About the Author

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After inadvertently rescuing the artist’s scrapbooks from an incinerator, Barbara Lehman Smith first wrote about Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones for Pennsylvania Heritage magazine in 1995. As a feature writer and journalist, she continued with other projects but kept coming back to the Sparhawk-Jones story. “Those who care about the painter and her influences are deeply passionate and that motivated me to continue work on this biography,” says Ms. Smith of Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones: The Artist Who Lived Twice, which was funded primarily through gifts of art benefactors.

Currently working on a biography of the poet Elinor Wylie and her sisters, Barbara Lehman Smith has written professionally for more than twenty years including work for the national art magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, Triathlete magazine, Martha's Vineyard magazine, and was a regular contributor to AVALON magazine. With additional experience in public relations and marketing, she also manages Smith Publications, LLC. For eight years, she taught a writing and graphic design class at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. A member of Biographers International Organization since 2010, she served on the 2013 nominating committee for the Plutarch Award, an annual award given to the best biography of the year as chosen by biographers.

Ms. Smith earned her M.A. from the University of Baltimore and her B.A. degree from the University of Maryland. A native of Canton, Massachusetts, she lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband, Chris, and their three children.

Available Now

Elizabith Sparhawk Jones - The Artist Who Live Twice

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Interviews and Presentations

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WYPR - Maryland Morning

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PAFA Art-at-Lunch