Includes bibliographical references (pages 401-406).

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 household, O'Keeffe invited Maria Chabot--a young writer--to join her. Their relationship endured throughout WW2; the death of Georgia's husband; and Maria's design and building of an adobe house and studio for the artist in the native village of Abiquiu. An evocative story that explores the dimensions of friendship and the debts we incur to those who make our lives easier, Someone Always Nearby is based on research into a massive collection of over 700 letters, documents, media reports, and historical accounts. Readers will be fascinated by this intimate, revealing portrait of the artist's daily life during her first decade at her New Mexico ranch-a mysterious, enigmatic O'Keeffe that only one woman, Maria Chabot, ever fully knew.