After the end of World War II, Margaret Bourke-White spent 1946 through 1948 in India, covering the creation of the new states of India and Pakistan, including the fighting that accompanied this transition. Her photograph of Gandhi at his spinning wheel is one of the best-known images of that Indian leader. She photographed Gandhi just hours before he was assassinated.
In 1949-1950 Margaret Bourke-White traveled to South Africa for five months to photograph apartheid and mine workers.
During the Korean War, in 1952, Margaret Bourke-White traveled with the South Korean Army, again photographing war for Life magazine.
Fighting Parkinson's
It was in 1952 that Margaret Bourke-White was first diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She continued photography until that became too difficult by the end of that decade, and then turned to writing. The last story she wrote for Life was published in 1957. In June of 1959, Life published a story on the experimental brain surgery intended to fight off the symptoms of her disease; this story was photographed by her long-time fellow Life staff photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt.
She published her autobiographical Portrait of Myself in 1963. She formally and fully retired from Life magazine in 1969 to her home in Darien, and died in a hospital in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1971.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Margaret Bourke-White was among many who were targeted as suspected communist sympathizers by the FBI.
Margaret Bourke-White's papers are at Syracuse University in New York.
Books by Margaret Bourke-White:
- Eyes on Russia. 1931.
- You Have Seen Their Faces, with Erskine Caldwell. 1937.
- North of the Danube, with Erskine Caldwell. 1939.
- Say! Is This the U.S.A., with Erskine Caldwell. 1941.
- Shooting the Russian War. 1942.
- They Called It "Purple Heart Valley": A Combat Chronicle of the War in Italy. 1944.
- "Dear Fatherland, Rest Quietly": A Report on the Collapse of Hitler's "Thousand Years." 1946.
- Halfway to Freedom: A Study of the New India in the Words and Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White. 1949.
- A Report on the American Jesuits. 1956.
- Portrait of Myself. 1963.
Books About Margaret Bourke-White:
- Sean Callahan, editor. The Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White. 1972.
- Vicki Goldberg. Margaret Bourke-White. 1986.
- Emily Keller. Margaret Bourke-White: A Photographer's Life. 1996.
- Jonathan Silverman. For the World to See: The Life of Margaret Bourke-White. 1983.
- Catherine A. Welch. Margaret Bourke-White: Racing with a Dream. 1998.
Film About Margaret Bourke-White
- Double Exposure: The Story of Margaret Bourke-White. 1989.
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