Completing the Century

From photographer Berenice Abbott to labor activist Elaine Black Yoneda, from Wyoming governor Nellie Tayloe Ross (born in 1876) to Tejana singer Selena Perez Quintanilla (born in 1971), Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century (Harvard University Press, Belknap Press, $45) presents meaty profiles of 483 impressive figures who died between January 1, 1976, and December 31, 1999. Editor Susan Ware and assistant editor Stacy Braukman note that their book, prepared under the auspices of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and due this February, "represents the culmination of the premise behind [the series' volumes of 1971 and 1980]: to uncover and document women's contributions to politics and culture during historical periods when their significance was generally unrecognized by the society at large."