New York artist is senior editor of sourcebook on Native Americans (02/02/97)

New York artist is senior editor of sourcebook on Native Americans

by Helen Smindak

NEW YORK - A Reader's Digest book on Native Americans, hailed by Publishers Weekly as a basic sourcebook and a "magnificent visual repository" on American Indians, appeared recently with the aid of New York artist Laryssa Lawrynenko.

As senior editor of the book "Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples," Ms. Lawrynenko was deeply involved for two and a half years in the production of the 400-page opus. She worked with editors and artists to prepare and select 550 illustrations - 300 full-color photographs, more than 30 specially commissioned paintings and reconstructions, and a series of maps.

"Through Indian Eyes" tells the story of America's past from the perspective of its original settlers, as expressed in their customs, rituals, art, myths, religion and architecture.

The book, organized by region, chronologically depicts one of the most extensive collections of American Indian art and artifacts ever published.

The text was edited by the Reader's Digest staff and written by such noted authorities as Albert Hurtedo, Peter Nabokov and Aldona Jonaitis, with the help of Alvin Josephy Jr., Robert Venables and other consultants.

Ms. Lawrynenko has been a member of the Reader's Digest staff for the past 23 years. With each assignment, she is expected to come up with a style and a unique design. In the case of "Through Indian Eyes," a special effort was made to make the book appear as much as possible unlike a white man's book.

A graduate of The Cooper Union in fine art and graphic arts, Ms. Lawrynenko was associated with Radio Liberty as a writer/announcer in New York and Munich, and worked as an illustrator for an educational film-strip house in New York before joining Reader's Digest in 1974.

Born in Austria, she came to the United States with her parents in 1950. Her mother is Maria Lawrynenko of New York; her father, the late Jurij Lawrynenko, was a writer. He is best known for his anthology of poetry, prose, drama and essays "Rozstriliane Vidrodzennia" (Paris, 1959), which focuses on Ukrainian literature and its writers, who were repressed or destroyed in Ukraine between 1912 and 1950.

Ms. Lawrynenko resides in Manhattan with her husband, Hilary Zarycky, a book designer for Sterling Publishers and a former layout artist for The Ukrainian Weekly. She is a member of the Dumka Chorus of New York, sings in the choir of St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and considers painting (of people and landscapes) her favorite hobby.

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