Peter Beard’s extraordinary life—do we have the space to list all of the artists (Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol) and models (Cheryl Tiegs, Iman) and writers (Karen Blixen, Truman Capote) and society figures (Lee Radziwill) with whom he collided?—was messy. He made his name, beyond the rewards of his preternatural good looks, as a photographer and adventurer—traveling between Kenya and Montauk, with long pauses in Manhattan nightclubs, taking photographs and keeping voluminous diaries. Over time, the border between his life and art—often hand-worked with text and drawings and the story of his life—which was never easily defined, would disappear completely.