Isabella Stewart Gardner has found the ideal biographer in Natalie Dykstra, who gives Gardner, her nerves of steel, her expert eye, and her singular curiosity their due in this wise, sparkling book. Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams and Cleopatra: A Life
Natalie Dykstra has written an absorbing, deeply researched biography that is also a travelogue, Edwardian period drama, and art history primer, with a supporting cast that includes Henry James, John Singer Sargent, Edith Wharton, and Henry Adams. In these pages, Isabella Stewart Gardner comes to life as a feminist pathbreaker finally given her dueand an artist in her own right. Heather Clark, author of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
The complex, magnificent life of Isabella Stewart Gardner pours through the pages of Natalie Dykstras wonderful, definitive biography. Gardner left an incomparable legacy; at long last, she has found a biographer who can match her in range, profundity, and eye for detail. It is thrilling to watch the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum rise again in this powerful, timely book. Rachel Cohen, author of A Chance Meeting: American Encounters
Dykstras deeply researched biography reveals the complex modern woman behind Isabella Stewart Gardners trademark gauzy veils. Its such a compelling tale, how a woman born into a Victorian world of privilege and propriety stepped outside the dos and donts of her social set to become an incomparable entrepreneur and cultural visionary. Wanda M. Corn, author of Georgia OKeeffe: Living Modern
A lifelong friend of Henry James, Gardner inspired some of his fictional heroines yet surpassed them all in her psychological complexity, the magnificence of her vision, and her zest for experience. Dykstra tells a captivating story of an artist and her time. Linda Leavell, author of Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore
Copiously researched and engagingly written, Chasing Beauty is biography at its best: a vivid, empathic portrait of an extraordinary woman. Caroline Weber, author of Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Sičcle Paris
Thoroughly researched . . . the author captures the sweep and energy of [ Gardners] life . . . A richly detailed biographical portrait. Kirkus Reviews
An elegant depiction of a larger-than-life trailblazer. Publishers Weekly
An exquisitely detailed and perceptive biography. New York Times Book Review
"A sympathetic, impeccably researched biography." Wall Street Journal
Marshalling vivid facts, fluent insights, and narrative radiance, Dykstra fully captures Gardner's dynamism, intrepidity, creativity, and singular achievements Booklist (starred review)
[ A] thrilling new biography. Town & Country
