Join award-winning author Natalie Dykstra for a captivating journey into the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, the visionary creator of the iconic Boston museum. From personal tragedy to glittering friendships, world travels, and a relentless passion for collecting, Gardner remade her life—and her museum—through art. Dykstra delves into the stories behind the masterpieces, objects, and curated spaces that transform the museum into a living memoir, offering a portrait of an American original whose legacy continues to inspire.
This event is reserved for Library Patron Circle members (formerly: Friends of the Library) and will be followed by a champagne cocktail apéro. If you’d like to join, please email giving@americanlibraryinparis.org.
About the speaker:
Natalie Dykstra is the author of Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life, which won a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2013 Massachusetts Book Award. Her recent book Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner has received a New England Society of New York Book Award and the Marfield Prize, the national award for arts writing. Her work has been supported by a Public Scholars grant from the NEH and an inaugural Robert Caro Research Fellowship from the Biographers International Organization. She has been an honorary fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society since 2011 and is an emerita professor of English at Hope College. She lives with her husband near Boston.
