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 grew up in the Midwest, first near the shores of Lake Michigan, then in a suburb west of Chicago. She received her undergraduate degree in Classics followed by graduate degrees in American Studies at the University of Wyoming and the University of Kansas. She won a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her work on Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life as well as grants from the Schlesinger Library and the Massachusetts Historical Society, where she was elected an honorary fellow in 2011. She received a 2018 Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support her forthcoming Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, to be published March 26, 2024 by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. This work also has been supported by the inaugural 2018 Robert and Ina Caro Fellowship sponsored by the Biographers International Organization (BIO). She has served as a board member of BIO since 2020.
She is emerita professor of English and senior research professor at Hope College, where she taught writing, literature, and the arts for twenty years. She lives with her husband in Waltham, Massachusetts.
