“From the first pages of Chasing Beauty, you understand that you will be learning about a woman of contradiction….” – Hyperallergic.com
Politics & Prose included Chasing Beauty in its 2024 Holiday Book Guide.
“Dykstra’s biography … is an empathetic and sensitive portrait of the Sphinx of Fenway Court.” –The Art Newspaper
Chasing Beauty featured in Harvard Bookstore’s Holiday 100 List
Chasing Beauty featured in Town & Country: The Weekly Covet: Everything You Need for the Beach
“My ideal day is staying on the beach until sunset—and even after that. A Barbayanni ouzo on the rocks is one essential, a great book is another. I’m just back from Boston and a visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, one of the most special places in America. People I trust have recommended this new biography of the woman behind it all.” —Stellene Volandes, Editor in Chief
Natalie Dykstra in conversation with Mary Stack – “Why Do We Need Art Museums?”
Cambridge Forum at the GBH Forum Network
Podcast conversation with Christopher Lydon
Radio Open Source
Natalie Dykstra on Isabella Stewart Gardner, with Rachel Cohen
The Graduate Center, Leon Levy Center for Biography
Interview with Jared Bowen
The Culture Show, WGBH 89.7 Boston LIVE streaming
A talk at Isabella’s childhood church
Grace Church in New York City
New York Times Editors’ Pick
“…luminous new biography … [is] a lively portrait of a moment, a woman and the power of art.”
Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine
Review of Chasing Beauty
Boston.com has chosen Chasing Beauty as its April Book Club Selection!
“In this new biography, Dykstra has painted a vivid portrait of the life and ambitions of one of the most famous Bostonians in history . . . Dykstra is just the writer and researcher to do justice to this story . . . Her thoroughly researched account of Gardner’s life is sure to be a hit whether you’re a history buff or just a lover of good storytelling. ‘Chasing Beauty’ reads not like a lecture, but as a page-turning narrative.” More information HERE
Podcast #170 – Natalie Dykstra
Biographers International Organization
The Gilded Age and Progressive Era Podcast:
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner
is on sale and available to listen to on Spotify Premium.
Past News:
Clover Adams featured on Washington Walks: five of our favorite D.C. history books that make great gifts
2018 Recipient of an NEH Public Scholar Award for her forthcoming biography of the art collector and museum founder, Isabella Stewart Gardner.
2018 Recipient of the Robert and Ina Caro Research/Travel Fellowship, awarded by Biographers International Organization for current project, a biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner.
At the door and on the courtyard stairs of the Palazzo Barbaro, where Gardner stayed while in Venice, starting in the 1880s. May 2017, photos by Kati Kelley.
Clover Adams featured in Books About Curious Minds, Recommended for the Curious Minded, in The New York Times