I Always Knew: A Memoir

I Always Knew: A Memoir - Hardcover

$45.00
$45.00
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I Always Knew: A Memoir
  • I Always Knew: A Memoir
I Always Knew: A Memoir - Hardcover

I Always Knew: A Memoir - Hardcover

by Barbara Chase-Riboud
$45.00
$45.00

Book Overview

by Barbara Chase-Riboud (Author)

The extraordinary life story of the celebrated artist and writer, as told through four decades of intimate letters to her beloved mother

Barbara Chase-Riboud has led a remarkable life. After graduating from Yale's School of Design and Architecture, she moved to Europe and spent decades traveling the world and living at the center of artistic, literary, and political circles. She became a renowned artist whose work is now in museum collections around the world. Later, she also became an award-winning poet and bestselling novelist. And along the way, she met many luminaries--from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Salvador Dalí, Alexander Calder, James Baldwin, and Mao Zedong to Toni Morrison, Pierre Cardin, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Josephine Baker.

I Always Knew is an intimate and vivid portrait of Chase-Riboud's life as told through the letters she wrote to her mother, Vivian Mae, between 1957 and 1991. In candid detail, Chase-Riboud tells her mother about her life in Europe, her work as an artist, her romances, and her journeys around the world, from Western and Eastern Europe to the Middle East, Africa, the Soviet Union, China, and Mongolia.

By turns brilliant and naïve, passionate and tender, poignant and funny, these letters show Chase-Riboud in the process of becoming who she is and who she might become. But what emerges most of all is the powerful story of a unique and remarkable relationship between a talented, ambitious, and courageous daughter and her adored mother.

Author Biography

Barbara Chase-Riboud is a visual artist and sculptor, novelist, and poet. She is the author of six novels, including Sally Hemings and The Great Mrs. Elias, and three poetry collections. She is the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the French Légion d'Honneur in 2022. She lives in Paris and Rome.

Number of Pages: 480
Dimensions: 1.2 x 8.8 x 5.9 IN
Illustrated: Yes
Publication Date: October 04, 2022
ISBN9780691234274
Author Barbara Chase-Riboud
PublisherPrinceton University Press
GenreBiography and Arts
FormatHardcover
PublishedOctober 2022
LanguageENG- English
Pages480
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Art Biography & Autobiography Nonfiction

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About Barbara Chase-Riboud

Barbara Chase-Riboud is a Carl Sandburg Prize-winning poet and the prize-winning author of four acclaimed, widely translated historical novels, the bestselling Sally Hemings, Valide: A Novel of the Harem, Echo of Lions (about the Amistad mutiny), and The President's Daughter. She is a winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and received a knighthood in arts and letters from the French government in 1996. Chase-Riboud is also a renowned sculptor whose award-winning monuments grace Lower Manhattan. She is a rare living artist honored with a personal exhibition, "The Monument Drawings," in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Born and raised in Philadelphia, of Canadian American descent, she is the recipient of numerous fellowships and honorary degrees. She divides her time among Paris, Rome and the United States.

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