*EVENT FULL* Book Talk: “Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner” with Author Natalie Dykstra

We have reached seating capacity for the May 3 “Chasing Beauty” event with Natalie Dykstra. The waitlist is also full.

Seating is reserved for those who have already pre-registered. Thank you for understanding!

Camden Public Library warmly welcomes award-winning author Natalie Dykstra, for a book talk on her latest title, Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner. There will be book sales, thanks to Arctic Tern Books in Rockland, and a signing session with the author to follow. This event will take place in the library’s beautiful and historic Reading Room.

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If you have received confirmation of your registration, please note:

• For the event, enter the library from the Atlantic Avenue entrance and take the stairs or the elevator to the third floor Reading Room. The other entrance to the Reading Room will be locked. Names will be checked upon entry to the Reading Room to ensure those who are pre-registered get first serve on seats. 
• ARRIVE EARLY! This event is very full, and there is a long waitlist. Those on the waitlist will likely show up hoping for a seat. At 1:45 PM we will stop checking names of those who have registered. To ensure your seat, arrive well before then! Otherwise, your seat may be taken by someone on the waitlist.

If you received notice that you are on the waitlist, or if you have not pre-registered:

• We will be seating those who are on the registration list (not the waitlist) until 1:45 PM. At that point, seating will be first-come, first-serve. If you are on the waitlist and determined to join us, we recommend not arriving too early, as waitlisted folks will not be seated any earlier than 1:45 p.m. Those on the waitlist are asked to wait downstairs until 1:45, so as not to overcrowd the room while we seat folks on the registration list.
• After 1:45 p.m., seating and standing room is first-come, first-serve. As someone on the waitlist, you may still be able to get a seat, but it is not guaranteed. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

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Natalie Dykstra delivers the definitive biographical portrait of the ambitious and innovative—and until now misunderstood—woman behind one of America’s most important art collections. With access to all archival holdings at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—including thousands of digitized and newly accessible letters and other unpublished records—as well as original sources in Paris, Venice, and more, Dykstra brings Isabella to life as never before.

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An incredible achievement of storytelling and scholarship, Chasing Beauty illuminates the fascinating ways the museum and its holdings can be seen as a kind of living memoir—as the place where Isabella “put herself on display . . . her taste, her passions, her sorrow, her nerve, her capacious curiosity, her relationships.”

A tribute to the transformative power of art and the indomitable spirit of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Chasing Beauty stands as an inspiring tale of beauty and loss, resilience and self-invention, and the enduring legacy of a visionary creator.

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“[An] exquisitely detailed and perceptive biography.” — New York Times Book Review

“Sympathetic, impeccably researched.” — Wall Street Journal

“[A] thrilling new biography.” — Town & Country

“Marshalling vivid facts, fluent insights, and narrative radiance, Dykstra fully captures Gardner’s dynamism, intrepidity, creativity, and singular achievements.” — Booklist, *starred* review

“An elegant depiction of a larger-than-life trailblazer.” — Publishers Weekly

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