First published 2011
McCullough chronicles the remarkable voyages of ambitious Americans who traveled to Paris between 1830 and 1900 to advance their careers and education. Elizabeth Blackwell, America's first female doctor, studied medicine in the world's medical capital. Charles Sumner enrolled at the Sorbonne and encountered Black students with equal ambitions, an experience that shaped his later role as a fierce abolitionist senator. James Fenimore Cooper wrote novels while Samuel Morse painted his greatest works and conceived the telegraph. Young pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk launched his career performing at age 15. Portrait painter George Healy arrived with no money or education but painted Abraham Lincoln and other prominent figures. Writers like Emerson, Hawthorne, and Twain discovered the city's treasures. Artists Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens flourished under French masters. Ambassador Elihu Washburne remained at his post during the Franco-Prussian War and documented the siege in his diary. These Americans risked everything for their dreams and returned home transformed, fundamentally altering American culture.
Genres: biography, history, art, 20th-century, american, education, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, transformation
Setting: Paris, United States
Period: 1830-1900
558 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group