Barbara Goldsmith

Barbara Goldsmith
American Academy in Rome Biography

Barbara Goldsmith is a noted author and historian. Her award-winning books include The Straw Man, Little Gloria…Happy at Last, Johnson v. Johnson, Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull, and Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. She was a Founding and Contributing Editor of New York Magazine, the Senior Editor of Harper's Bazaar, and writes for The New York Times and The New Yorker. Ms. Goldsmith has received four doctorates and is both a Doctor of Literature and Humane Letters, honoris causa. She is the donor of the Preservation and Conservation Divisions of both The New York Public Library and New York University and the Barbara Goldsmith Rare Book Room at the American Academy in Rome. Among her many awards, she was appointed to the President's Commission for the Celebration of Women in American History. She is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Literary Arts of the Guild Hall Academy of the Arts, the Poets and Writers "Writers for Writers" award, the American Publishers Association Literary Award, and the Order of Merit of the Polish government for her work on Marie Curie. Ms. Goldsmith served on the New York State Council on the Arts, the Commission for Preservation and Access and Permanent Paper Task Force of the National Library of Medicine. As a crusader for human rights, she is donor of the PEN Freedom to Write Awards. She is a Trustee and Literary Lion of the New York Public Library, a member of The Council on Foreign Relations, the Authors League, Authors Guild of America, and Poets and Writers. She has received a Presidential Citation and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Goldsmith was designated by the New York Landmark Conservancy as a “Living Landmark”.