Meryle Secrest was born and educated in Bath, England and received her journalistic training on newspapers in Canada, Bristol, England, and Washington D.C. She is author of many biographies of prominent men and women in the arts including Bernard Berenson, Salvador Dali, Frank Lloyd Wright, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. She received the National Humanities Medal for distinguished achievement at the White House in 2006. Her new book, on the artist Amedeo Modigliani, was published this spring. She is now working on a biography of the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.