I Always Knew

A Memoir

By: Barbara Chase-Riboud

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

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.

©2022 Barbara Chase-Riboud (P)2022 Recorded Books

Thought it was going to be a bit more interesting.

I did listen to it all, but I wouldn’t want hear it again. Not what I thought it was. It was kind of boring. But I did like the thought she was close to her mom.

I was very impressed at how young she was when she first set off

I took my time between listening to the audible and reading the hard cover I purchased from the Philadelphia Museum of Art because I wanted it to last as long as the letters I had become so entranced with. To have such a treasure of her old letters and the gift to deliver the story that your readers continue without ever really noticing they were just one half of the story or even needing the responses from mom to really feel the love and connection. I wish I had my letters I wrote my grandfather and brother while I was away at college. Very beautiful story. I am a forever fan of Mrs Chase-Riboud art and literature.

Captivating!

Loved it!
The concept of the letters works for me on so many levels. (Such a lost art ). Ms Ribaud is always amazing! The reading was wonderful...can't stop talking about it!

Marvelous adventure into an amazing life

The book is a testament to all that life can be. Awe inspiring and insightful.

Not my type of book...

so bland... started slow... ended slow. The narrator was good as usual. but the storyline was sooo boring. sorry I just couldn't wait for the book to end.

Nothing

It drug on and the overall story very boring and uneventful . It was hard to keep my attention .