William Randolph Hearst’s dazzling castle at San Simeon, California, is famous world round, yet only the aficionado can name Julia Morgan as the architect who built it. For more than thirty years she worked with Hearst in a rare collaboration, creating not only his art-filled hilltop palace but also a fairytale Bavarian village known as Wyntoon and many other commercial and domestic structures. Yet the Hearst commissions, notable as they are, are not Morgan’s only claim to fame.

Given the sweep of Morgan’s accomplishments, it is astonishing that this is the first substantial book ever devoted to her career. Painstakingly researched for more than a decade by Sarah Holmes Boutelle, founder of the Julia Morgan Association, this handsome volume lovingly document’s Morgan’s life and work. This is a remarkable book celebrating the achievements of a remarkable woman.