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This new biography—featuring over 150 archival images and full-color photographs printed throughout—introduces Julia Morgan as both a pioneering architect and a captivating individual.

Julia Morgan was a lifelong trailblazer. She was the first woman admitted to study architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first licensed to practice architecture in California. Over the first half of the 20th century, she left an indelible mark on the American West. Of her remarkable 700 creations, the most iconic is Hearst Castle. Morgan spent thirty years constructing this opulent estate on the California coast for the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst—forging a lifelong friendship and creative partnership with him. Together, they built a spectacular and unequalled residence that once hosted the biggest stars of Hollywood’s golden age, and that now welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

This compelling biography draws on interviews, letters, and Morgan’s diaries, including never-before-seen reflections on faith, art, and her life experiences. Morgan’s friendship with Hearst, her passion for California’s landscape, her struggles with familial dementia, and her devotion to architecture reveal her to have been a singularly brilliant and determined artist.

Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and his legendary California estate occupy a place in the public imagination through Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, but Kane’s brooding Xanadu was merely a caricature of Hearst’s exuberant castle at San Simeon. This new book sets the record straight and proves that, for once, truth is better than fiction.

Here for the first time is the real story of Hearst Castle, and of the productive 28-year-relationship between hearst and his architect, Julia Morgan, who collaborated on the magnificent 165-room estate set on 250,000 breathtaking acres near the remote seaside hamlet of San Simeon, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Drawing on previously unpublished correspondence, and illustrated with never-before-seen historic photographs as well as more than 157 stunning color pictures, Victoria Kastner chronicles the evolution of this extraordinary hilltop, with its two spectacular pools and its astounding collections of fine art and antiques. Sprinkled throughout with stories of the famous parties hosted by Hearst and his companion, movie star Marion Davies, and their celebrated guests, this book brings to life America’s most glamorous country house.

Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, was more than just a country house, and many of its finest features were outside, not inside. In Hearst’s San Simeon: The Gardens and the Land, the castle’s official historian Victoria Kastner takes readers on a time-traveling tour of the estate, from the beginning of its construction to the present.

Featuring two spectacular swimming pools, 120 acres of luxuriant gardens, and 450 square miles of pristine coastal landscape, it’s no wonder that the estate was named “La Cuesta Encantada” (The Enchanted Hill). From the 1920s through the 1940s, publisher William Randolph Hearst and actress Marion Davies hosted the country’s elite here, encouraging them to enjoy the outdoors at “the ranch,” which Hearst created with the architect Julia Morgan. With stunning photographs, original drawings, and lively anecdotes, Hearst’s San Simeon: The Gardens and the Land tells the story of one of California’s most beautiful and unspoiled treasures.

Hearst Ranch offers readers an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the stunningly beautiful 82,000-acre cattle ranch surrounding William Randolph Hearst’s legendary Hearst Castle. Much of this spectacular landscape is still privately owned and has never been seen—but this book changes that. Through historical images from the vast Hearst archive and full-color photography commissioned for this volume, the Hearst Ranch and its many century-old ranch buildings and residences designed by Julia Morgan are revealed for the first time. Kastner’s engaging and insightful text shares new tales of the Hearst family, of the talented Morgan and her staff, of the many colorful ranch employees, and of the countless Hollywood movie stars who joined Hearst and Marion Davies as they went roughing it out on the ranch. Featuring stunning vistas of the California coastline and dramatic scenes of the Hearst cowboys in action, this book tells an unforgettable story and provides an in-depth look at a remarkable family and their love for one of the most beautiful places on Earth.