If you arrive in New York with a suitcase and a dream, where do you stay? For ambitious, mid-20th century women, the most coveted address was 140 East 63rd Street, the Barbizon Hotel. Famously home to such luminaries as Joan Didion, Grace Kelly and Sylvia Plath, the Barbizon served as a launch-pad for some of the 20th century’s most dazzling careers, and offered women dedicated space to build lives in New York. Check in and check out the history of the Barbizon during this virtual book talk with historian Paulina Bren, author of The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free. Bren will take us inside the Barbizon, and explore the hotel’s place in 20th century cultural history, when “Barbizon” was a byword for beauty and ambition, and the hotel stood at a crossroads between newfound freedom for women, and the stifling strictures of tradition.