In this biography of Ann Weaver Norton, Caroline Seebohm brings forward a singular life lived during a time of great cultural and artistic change and creates an appealing window into Southern mores, gender equity and abstract expressionism.

In 1929, the Museum of Modern Art opened its doors, showing the astonishing paintings of Picasso, Matisse, and other avant garde artists. Young American artists quickly responded by experimenting with impressionism, cubism, and abstraction. In Monumental Dreams, author Caroline Seebohm tells the riveting story of how Ann Norton (1905-1982) a child of the South who had eschewed her Alabama roots to become a sculptor in New York City joined this new guard.