Barbara Chase-Riboud

Barbara Chase-Riboud
Born (1939-06-26) June 26, 1939 (age 85)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation
  • Visual artist
  • sculptor
  • novelist
  • poet
EducationPhiladelphia High School for Girls
Philadelphia Museum School of Art (BFA)
American Academy in Rome
Yale University (MFA)
Notable awardsJanet Heidinger Kafka Prize (1979)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1961, divorced)​

Sergio Tosi
​
(m. 1981)​
Children2
ParentsCharles Edward Chase
Vivian May Chase

Barbara Chase-Riboud (born June 26, 1939) is an American visual artist and sculptor, novelist, and poet.

After becoming established as a sculptor and poet, Chase-Riboud gained widespread recognition as an author for her novel Sally Hemings (1979). It earned the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in Fiction, and became an international success.

Chase-Riboud's novel about Sally Hemings generated discussion about the likely relationship between the young enslaved woman and her master, Thomas Jefferson, who became president of the United States.[1] Mainline historians rejected Chase-Riboud's portrayal and persuaded CBS not to produce a planned TV mini-series adapted from the novel. Following DNA analysis of descendants in 1998, the Jefferson-Hemings relationship is widely accepted by historians as fact, including those who had objected before.

  1. ^ Chase-Riboud, Barbara; Basualdo, Carlos; Rub, Timothy; DuBois Shaw, Gwendolyn; Handler Spitz, Ellen (2013). Barbara Chase-Riboud: The Malcolm X Series. New Haven, CT: The Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press. pp. 109–118. ISBN 978-0-87633-246-7.