Indeed, "A World of Our Own" is a wonderful book and I definitely recommend it!
Please don't forget to include portrait painter Elizabeth Vigee-LeBrun (1755-1842). She personally knew the crowned heads of Europe and Russia. After her escape from the French Revolution, Vigee-LeBrun survived by her wit and her skill with a paintbrush. Her memoirs are a very good read, even a non-painter would enjoy them.
