Born in Washington, D.C., into the influential Whitney family, heiress Dorothy Elmhirst was a national bells rang, flags flew and the American Navy’s new fast tugboat was named Dorothy . Orphaned at 17, she started giving away her inheritance at 18 and buried herself in social and political work. In 1925 she married Leonard Elmhirst, an Englishman who shared her liberal beliefs; they moved to England to start what would become Dartington Hall—a progressive school that transformed into a magnet for artists, architects, writers, philosophers and musicians. It was there that the Labor Party’s post-war manifesto was written and the Arts Council was conceived. This vividly told biography follows Dorothy from one side of the Atlantic to the other. It also traces the evolution of Dartington, from its restoration to its time as a home for the period’s greatest artists and intellectuals.