LongHouse Talks: Michèle Gerber Klein (June 29)

Author talk and book signing on Sunday, June 29 at 4:30pm.

Michèle’s second book, Surreal, the long-awaited, definitive biography of Gala Dalí unmasks this famous yet little-known queen of the twentieth-century art world, who graced the canvases, inspired the poetry, and influenced the careers of her illustrious lovers and husbands with courage, agency and tenderness.

Using previously undiscovered material, Surreal tells the riveting story of Gala Dalí, (1894-1982) who broke away from her cultured but penurious background in pre-Revolutionary Russia to live in Paris with both France’s most famous poet Paul Éluard and Max Ernst. By the time she met the budding artist Salvador Dali in 1929, Gala was known as the Mother of Surrealism. She rapidly became his mentor and protector, marrying him in 1934 and subsequently engineering their vast fortune.

At a time when artists were celebrities, Gala was an ambassador of the Surrealist movement, spreading its popularity across the globe. She was the survivor of two world wars, the Russian revolution and the Spanish Civil War, and lived between France, Spain and the U.S. Gala was a heroine whose originality captivated people wherever she went, and her life story has everything: size; glamour; drama; true love, twisted love; ambition; money; art; defiance; daring and sweeping social unrest.

In this vivid, detailed rendering, Michèle Gerber Klein reveals Gala as a charismatic figure who played a pivotal role in cultural history but has not received the recognition she deserves.

About the Author
Michèle Gerber Klein is an author and philanthropist. Her first biography, Charles James: Portrait of an Unreasonable Man, was published by Rizzoli ex Libris in 2018. The Financial Times called it “uproarious,” and named it a Best Book of the year.

Her latest work, Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dalí, published by Harper Collins in April 2025, tells the riveting life story of Gala Dalí, Salvador Dalí’s wife, partner, and muse. A charismatic, uninhibited woman, she drove pre-war Paris’ legendary Surrealist movement where she bore the mantle of ‘the mother of Surrealism.’ As Dalí’s great love, artistic collaborator, and the genius behind his vast fortune, Gala influenced the cultural history of the twentieth century.

Gerber Klein has served as the Vice President of the Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation since 1997. In 2011, she received the Mann Foundation’s Woman of the Year award for her work in fashion and philanthropy. She is the Honorary Chair of the Whitney Museum's Studio Forum and a member of the museum’s Photography Acquisitions Committee. In addition, she sits on the Architecture and Design, and Film and Photography Acquisitions Committees at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. She also serves on the board of l'Alliance NYC and is a contributor to The Brooklyn Rail.

Gerber Klein was born in New Mexico and raised in New York City where she attended the Lycée Français and graduated from The Brearley School. After Bryn Mawr College, where she earned a B.A. degree in English literature, she founded joan vass U.S.A., a knit wear collection, with Joan Vass, the designer and Coty Award recipient. She lives and works in Manhattan.