Born into a wealthy New York family, Peggy - whose Uncle Solomon would establish the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation - participated in the cultural ferment of life in London and Paris during the 192Os and 193Os. Her friends included many of the most significant avant-garde figures of the era, such as Samuel Beckett and Marcel Duchamp. In London, she ran Guggenheim Jeune, her cutting-edge gallery devoted to contemporary art.

During the months surrounding the outbreak of World War II, Peggy accelerated her purchases of abstract and Surrealist art until she was buying virtually one work every day, eventually amassing one of the most important collections of Modern art in private hands.

After escaping to New York in the company of Max Ernst, she established the gallery Art of This Century, which from 1942 to 1947 featured her collection as well as the first or early solo exhibitions for such artists as Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.

In 1948, Peggy settled permanently in Venice, where her home, the eighteenth-century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, would become the Peggy Guggenheim Collection after her death in 1979. The collection is now one of the most celebrated for visitors to Venice. Vail's essay provides important new information on the Venice years, during which Peggy kept guest books that record the visits of an astonishing array of international personalities.

Pages from these guest books - published here for the first time - include unique drawings by such artists as Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, and Saul Weinberg.