After marrying an American in 1964, she began writing for The Washington Post,[1] doing profile interviews of notable personalities from Leonard Bernstein to Anaïs Nin.
Since then she has written a number of biographies; her subjects have included Frank Lloyd Wright, Lord Duveen, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Salvador Dalí, Kenneth Clark, Bernard Berenson, Romaine Brooks, Richard Rodgers, and Amedeo Modigliani.
She lives in Washington, D.C.[3] Secrest's Being Bernard Berenson was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1980[4] and for the American Book Awards in 1981.
In 1999, she received the George Freedley Memorial Award of the American Library Association for her outstanding contribution to the literature of the theatre.
In 2006, she received the Presidential National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush at the White House for illuminating the lives of great architects, artists and scholars of the 20th century.