Product Description

Wright's family history, personal adventures, and colorful friends are explored in this evocative biography. Secrest had unprecedented access to an extensive archive of Wright's letters, photographs, drawings and books. "Secrest's achievement is to etch Wright's character in sharp relief. . . . (She) presents Wright in his every guise".--Blair Kamin, "Chicago Tribune". 121 photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125856 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 652 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780226744148
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
In this superb, subtle, demythologizing biography of Wright (1869-1959), we meet a shrewd yet gullible architect who fostered a view of himself as a misunderstood, embattled genius, a narcissist who unconsciously courted catastrophe while blaming the vengeful hand of fate as he overcame accidents, bankruptcy, lawsuits and hounding by his morphine-addicted second wife. Drawing on a trove of letters, Secrest ( Salvador Dali ) traces Wright's "secret conviction of worthlessness" to the contradictory influences of his freethinking, erratic Welsh mother and his jealous, spendthrift father, a New England minister. She discusses the dynamics of the architect's three marriages, recounts his clashes with Louis Sullivan and Lewis Mumford, and digs beneath his "quasi-mystical Celtic beliefs" to pinpoint the multiple influences on his fervent quest for an organic architecture. A definitive portrait of a mercurial titan. Photos. BOMC and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Wright remains for many historians America's preeminent architect; although he died over 30 years ago, the force of his personality and the strength of his reputation endure untarnished. Several excellent biographies on Wright have appeared since his death, most notably Robert C. Twombly's Frank Lloyd Wright ( LJ 2/15/73) and Brendan Gill's Many Masks ( LJ 11/15/87). Secrest's book joins this select company and more than manages to hold its own: It is a spellbinding portrait of this complex, often contradictory architect. Drawing on the massive archives of the Wright Memorial Foundation, Secrest writes with authority and compassion about Wright's long and turbulent career. Her exhaustive scholarship provides fresh insights into Wright's personality, making this biography essential reading for anyone with an interest in American architecture. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/92; see also the review of Frank Lloyd Wright's Collected Writings , Vol. 1, p. 175.--Ed.
- H. Ward Jandl, National Park Svce., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Engrossing story of the Balzac-scaled life of the great architect. Wright (1867-1959) was born in Wisconsin to a Welsh family of radical thinkers and was nurtured to be an architect by his mother, who told him he was destined for greatness. He dropped out of the Univ. of Wisconsin after two semesters to take a draftsman's job at $8.00 a week, and soon was working for the master architect Louis Sullivan (inventor of the skyscraper). Within a year, Wright had become chief designer at Adler and Sullivan and also had married the first of his three wives. In the next 30 years, he was to abandon his wife and six children (and his phenomenally successful practice), calling marriage a ``barnyard institution. I am a wild bird''; marry a morphine- addicted heiress and follower of Mary Baker Eddy who was killed by an axe-stroke to the brain by an insane servant; marry a Serbian beauty 30 years his junior who was an instructor for G.I. Gurdjieff; build his beloved house Taliesen (East) three times-- it twice burned to the ground; time and again ingeniously raise prodigious sums of money and spend them in profligate excess; revive his career with the building of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo--the only major structure to remain undamaged in the largest earthquake of the century in 1923 in Japan; and go on to greater triumphs, culminating with the Guggenheim Museum in 1956. Secrest (Salvador Dali, 1986, etc.), who had access to the newly opened archives at Wright's Memorial Foundation, does a superb job in telling the human side of Wright's story. And without allowing it to overmaster her narrative, she provides clear architectural background to explicate Wright's designs, stature, and influence. Definitive. (Photographs--121--some seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Prairie interests
This is an excellent book by Meryle Secrest on Frank Lloyd Wright. It traces the career of America's foremost builder from his days in Chicago as a resident in fashionable Oak Park to his final days on the Arizona desert. Ms. Secrest does not specialize in architecture, but this appears to be an asset. While there are plenty of books that can go on (and on and on) about building techniques, this is intended for the lay person who is interested in Frank Lloyd Wright in general terms. This book provides an excellent introduction to both the man and his work.

Wright the Man is Chronicled Here
Wright the man is chronicled here, in one of the two best biographies of the architectural superstar. One would also want to read Brendan Gill's "Many Masks" as a companion to Ms Secrest's treatment of F Ll W - just to get the harmonizing flavors of opinion.

Ms Secrest does magnificent research and shares it in a narrative that flows easily and keeps one's attention. Her information about Wright's family tree, as well as the family background of his wives and Mrs. Cheney, is more thoroughly presented than I have seen elsewhere.

One must not expect a thorough critique of Wright's buildings here -- there are too many works to be considered and there are many other resources, old and new, for such explorations. "In the Nature of Materials" leaps to mind. However, this book does flesh out the man and in some ways dispels some of the outlandish tales and outright fabrications about his life, toward which Wright was oft inclined.

It should be noted that Secrest is one of the Wright biographers who mistakenly limit the contributions of Isabel Roberts, who was a draughtsman/architect in her own right. She defines Roberts' roll simply as: "Isabel Roberts, secretary ". She cannot be faulted too much, having swallowed the red herring presented by Frank Lloyd Wright himself when writing about the Oak Park "...studio adjoining my home, where the work I had then to do enabled me to take in several draughtsmen and a faithful secretary, Isabel Roberts..." In future, Wright biographers would be wise to consult research done by John A. Dalles presented in his article, "The Pathbreaking Legacy of Ryan and Roberts", in "Reflections", the journal of the Historical Society of Central Florida, Summer 2009; pages 8 and 9.

You may wish to read Wright's disingenuous "An Autobiography" (1943) as well as some of the family books - "The Valley of the God-Almighty Joneses: Reminiscences of Frank Lloyd Wright's Sister, by Maginel Wright Barney, 1986, and his son, John Lloyd Wright's "My Father Who Is On Earth", G P Putnam Sons, NY, 1946. But consider this a mostly reliable guide to Mr. Wright's long and theatrical life.

Outstanding biography of the world's greatest architect
Beautifully researched, well-crafted, highly readable biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. Ms. Secrest understands her subject and his work and presents both to us with clarity and empathy. Many photographs add to the enjoyment of the reader. Unconditionally recommended.