Frank Lloyd Wright

over 70 colour illustrations

Meryle Secrest's Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography focuses on Wright's family history, personal adventures, and colorful friends and family. Secrest had unprecedented access to an archive of over one hundred thousand of Wright's letters, photographs, drawings, and books. She also interviewed surviving devotees, students, and relatives. The result is an explicit portrait of both the genius architect and the provocative con-man. Secrest seizes the themes most evocative of certain of our cultural myths, forging them into a coherent and emotionally plausible narrative.--New Republic An engaging narrative.--New York Times Book Review The real triumph of this biography . . . is the link it makes between Frank Lloyd Wright's personal life and his architecture.--The Economist Secrest's achievement is to etch Wright's character in sharp relief. . . . [She] presents Wright in his every guise.-Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune An extremely engaging profile.--The Philadelphia Inquirer A spellbinding portrait.--Library Journal The best [biography] so far, a huge and definitive accumulation of fact.--Time

Meryle Secrest's Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography focuses on Wright's family history, personal adventures, and colorful friends and family. Secrest had unprecedented access to an archive of over one hundred thousand of Wright's letters, photographs, drawings, and books. She also interviewed surviving devotees, students, and relatives. The result is an explicit portrait of both the genius architect and the provocative con-man. Secrest seizes the themes most evocative of certain of our cultural myths, forging them into a coherent and emotionally plausible narrative.--New Republic An engaging narrative.--New York Times Book Review The real triumph of this biography . . . is the link it makes between Frank Lloyd Wright's personal life and his architecture.--The Economist Secrest's achievement is to etch Wright's character in sharp relief. . . . [She] presents Wright in his every guise.-Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune An extremely engaging profile.--The Philadelphia Inquirer A spellbinding portrait.--Library Journal The best [biography] so far, a huge and definitive accumulation of fact.--Time

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is unquestionably America's most celebrated architect. Even today, almost forty years after his death, he continues to tower over the architectural landscape. In fact, his career was so long and his accomplishments so varied it can be difficult still to grasp the full range of Wright's achievement. In this refreshing new study, Wright scholar Kathryn Smith does just that, exploring the grace and beauty found in all facets of Wright's work: from office desks and chairs to his first residential commissions, from magazine cover designs to major public buildings. The concise text and brilliant color photographs chart Wright's entire career, beginning with his apprenticeship to Adler and Sullivan before the turn of the century. Readers witness the Prairie period, Wright's years in Japan and California, his major designs of the late 1920s and 1930s, his Usonian houses, and the monumental late works of his last decades. Smith shows examples of Wright's drawings, furniture, and decorative arts, too, supplementing our understanding of Wright's aesthetic. The book concludes with a glimpse at the architect's seldom-seen collection of Asian art, which once comprised tens of thousands of pieces - a source of much inspiration and edification for the architect and his students, and a key to understanding Wright's views on art and nature. Here is a broad portrait of the master builder who sought the title "greatest architect of all time." Although it may never be possible to fully assess Wright's legacy, Kathryn Smith's authoritative book is a fitting testament to his lasting genius.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is unquestionably America's most celebrated architect. Even today, almost forty years after his death, he continues to tower over the architectural landscape. In fact, his career was so long and his accomplishments so varied it can be difficult still to grasp the full range of Wright's achievement. In this refreshing new study, Wright scholar Kathryn Smith does just that, exploring the grace and beauty found in all facets of Wright's work: from office desks and chairs to his first residential commissions, from magazine cover designs to major public buildings. The concise text and brilliant color photographs chart Wright's entire career, beginning with his apprenticeship to Adler and Sullivan before the turn of the century. Readers witness the Prairie period, Wright's years in Japan and California, his major designs of the late 1920s and 1930s, his Usonian houses, and the monumental late works of his last decades. Smith shows examples of Wright's drawings, furniture, and decorative arts, too, supplementing our understanding of Wright's aesthetic. The book concludes with a glimpse at the architect's seldom-seen collection of Asian art, which once comprised tens of thousands of pieces - a source of much inspiration and edification for the architect and his students, and a key to understanding Wright's views on art and nature. Here is a broad portrait of the master builder who sought the title "greatest architect of all time." Although it may never be possible to fully assess Wright's legacy, Kathryn Smith's authoritative book is a fitting testament to his lasting genius.

A building by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is at once unmistakably individual, and evocative of an entire era. Notable for their exceptional understanding of an organic environment , as well as for their use of steel and glass to revolutionize the interface of indoor and outdoor , Wright’s designs helped announce the age of modernity , as much as they secured his own name in the annals of architectural genius. This meticulous compilation from TASCHEN’s previous three-volume monograph assembles the most important works from Wright’s extensive, paradigm-shifting oeuvre into one authoritative and accessibly priced overview of America's most famous architect . Based on unlimited access to the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in Taliesin, Arizona , the collection spans the length and breadth of Wright’s projects, both realized and unrealized, from his early Prairie Houses, through the Usonian concept home , epitomized by Fallingwater , the Tokyo years, his progressive “living architecture” buildings, right through to later schemes like the Guggenheim Museum , New York, and fantastic visions for a better tomorrow in the “living city.” Author Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer , who served as Wright’s apprentice during the 1950s, discusses recent research on Wright and gives his own insights on these game-changing buildings.

A building by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is at once unmistakably individual, and evocative of an entire era. Notable for their exceptional understanding of an organic environment , as well as for their use of steel and glass to revolutionize the interface of indoor and outdoor , Wright’s designs helped announce the age of modernity , as much as they secured his own name in the annals of architectural genius. This meticulous compilation from TASCHEN’s previous three-volume monograph assembles the most important works from Wright’s extensive, paradigm-shifting oeuvre into one authoritative and accessibly priced overview of America's most famous architect . Based on unlimited access to the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in Taliesin, Arizona , the collection spans the length and breadth of Wright’s projects, both realized and unrealized, from his early Prairie Houses, through the Usonian concept home , epitomized by Fallingwater , the Tokyo years, his progressive “living architecture” buildings, right through to later schemes like the Guggenheim Museum , New York, and fantastic visions for a better tomorrow in the “living city.” Author Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer , who served as Wright’s apprentice during the 1950s, discusses recent research on Wright and gives his own insights on these game-changing buildings.