FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: Amrrica's Greatest Architect

Frank Lloyd Wright had as spectacular and distinctive a flair for living as for designing buildings. He was almost ninety when he died but right up to the end he was able to produce daring, far-sighted plans; and for the greater part of his life his eccentric personality and unorthodox private life was a popular source of flashy newspaper copy. Wright as an architect and Wright as a man are discussed interchangeably here with no skimping of detail on either score. The author is a Wisconsin journalist who came into close contact with Wright when he commissioned the architect to build him a residence on a limited budget, a house which later became a widely copied model for functional, attractive, low-cost housing; he became a friend of Wright's and has written numerous articles about him. His judgments of Wright and of his work are almost entirely favorable, nevertheless the adverse criticism of his work has been noted, and there is frank recognition of his many wives and affairs. Aside from a tendency to use journalistic cliches, the book is always good reading. The fact that it spans Wright's entire life will make it more generally useful than Forsee's Frank Lloyd Wright: Rebel in Concrete.