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Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life (Penguin Lives) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ada Louise Huxtable
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 157518
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0143114298
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN: 9780143114291
ASIN: 0143114298
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
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Product Description
Pulitzer Prizewinning critic Ada Louise Huxtables biography of Americas greatest architect
Renowned architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtables biography Frank Lloyd Wright looks at the architect and the man, from his tumultuous personal life to his long career as a master builder. Along the way she introduces Wrights masterpieces from the tranquil Fallingwater to Taliesin, rebuilt after tragedy and murdernot only exploring the mind of the man who drew the blueprints but also delving into the very heart of the medium, which he changed forever.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 The most content in the fewest words June 14, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Books about Mr. Wright, especially those that delve into his personal life, tend to grow like kudzu. Their authors start out intending to present a coherent, concise picture of the man, but they find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information, controversy, and innuendo that swirls about him even today. Too many authors abandon any pretense of order and just splash it all down on paper, leaving the reader to hack through the resulting jungle alone.
Ms. Huxtable's admirable book is the first Wright biography I've seen that resists the temptatation to make the reader do all the work. She tells more about Mr. Wright and about his important buildings in fewer words than any other author. Of course there are errors here and there--most of the principals are long dead, and who can reconstruct a conversation that took place eighty years ago with any accuracy? All Wright biographers, except the syncophants associated with the Taliesin Fellowship, disagree on various points. One must also remember that the Fellowship's mythmaking apparatus started up shortly after the Fellowship began, and went into overdrive after Mr. Wright's passing in 1959, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Having to see through this smothering blanket of hagiography makes Ms. Huxtable's accomplishment all the more remarkable.
Even those who think they know all about Frank Lloyd Wright may learn a thing or two from this book, and it would be hard to imagine a better introductory book for those who know they do not.
So Much that is Wright December 19, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There is so much that is right about this handy and elegant little biographical volume that anyone who wants to know about Frank Lloyd Wright would find themselves in good company with the brilliant Ms Huxtable.
She knows architecture (her skyscraper book is a classic) and her appreciation of Wright comes through. So does her awareness that the same genius that made such serene spaces also led a wildly tempestuous life.
Having read this book, the reader wanting more that is Wright would want to read Brendan Gill's "Many Masks" and Meryle Secrest's bio of the great architect, too.
Very interesting biography on Frank LLoyd Wright December 3, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Heather Carolyn Riehl holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Textile Design from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York and is currently seeking her Master's degree from Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania.
Frank Lloyd Wright, a biography by award winning architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable is a very insightful novel about a man who made such an impact on the art of architecture during his lifetime. Huxtable focuses both on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright both personally and professionally. Although it seems at times to steer more towards a personal biography, it is essential to understand Wright's background and beliefs to truly appreciate him as the artist that he was.
Huxtable takes us all the way through Wright's life, from birth to death. She briefly touches on the impact that Wright's architecture had following his death as well as some unfortunate family matters concerning the placement of his remains.
Frank Lloyd Wright is depicted in this biography as somewhat of a rebel. He lived by his own rules and detested establishment. It may be fair to say that Wright was somewhat of an egotist, but had he not possessed the confidence that he did, it may not have been possible for him to think outside of the box as often as he did. It was his ambition to create his own style that made him stand out from the rest, and no one was able to get in his way from doing so.
Huxtable explains how Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by Japanese art and the philosophies of Viollet-le-duc. Sculpture reproductions of the Winged Victory and Venus de Milo were often used in his interiors. Wright was a very intellectual, knowledgeable man although he had no formal training in architecture.
Being involved with several different women, marrying three of them in his lifetime, it would appear that women were very important in Wright's life. Conceiving six children in his first marriage and two in his third, one might see Wright as a veritable family man although this assumption could not be further from the truth. No matter what was happening in Wright's family life, his architecture always took precedence.
Huxtable examines several of Wright's architectural triumphs, including his many prairie homes which lead to a domestic revolution in the Midwest, Fallingwater which was built for the Kaufmann family in Pennsylvania, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and his two Taliesin estates, one of which endured a murder rampage and three tragic fires.
Frank Lloyd Wright comes across in this biography as a beatnik architect, if there ever was such a thing. Being educated on the subject of architecture, unexplained references to such people as Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Frank Gehry; I was able to understand the passages, where as a reader completely uneducated on the topic may be confused by some topics in this novel. Subsequently, I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in art or architecture as it is a very interesting look into the life of this magnificent architect.
Excellent intro to Frank Lloyd Wright November 2, 2005
A briskly written, concise biography of Frank Lloyd Wright that manages to be very even-handed about both his enormous talent and his nearly-as-enormous ego. It's not a thorough study of his life and work (I particularly thought it was skimpy on Wright's later projects; for that reason, I'd probably give it only 4.5 stars if Amazon allowed half-star rating increments), but it is an excellent, quick-read introduction to an incredible architect.
 A Genius, or A Con Man? May 30, 2005
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
This was written not as a biography but as a project for the Penguin Lives Series by Ms. Huxtable who previously had published THE UNREAL AMERICA: ARCHITECTURE AND ILLUSION. Being an architecture critic, you'd think she would have concentrated on his varied styles and master creations. But she dishes the dirt about his personal life and that of this parents.
He was born on June 8, 1867, in Wisconsin and named Frank Lincoln (after Abraham) Wright, later changed to Frank Lloyd Wright which was a maternal family name brought over to America from Wales in 1844. He has been dead since April, 1959, and the Archives have been opened for perusual by 'scholars' so that his real life is becoming known for scandals instead of innovation.
I was expecting a treatise about the complicated and varied buildings he designed. Chicago is full of them, (as is California) a whole neighborhood in Oak Park on the North Side. The week I stayed with my son when he was a student at the University of Chicago, we passed one near the campus and Jeff wanted me to go inside. I didn't see anything unusual about it, but was assured that the interior held a host of beauty, and unique corners, mantles, etc. He was never able to entice me to stop and go inside. After all, there is so much to see in the Windy City and one week left me craving for more.
Ms. Huxtable claims that his surface life was a creative act and manipulated facts -- no truth whatsoever. Instead of praising his talent and achievements with his architectural wonders, she dealt on his 'painful search for love (some of her "illusion"); he married more than once and suffered the destructive impulses, revenge, destruction and emotional ambivalence of his second wife. The man had no peace. Even with his trouble-filled personal life, he lived to be an old man.
Why bring a big name master builder down to ordinary terms in which she wants to prove that his whole life (as presented) was a lie. This writer believes in airing a celebrity's dirty linen. It was his second wife whose crazy antics ruined his finances and almost his professional life. In 1927, he had opened an office in Los Angeles and started designing his unconventional houses. He was not only an innovator, but a hands-on builder as he dictated every detail.
Russian immigrant Ayn Rand wrote THE FOUNTAINHEAD, which became a movie starring Gary Cooper, about an architect modeled on Frank Lloyd Wright. He appeared to be an architectural Don Quixote. Wesley Peters, who married Stalin's daughter, figured in on his 'afterlife' in Arizona at Taliesin West where Wright's third wife formed a commune after his death.
Others in this series include: ROBERT E. LEE by Roy Blount, Jr., CRAZY HORSE by Larry McMurtry, JOSEPH SMITH by Robert V. Remini, ELVIS PRESLEY by Bobbie Ann Mason, and ROSA PARKS by Douglas Brinkley.
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