Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The First Golden Age

The story—personal and professional—of one of the greatest architects who ever lived is here told by the man whom Frank Lloyd Wright once introduced as "Grant Manson, who knows more about me than I do." This volume takes the reader up to 1910, a turning point in Wright’s life as an architect and as an individual. Wright’s accomplishment by 1910 was considerable; he had already enjoyed what to many people would have been a full career. Most outstanding perhaps was his conception and evolution of the Prairie House, an expression of organic architecture that was the result of many factors: Wright’s resourceful Welsh forebears, his Midwest background, his experience with Lyman Silsbee and Louis Sullivan, his interest in Japanese art, and especially his native genius. During the same period Wright also set many precedents for nonresidential architecture, including Unity Church and the Larkin Building. These buildings—residential and nonresidential—plus the unexecuted projects shown add up to a new understanding of Wright’s mentality. Grant Carpenter Manson first met Mr. Wright in 1939 while preparing his Harvard doctoral thesis, but his influence reaches back to Mr. Manson’s childhood. He fell in love with the Husser House at the age of six and has been faithful ever since.

THE FORMATION OF HIS ARCHITECTURE. Inheritance and Environment. Apprenticeship. The Studio, Oak Park. THE FIRST GOLDEN AGE. The Prairie House Unveiled. The Buffalo Venture. Unity Church. Variations on a Theme. The Heyday of the Prairie House. Some Office Tragedies. FLIGHT. The End of an Era. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. Illustration Credits.