Frank LLoyd Wright: A Biography.Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. (March 30,1890, Oak Park, Illinois – May 31, 1978, Santa Monica, California), commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American architect who did most of his work in Southern California. : A Biography, by Meryle Secrest Meryle Secrest (born 1930) is an award-winning American biographer, primarily of American artists and art collectors. Biography Secrest was born in 1930 and educated in Bath, England. Her father was a tool and die maker, her mother a factory worker. (Knopf, 634 pp., $30) CONTRARY TO popular belief, Howard Roark wasn't really Frank Lloyd Wright, even though Ayn Rand idolized i·dol·ize tr.v. i·dol·ized, i·dol·iz·ing, i·dol·iz·es 1. To regard with blind admiration or devotion. See Synonyms at revere1. 2. To worship as an idol. Wright and once tried to get him to build her a house. In fact, America's greatest architect had more in common with a very different artist: Richard Wagner. Like Wagner, Wright was an arrogant womanizer wom·an·ize v. woman·ized, woman·iz·ing, woman·iz·es v.intr. To pursue women lecherously. v.tr. To give female characteristics to; feminize. who thought the world owed him a living. Both men freely disregarded the practical in their attempts to touch the infinite. (One client called to complain that the flat roof of his Wright-designed house was leaking onto his desk. "Richard," Wright replied, "why don't you move your desk?") Both were geniuses, also. Meryle Secrest leaves no doubt of that in her immensely readable new biography. It would have taken a James or a Balzac to create a fictional egotist as monstrous as Wright, who habitually talked like this: "All the sheer wisdom of science, the cunning of politics, and the prayers of religion can but stand and wait for the revelation; awaiting the artist's conventionalization con·ven·tion·al·ize tr.v. con·ven·tion·al·ized, con·ven·tion·al·iz·ing, con·ven·tion·al·iz·es To make conventional. con·ven of life principle that shall make our social living beautiful, organically true." More than most biographies, this one reminds the reader that geniuses are as a rule are best appreciated at a distance. |
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