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| Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders | 
 enlarge | Author: William R. Drennan
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 20335
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 232
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0299222144
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9780299222147
ASIN: 0299222144
Publication Date: August 21, 2008
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Product Description
The most pivotal and yet least understood event of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated life involves the brutal murders in 1914 of seven adults and children dear to the architect and the destruction by fire of Taliesin, his landmark residence, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Supplying both a gripping mystery story and a portrait of the artist in his prime, William Drennan wades through the myths surrounding Wright and the massacre, casting fresh light on the formulation of Wright’s architectural ideology and the cataclysmic effects that the Taliesin murders exerted on the fabled architect and on his subsequent designs.
Book Description
The most pivotal and yet least understood event of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated life involves the brutal murders in 1914 of seven adults and children dear to the architect and the destruction by fire of Taliesin, his landmark residence, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Unaccountably, the details of that shocking crime have been largely ignored by Wright’s legion of biographers?a historical and cultural gap that is finally addressed in William Drennan’s exhaustively researched Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders.
In response to the scandal generated by his open affair with the proto-feminist and free love advocate Mamah Borthwick Cheney, Wright had begun to build Taliesin as a refuge and "love cottage" for himself and his mistress (both married at the time to others).
Conceived as the apotheosis of Wright’s prairie house style, the original Taliesin would stand in all its isolated glory for only a few months before the bloody slayings that rocked the nation and reduced the structure itself to a smoking hull.
Supplying both a gripping mystery story and an authoritative portrait of the artist as a young man, Drennan wades through the myths surrounding Wright and the massacre, casting fresh light on the formulation of Wright’s architectural ideology and the cataclysmic effects that the Taliesin murders exerted on the fabled architect and on his subsequent designs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 For true Wrightophiles April 15, 2007
48 out of 53 found this review helpful
Here we have a book that is part biography, part architectural analysis and part true crime expose'. It can be said that it provides a reasonable overview of Wright's early 'first career', his flight to Europe with the wife of a client, the ensuing scandal and his need to construct a rural redoubt, Taliesin, as a shelter from society at large. Discussion of his publicly stated rational for these actions as well as speculation as to the real reasons is provided.
All of this is prologue to the crime that is at the heart of this book: the murder of Wright's 'soul mate' Mamah Borthwick Cheney, 6 others and the destruction by fire of Taliesin. The aftermath is also here. The capture and
ultimate fate of the murderer, the effect on Wright, the man, and his later architecture. Wright devotees will find the occassional nugget of new information, but much of this ground has been mined before by other biographers. Drennan's conclusion that Wright's architecture subsequently turned almost fortress like is easy to accept, psychologically a neat fit and upon closer examination wrong. The factors that caused Wright's abandoning of the Prairie style were in place before the tragedy and played out well after it.
What we are really to be interested in here, judging by the hatchet on the dust jacket, is the crime. A horrendous crime indeed, involving enough blood, gore and roasted flesh to do a Hollywood slasher movie proud. A detailed reconstruction of the murders is put forward, with various alternatives presented. The perpetrator's motive, thin as it was, is also discussed. Oddly, given that this is a book at least partially about architecture, no floor plan of the crime scene is provided. The extensive prose description of the killers movements would seem to have required the inclusion of one.
Most curiously, a careful study of the endnotes will reveal the apparent contradiction of a major portion of the crime reconstruction scenario put forward by the author. Seemingly other, late discovered evidence including a post fire photo of Taliesin has caused him to doubt his own theory. If so, why not rework your text? Why not include the photo?
In summation. If your primary interest in Wright is his architecture you may wish to pass this one up. If you wish to learn something of the 'trials & tribulations' the man had to survive in order to create the ground breaking architecture of his 'second career ', give it a look.
 No firm foundation for Taliesen or Frank Lloyd Wright April 14, 2007
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
This is a book sure to please both Frank Lloyd Wright scholars and those that enjoy reading true crime.
The first half of the book is a biography of Wright's life up until the murders at Taliesen. There are several mysteries explored here. Why did Wright's mother nearly suffocate him with her love and attention? Why did his father leave the family? Why did Wright, a champion of family values and a doting father, abruptly run off to Europe with the neighbor lady and nearly destroy his career in the process? Love and morality in Wright's life appeared to have about as firm a foundation as Taliesen, which had to be built three times.
The remainder of the book provides the details of the horrific murders at Taliesen and tries to uncover the motive of the murderer, Julian Carlton. Drennan shows us how the murders affected Wright both emotionally and professionally. In the epilogue he intrigues us with a description of how Wright's style dramatically changed after the murders and how it may have influenced architecture in America at large.
Drennan has an elegant, clear writing style, reminiscent of the best classic British detective fiction. The book does not disappoint and remains thought-provoking long after the turn of the last page.
DEATH HOUSE March 28, 2007
18 out of 23 found this review helpful
A well written and definitive work on one of the more celebrated crimes
involving a public figure in the last one hundred years. A complete lead-in to the actual incident. A good read -well worth the time.
Exposing Feet of Clay Through a Tragedy April 26, 2007
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
Those whose work we admire often are treated as though they can do no wrong. Frank Lloyd Wright certainly gets reverential treatment today, whether through retrospectives of his work, during tours of facilities he designed, or in long-term museum displays. Read what Wright had to say about himself and you also find that he was most impressed. Many of his apprentices were, too.
Professor Drennan does us the favor of helping us see the rest of what Wright was like . . . and it was often wrong.
A few years ago, my wife and I took a Wright vacation that enabled us to begin in the Chicago area and then move north into Wisconsin to see Taliesin and many of the works done by Wright in that state. In those brief few days, we could see that Wright had undergone some pretty amazing metamorphosis from the humble, practical elements of his Oak Park home and studio to the massive, unchurch-like but inexpensive, Unity Temple, to the magnificence of Robie House to the grandeur of grounds, view, and dominance of Taliesin. During the tours, a few words were mentioned about Wright taking off for Europe with the wife of one of his local clients . . . and a grisly murder ending the escapade. But as little was said as possible about these events.
When Death in a Prairie House came out, I couldn't wait to learn more. And Professor Drennan satisfied my curiosity about Wright's wandering off with a married woman, abandonment of his own family, and how it all ended in bloodshed and fire. Although Professor Drennan's specialty is English, he does a competent job of sifting through the evidence and correcting mischaracterizations that have grown up over the years.
That's the strength of the book. The book's main weakness is that it doesn't do enough to include Wright's work as an architect, especially after the Taliesin murders. You get this sense from the book of Wright as permanently closed off in his design work. But you could argue differently . . . that the seeds of the box-like designs were always present. Unity Temple has to be argument number one in favor of that view. The California boxes look a lot like Unity Temple. In addition, in those pre-air conditioning days, keeping sunlight out was a helpful way to keep interiors cool during the 100 degree plus days. At night, the air cools off in California and that cool air can be captured to keep the day pleasant if there aren't too many windows. Later, Wright designed the Usonian Style, a home meant to be built inexpensively by the owner. That, too, was boxlike, but mainly as a cost-saving measure. Taliesin West is just as grand in its own way as Taliesin was . . . even though Wright was broke when he built it. In the 30's, Wright developed a master plan for the whole United States in creating ideal communities. Also, Fallingwater and the Guggenheim were in Wright's future. Did the murders change him, or did they serve as a pause and change of focus into something he was always interested in? I suspect another scholar, who is involved in architecture, will have to answer those questions.
But it's clear from this book that Wright was such a narcissist that he allowed his ability to succeed as an architect to be harmed by his extended dalliance with free-love advocate, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. I thought that the final irony of the murders was that the fire destroyed the copies of Wright's designs that would have extended his influence decades sooner. Although Professor Drennan dismisses this point from the view of the murderer, there certainly is a moral in this story about the wages of sin that Wright and his lover paid.
Death in a Prairie House is well written, thorough in its exploration of the background to the murders and the events themselves, and a good story overall. I recommend you read it, particularly if you are a fan of Wright's architecture.
"Enquiring minds want to know" journalism May 14, 2007
16 out of 27 found this review helpful
Mixed view of this book. The author has dug deeply to unearth whatever facts are still out there about this tragedy. And, the story is compelling. However, I am bothered somewhat that recent books on Wright have focused soley on the sensational aspects of his life rather than the work which made him famous and which is still relevant today!
As for the content, I am not totally convinced by the timeline of events which he puts forth. However, he does convincingly demolish the long-standing, accepted version. That leaves some big questions which will probably never be answered. Finally, Bill (the author) has an irritating tendency to constantly refer to Frank Loyd Wright as "Frank". Bill needed a more competent editor.
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