Many Masks: A Life Of Frank Lloyd Wright

Many Masks: A Life Of Frank Lloyd Wright
by Brendan Gill

Many Masks: A Life Of Frank Lloyd Wright
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $13.48
You Save: $11.52 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.96 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Brendan Gill
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-08-22
ISBN: 0306808722
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Da Capo Press

Book Reviews of Many Masks: A Life Of Frank Lloyd Wright

Book Review: Colorful, Chatty and Informative...
Summary: 5 Stars

Brendan Gill's writing is always sophisticated and utterly charming. Nowhere is that more evident than in this treasure of a biography of the man who - not without good reason - styled himself as America's greatest architect.

It is an unquestionable fact that Wright was a genius in the aesthetic realm; it is also unquestionable that he was a bit of a mountebank in all realms; even so, one cannot help but enjoy the outrageous, larger-than-life swath he cut across the better part of the 20th Century in his Cherokee red luxury cars, pork-pie hat and theatrical cape. If he hadn't been such a good architect, all of this would have been considered laughable, but anyone who has stood in his sublime interiors knows that the man knew his craft thoroughly.

Gill conveys all of this and more. His narrative is like a good long conversation by the fire with someone who not only knew the man but also had an appreciation of him that did not miss the quirks and foibles. Asides, such as the pulling of all the teeth, make this book a constant surprise. Wright, of course, had more than one mid-life crisis, and the various loves of his life brought every conceivable high and low. No wonder Mr. Wright's saga has been turned into a grand opera! But Brendan Gill makes it more like the family stories of an eccentric uncle.

It should be noted that Gill is one of the Wright biographers who mistakenly limit the contributions of Isabel Roberts, who was a draughtsman/architect in her own right. He calls Isabel Roberts "the office manager of the Oak Park studio". He cannot be faulted too much, having swallowed the red herring presented by Frank Lloyd Wright himself when writing about the Oak Park "...studio adjoining my home, where the work I had then to do enabled me to take in several draughtsmen and a faithful secretary, Isabel Roberts..." In future, Wright biographers would be wise to consult research done by John A. Dalles presented in his article, "The Pathbreaking Legacy of Ryan and Roberts", in "Reflections", the journal of the Historical Society of Central Florida, Summer 2009; pages 8 and 9.

This is my favorite biography of Wright but it sits right next to Meryle Secrest's -- one really needs both of them to have enough perspective on the man and his accomplishments.

After all the anecdotes have been recounted, there are still some stories left to be told, by Wright clients who remember and students who are now getting on in years. One hopes that they, too, will put to paper their reminiscences, before it is too late.

Summary of Many Masks: A Life Of Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867?1959) is often described as the greatest of American architects. His works?among them Taliesin North, Taliesin West, Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax buildings, the Guggenheim Museum?earned him a good measure of his fame, but his flamboyant personal life earned him the rest. Here Brendan Gill, a personal friend of Wright and his family, gives us not only the fullest, fairest, and most entertaining account of Wright to date, but also strips away the many masks the architect tirelessly constructed to fascinate his admirers and mislead his detractors. Enriched by hitherto unpublished letters and 300 photographs and drawings, this definitive biography makes Wright, in all his creativity, crankiness, and zest, fairly leap from its pages.

Schools, Periods & Styles Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Schools, Periods & Styles Books
Avant-Garde and After: Rethinking Art Now ImageAvant-Garde and After: Rethinking Art Now
by Brandon Taylor
Prentice Hall; Published: 1995-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.80
Nineteenth Century European Art, 2nd Edition ImageNineteenth Century European Art, 2nd Edition
by Petra ten-Doesschate Chu
Prentice Hall Art; Published: 2006-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $90.00
Price in other shops: $110.00
History of Modern Design ImageHistory of Modern Design
by DAVID RAIZMAN
Prentice Hall Art; Published: 2003-12-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $99.98
Price in other shops: $125.00
Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being ImageArt Since 1940: Strategies of Being
by Jonathan Fineberg
Prentice Hall; Published: 1994-11-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $173.02
Sketches by John Constable in the Victoria and Albert Museum ImageSketches by John Constable in the Victoria and Albert Museum
by C. M. Kauffmann
Stationery Office Books; Published: 1981-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $55.35
Renaissance ImageRenaissance
by Stefano Zuffi
Harper Collins; Published: 2003-10-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $268.93
Between Law and Custom: 'High' and 'Low' Legal Cultures in the Lands of the British Diaspora - The United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, 1600-1900 ImageBetween Law and Custom: 'High' and 'Low' Legal Cultures in the Lands of the British Diaspora - The United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, 1600-1900
by Peter Karsten
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2002-03-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $151.90
Price in other shops: $158.00
Sargent's Venice ImageSargent's Venice
by Richard Ormond, Warren Adelson
Yale University Press; Published: 2006-12-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $383.98
Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism ImageFarewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism
by Timothy J. Clark
Yale University Press; Published: 1999-03-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $35.10
Price in other shops: $70.00
Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art ImageBasquiat: A Quick Killing in Art
by Phoebe Hoban
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops: $15.95
Similar Books and other products
Loving Frank: A Novel ImageLoving Frank: A Novel
by Nancy Horan
Ballantine Books; Published: 2008-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.38
Price in other shops: $15.00
Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life (Penguin Lives) ImageFrank Lloyd Wright: A Life (Penguin Lives)
by Ada Louise Huxtable
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.66
Price in other shops: $14.00
Fellowship, The: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship ImageFellowship, The: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship
by Roger Friedland, Harold Zellman
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.93
Price in other shops: $18.95
The Women: A Novel ImageThe Women: A Novel
by T.C. Boyle
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2009-12-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops: $16.00
My Father, Frank Lloyd Wright (Dover Architecture) ImageMy Father, Frank Lloyd Wright (Dover Architecture)
by John Lloyd Wright
Dover Publications; Published: 1992-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.15
Price in other shops: $9.95
Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders ImageDeath in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders
by William R. Drennan
University of Wisconsin Press; Published: 2008-08-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.15
Price in other shops: $16.95
Frank Lloyd Wright ImageFrank Lloyd Wright
Paramount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $12.20
Price in other shops: $24.99
Fellowship, The: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship ImageFellowship, The: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship
by Roger Friedland, Harold Zellman
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.58
Price in other shops: $18.95
Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography ImageFrank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography
by Frank Lloyd Wright
Pomegranate Communications; Published: 2005-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.42
Price in other shops: $24.95
Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography ImageFrank Lloyd Wright: A Biography
by Meryle Secrest
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1998-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.97
Price in other shops: $23.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories