Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright

by Paul Hendrickson

Frank Lloyd Wright has long been known as a rank egotist who held in contempt almost everything aside from his own genius. Harder to detect, but no less real, is a Wright who fully understood, and suffered from, the choices he made.

This is the Wright whom Paul Hendrickson reveals in this masterful the Wright who was haunted by his father, about whom he told the greatest lie of his life. And this, we see, is the Wright of many other neglected aspects of his his close, and perhaps romantic, relationship with friend and early mentor Cecil Corwin; the eerie, unmistakable role of fires in his life; the connection between the 1921 Black Wall Street massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the murder of his mistress, her two children, and four others at his beloved Wisconsin home.

In showing us Wright’s facades along with their cracks, Hendrickson helps us form a fresh, deep, and more human understanding of the man. With prodigious research, unique vision, and his ability to make sense of a life in ways at once unexpected, poetic, and undeniably brilliant, he has given us the defining book on Wright.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Architecture, History, Biography Memoir, Art, Audiobook

624 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[David Eppenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I studied architecture in college. Architecture in my time was a five year cirriculum with the fifth year devoted to a thesis. My thesis was on architectural history, an option that hadn't been selected by any other student in the preceding 20 years so I was told. So I guess it's fair to say that I am not only familiar with Wright but also all the other architects of historical merit ancient to modern. I also live minutes away from Oak Park, Illinois, the site of many of Wright's early work including his home and the incomparable Unity Temple and have toured many of his houses locally as well as in other states. So when it was announced that the author of this book would be appearing at the Oak Park Public Library promoting and signing his book I was on the computer making my reservation and purchasing my copy of the book. The promotional event was highly entertaining as the author is a very engaging speaker and his talk had me eager to read his book as it sounded fascinating and different from anything I had ever read before about Wright.

Initially let me say that this book is not an architectural history though it would be impossible to write about Wright without dealing with his buildings and his art. The author is not an architect but a journalist and he does discuss Wright's work but not to the extent one might expect as the author is more interested in the man than in his buildings. While the author is more focused on Wright I hesitate to call this book a biography even though it is biographical. So what is it? I would call it a filter. Through this book the author runs down all of the myths and misrememberances, all the lies and legends that have been written about, repeated, and promoted about Frank Lloyd Wright. When the reader finishes the reading the lies and legends have been washed away and the myths and misrememberances have had their edges more sharply defined and the their color restored. What you will have is a clearer image of a man that was uniquely talented, impossibly vain, alternately fortunate and unfortunate, and tragically flawed and troubled. I have either read or am familiar with most if not all the books about Wright cited by this author in his research. After reading this book I can say the author has produced a treatment about Wright the likes of which I have never come across before. If you are interested in Frank Lloyd Wright then this is a must read book.

As a journalist Mr. Hendrickson's approach in this book reads almost like a newspaper expose or the reports of a private investigator at times. The author doesn't simply tell us about Wright he tracks down as many people as he can that had anything to do with Wright at any time in his life. From time to time it did seem to me that wild goose chases were being conducted but then pay dirt was discovered and the pursuit justified. The investigations reveal a great deal about Wright's family of origin as well as the family he fathered. His childhood and his siblings of full and half blood are detailed and Wright's relationship or lack of relationship with his extensive family is fully explored. One thing that I was uncomfortable with was the amount of psychological speculation the author indulges in regarding motivation and behaviors of various people the author discovers and how these people may have influenced Wright. The author admits freely the lack of evidence for much of his speculation so I was then bothered by the inclusion of this material. Nevertheless, the material discovered is fascinating and does more clearly define the man Wright became. Of course the author also concludes that what has been learned also adds to the mystery of Frank Lloyd Wright and it is this unanswerable quality of Frank Lloyd Wright that insures his place in history. I can't say I am a fan of Wright's work but I do appreciate and understand the beauty and merit of it. After reading this book I think my regard for the man is now on about the same level as my regard for his architecture.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title points to a book about how fires haunted FLW; but author’s search for the person (not the icon) shows relationships that could have provoked “dreams and furies”.

Most of the book is about the people in Wright's life. The longest profiles are for those who are vague, mis-represented or absent in the author’s autobiography and public statements. Some of the people covered suggest uncomfortable truths.

Wright’s family life was probably his first tragedy. Paul Hendrickson finds holes in Wright's implication that his father deserted the family. Court records show his father a victim and family accounts have his mother as unreasonable and violent. Wright's stepsister's memoir is specific about a very troubled family life. The marriage and divorce of William and Anna Wright destroyed his father… not the other way around.

A significant person absent, but for his act, from Wright literature is Julian Carlton, the man who set the fire that destroyed Taliesin and wielded the ax and gasoline that killed 7. Hendrickson explores him and it is not a cursory look. To draw his portrait he visits Carlton’s home town, searches for anyone who was related to him or knew about him. He checks census and court records. He visits Carlton’s Chicago address, his Wisconsin jail cell and checks on his previous employment places.

Cecil Corwin and Richard Lloyd Jones have lengthy treatments. Corwin was an early associate who introduced Wright to fine arts, fashion and dining in Chicago. Hendrickson leaves it to the reader to interpret this professional and personal relationship. Richard Lloyd Jones, a first cousin, was once a protégé of Wisconsin’s progressive senator and governor Robert LaFollette. Jones later betrayed his progressive family heritage and fanned the fires that led to the Tulsa’s attacks on its black citizens.

Hendrickson imagines how Wright might have felt upon leaving his family to be with Mamah Cheney; being told of the fire and murders at his home; being with Louis Sullivan in his last days, hearing news of his old friend Cecil Corwin; visiting his father’s grave site and more.

While Wright’s tremendous output in his final years (approaching and entering age 90) ends the book, the narrative essentially ends when he meets third wife Olgivanna and begins The Fellowship.

While considerable research in this book answers questions about Wright it also poses more.

Here are a few observations:

- The portraits of Wright’s mother Anna and his second wife Miriam are unmistakably similar.
- Wright was highly favored by his mother whose bitterness may have influenced him regarding his father until he had more life experience.
- How many pianos were there at Taliesin? (one cousin asks… and I do too). FLW's father's primary interest was music. He taught, performed and wrote sheet music in addition to his ministerial career..
- Wright’s violence: two physical assaults (a co-worker in Chicago and a husband demanding his wife’s long overdue wages); and material on his stormy second marriage strongly suggests Wright can be violent.
- Hendrickson notes the tragedies that occurred in FLW designed houses. Would statistics reveal an unusually high percentage? If so, is there something risky or suicidal in the nature of those who engaged him to design their home?
- You can lose count of the number of “Wright scholars” Hendrickson consults. Are there 100’s of them?
- Robert Moses was a relative of FLW. (Hendrickson does not say how). Actress Ann Baxter is a granddaughter. Other descendants have had distinguished, although not famous, careers.
- A book with Hendrickson's style of research would make a worthwhile contribution on the Fellowship's apprentices.

The book needs to be read with online and print resources to see the buildings. The few B&W in the book are not enough. The index works. The author jumps around on the timeline… but warns you what will come.

This is a must read for those who already know the FLW story; others will need more background. The author’s style holds you until the end which seems rushed.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but the writing style--author inserting himself into the book at every opportunity--is annoying and very distracting.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having grown up in Oak Park next to a Frank Lloyd Wright home, and being totally immersed in Wright architecture, I wanted to love this book a bit more than I did. I felt Hendrickson tried a bit too hard to prove some things that were just theories/concoctions. He dug very deep (with quite impressive research) on things that in my mind, could have been skipped ( Tulsa race riots as one example). That being said, I was enthralled through this 500 page book- both with the writing style, and with his knowledge of Wright and his era. There were many facts/stories that I had not known previously. A worthwhile read for anyone interested in Wright.

[Robert Holmes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much of the material in this book was interesting, but the presentation was confusing. The timeline was mixed up with repeated hints of material to be discussed in detail in a later part of the book. There was a confusing mix of documented fact and speculation.

My major criticism is that it is far too long. FLW led a long life, but the book could have had less detail or covered a briefer period. For example the section on his cousins role in Oklahoma race riots was irrelevant. The continuing undocumented hints of homosexuality were distracting.

The final chapter called Sources basically told about how the book was written was particularly annoying.

[John Findlay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can understand why many reviewers gave this book a lower rating than I did. At times, as I read it, I was thinking of a lower score. The author keeps jumping around as he describes Frank Lloyd Wright's amazing life, and sometimes seems to go off on tangents that aren't essential to the narrative. One example would be the section on Wright's racist cousin who was responsible for the Tulsa Race Riot (more accurately the Tulsa Race Massacre). But, all in all, this is a very thorough and absorbing story of all that went into America's greatest architect. While Hendrickson very thoroughly researched the story, it is clear that there are still many questions that cannot be answered definitively. Nobody knows precisely why Julian Carlton went crazy and murdered many people at Taliesin in 1914, for instance. But Hendrickson is willing to offer some opinions. He is also willing to correct some mischaracterizations that have been carried in the literature for years. FLW's father did NOT desert his family when Frank was a boy. Essentially he was driven away by an absolutely crazy and vicious wife. FLW in his own autobiographies, and his many biographers, have perpetuated many mistakes and inconsistencies. Hendrickson attempts to resolve many of these. We are left with a picture of FLW as a narcistic genius, who probably had more humanity than he is given credit for. I was fascinated by the span and variety of his work. His "Prairie School" was very early in his career. Many years later, in 1936, he worked on Falling Waters, the Johnson Wax headquarters, and the first of his inexpensive, "everyman" houses, the Jacob. But he was still very actively working into his 80's, culminating in the Guggenheim Museum. He had three wives, and a mistress who died in the Taliesin fire. He was not close with his children, and would admit it. His ego was enormous, like many geniuses. His life is almost unbelievable; if you didn't know it was true, you would probably think it had been invented and exaggerated. In general, I love reading biographies, but have gravitated too often to those of politicians or generals. This book illustrates how meaningful it is to read about the leaders in other fields such as art, science, or architecture. I highly recommend this book. It may not be for everyone, but many will enjoy it immensely.

[Geoff Moore · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unreadable. Read 100 pages to give it the benefit of the doubt but couldn’t get any further. The subject matter may be interesting in another writer’s hands. In Hendrickson’s, it is a vehicle for his own ego in an infuriating writing style.

Hendrickson takes every opportunity possible to point out where he is right and other Wright scholars are wrong. It would be enough to point out where this book differs from previously accepted history. Instead he takes a tone of this book is different because I’m better. This book becomes about him to the point that it distracts from Wright.

He also bounces between short, terse, sentence fragments and paragraphs long run-on sentences. I suspect Hendrickson was trying to strike a conversational tone. It may work in conversation but it just reads as unnecessarily clipped. On the other end, it sounds like one of those people who will get lost in their own droning on and on.

All in all, I wish I could get past the writing style. It does seem to be meticulously researched and I suspect it would offer a more objective look at Wright.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I often rather like a conversational writing style where you feel like the author is just telling you about a subject that he/she is so enthusiastic about but here I found the author's style annoying. Well researched & informed, but also determined to push theories that had little or no basis other than his wanting it to be so. Ultimately I'd have to say the book made me look up some of Wright's buildings online to visually see what he was talking about & I learned more about Wright but I wouldn't go looking for anything else by this author & I wasn't convinced by all the twists & turns of his story as to all of his theories

[Jennifer Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this more than I thought I would. I think that’s because it included contextual historic events along with information about FLW and his life and work.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot more history than I was expecting, not just about Frank Lloyd Wright, but by other family and events of his time. I'm reminded that there are more of his homes and building that I want to see!

[Dalton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew of Frank Lloyd Wright, admired his most notable pieces of architecture (Fallingwater, the Guggenheim), but I would never have called myself knowledgeable on the man or his career, nor frankly was I craving for a biography. However, when I closed Plagued by Fire, I was floored with not only how much I learned, but how much more I wanted to learn. This impressively researched, gripping biography doesn’t chronicle Wright’s life beginning to end but focuses on the highest and lowest point with incredible clarity and insight. Each chapter was cinematic in approach, unique for a biography I feel, and by looking not only at Wright and his legacy but the legacies of his buildings, Paul Hendrickson made this a living text. Plagued by Fire is one of the most surprising and fascinating non-fiction books I’ve read in sometime.

[Len Rudner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somehow, without paying very much attention, Paul Hendrickson has become one of my favourite authors.

He specializes in what could be described as biographies. They are deeply researched and deeply felt.

His subjects have ranged from Robert McNamara, to Ernest Hemingway, with a stop in between to focus on a photograph of seven white sheriffs who gathered in an attempt to prevent the integration of the University of Mississippi. Hendrickson tells all of these stories, and the stories of parents, sons and daughters, friends and enemies. He accompanies us on this journey. I get the sense that the idea for a story emerges for a variety of reasons, but the conclusion is not necessarily known as the journey begins. So, I feel like I am riding with the author as he crisscrosses the country, or am sitting in his office as he conducts an interview by phone or letter.

This book, a biography of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW), incorporates all of the elements that that I’ve come to expect from Hendrickson: meticulous research, the humility to openly speculate, coupled with the courage to say, ‘this is what I believe but I can’t be sure,’ and a lovely willingness to seemingly abandon the main thread of the narrative in order to take chapter-long detours in order to explore little known facets of characters who, perhaps, cannot be understood (or appreciated) except from a distance. By way of example, a cousin of FLW was the editor of a local newspaper in Tulsa, Oklahoma; he played an important role in igniting the racial hatred that led to the bloody Tulsa race massacre of 1921. It’s an interesting fact, but is it relevant to the biography? It is, but in ways that aren’t immediately clear. This book was not prepared in a microwave. It requires a slow-cooker to deepen its flavours.

I read this book slowly, and savoured every detour and stop along the way. And I wasn’t even particularly interested in FLW before taking up the volume.

Hendrickson’s explanations of what FLW set out to accomplish is interesting, even insightful. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says: I find, for example, that the Prairie style is too stark for my simple tastes, but the innovative/visionary aspects of his work cannot be denied.

I might not want to have FLW as a neighbour, but I think I’d be happy to live in some of his homes. And I’m glad to have met him in this book.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rambling, sprawling mess of a book. There are certainly many interesting details about Frank Lloyd Wright, and even many interesting details about dozens of other people, but for every documented fact, it seems there are ten more “I can’t prove it, but I suspect it was so” statements. These suppositions, extrapolations and speculations eventually just become exhausting. The author just ranges all over the place, and into the wildest and most ridiculous tangents, the apotheosis being what felt like 150 pages of completely irrelevant biography of Wright’s newspaper-publishing cousin (stemming from one single encounter they had around the August 1914 murders at Taliesin!), and the patently absurd speculation that Wright leaving his wife led to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Just page after page (in my case, hour after hour of the audiobook) of the wildest conjecture about every aspect of Wright’s life. I really don’t know what the author was aiming for here - something that was just as much of a fabulist treatise as Wright considered his own life story?

[Du · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just did not work for me. I think it came down to the fact that Wright might have been a creative genus but he was a bad, no good, horrible person. The author captures that and I wonder if through that lens, I really found the book to take on the aspects of Wright I didn't like. hmmmm

[Andrew Singletary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Without a doubt the strangest biography I have ever read.

[EllenZReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

*I received a free uncorrected bound proof from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright is everything you didn't know you wanted to know about one of the United States' most celebrated architects. The author notes that his book is not meant to be an FLW biography in the conventional sense, but a kind of "synecdoche," moving the narrative forward and backward in time. Frank Lloyd Wright designed some 1100 buildings over his career, approximately 400 of those were built, but he was so much more than his known work.

"It's such a grand American story: the lowly arrival, the startling becoming, and practically every Frank Lloyd Wright book that's ever been written, not least his own, has wanted to deal with it in some way or other. Even accounting for all the luck and seized opportunity, no one has every quite been able to explain how it happened, the realizing part, because artistic genius of this sort, or maybe any sort, doesn't have real explanation."

Paul Hendrickson's exquisitely detailed book starts with the fire and murders at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home in Spring Green, Wisconsin, on August 15, 1914, by a "servant gone beserk." Seven people were killed, including Wright's mistress and her two children from a previous marriage. The story then moves around not quite chronologically, back and forth between different significant events and people in Frank Lloyd Wright's life, including his wife, his mother, his children, his work, his father, and his friendships with Cecil Corwin and others.

"Story. In place of knowing, what we so often seem to have with the life of Frank Lloyd Wright are the stories themselves."

On William Carey Wright, FLW's father: "Those are the headwaters: William Carey Wright, a man so prodigiously gifted, who lost at life...it was a life, for all its talents and charismatic qualities, which went slowly toward oblivion. A life with more than its share of seeming bad fortune in it. How do you explain bad fortune? You don't."

The book then goes into some seemingly peripheral tragedies involving FLW relatives, including his cousin, newspaper owner Richard Lloyd Wright, who (allegedly) instigated the Tulsa Race Riot, and his young grandson who lost his mother (FLW daughter-in-law) and baby brother in a car crash.

One of Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentices: "Frank Lloyd Wright attracted fire."

"All my life I have been plagued by fire."--FLW after a fire broke out at the church in which his daughter was getting married.

"You can never get to the end of the knowing." --Paul Hendrickson on Frank Lloyd Wright.

Hendrickson's passion for his subject and his meticulous research make this a thoroughly fascinating and worthwhile read.

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess you could call this a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) but in other ways it was simply a huge display of hubris, on the part of the author. This is a hate-filled screed against FLW--you gather that as the 'case' against him proceeds but he eventually states it quite clearly, the man is not simply 'dislikable' but in fact 'detestable' (p. 458) according to the author. I might say the same for my own feelings about Mr. Hendrickson. He is so anxious to present his own opinions and thoughts on FLW (all new and unique of course) that he conditions every 'fact' (many of which are not facts at all but just more opinions) to the support of his thesis. Whether that 'fact' is that nearly everyone FLW interacted with was 'probably' a homosexual (including Abraham Lincoln, cause FLW's real middle name may have been Lincoln and, well you know), or that FLW is somehow to blame for a race riot in Tulsa, OK, or even the murders and fire at Taliesin in 1914 (cause you know, slavery or something) or that he is just about the most arrogant man who ever lived. Maybe it does 'take one to know one' Mr. Hendrickson. Take your pick of theories. The author is constantly bragging about his own 'reporting skills' on all sorts of what could be called 'nit-picking' factoids, but when I 'fact-checked' his account of a hot day in Madison, WI--August 19, 1916 he inflated the actual high temperature from the official (per XMACIS2) 98F to 109F, cause it sounds so much better to say 'furnace fires' than just a hot day.
Everywhere is the opinion of the author, from his 'expert' detailed analysis (of feelings, motivations, moods, thoughts) of the people in a few photographs to his frequent assertions that are often followed or preceded by 'well, I can't quite PROVE this' but you know I am 'probably' right cause I am such a great researcher and student of humanity! I don't doubt that he did some good work in this book and the writing is different and at times interesting. But the book was ruined mostly by--himself. It's as if so much has been written and said about FLW (and it probably has) that the author felt compelled to mine for whatever nuggets were left and inflate them into whatever sounded new or controversial. A redeeming aspect of the book was the 'Essay on Sources'. I wish more authors did something similar to provide context to references.

[Library of Dreaming (Bookstagram) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was filled with fascinating information but the writing style was at times incomprehensible and I fundamentally disagree with many of the author’s assertions. The overwhelming mix of sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and non linear chronology made my head spin. The style is unlike any other nonfiction I’ve read and it some cases it really detracts from the core history.

I also found the author’s conclusion that Frank Lloyd Wright could not have created the work he did if he’d been a good father both laughable and dangerous. It’s a complete fallacy to equate suffering with being a “good artist”. Take Van Gogh for example, some of his greatest work was created not when he was having his worst bouts of depression but when he was receiving medical treatment in an asylum. Wright 100% could’ve left his kids with less trauma AND become America’s most memorable architect. Please don’t buy into this author’s twisted worldview and think you have to suffer to create great things.

Lastly, I was genuinely shocked when I realized this book was published in 2019 as it felt very dated. The language and treatment (or lack of discussion whatsoever) of various issues like cultural appropriation felt like it must belong in the 20th century. (The author’s misuse of the word indigenous was especially baffling from a modern author.) I really wish the author had reckoned with Wright’s Japanese inspiration and what that means for the definition of “American” architecture.

Frank Lloyd Wright is certainly an interesting subject and his life makes for one utterly wild ride. I respect the research that went into this book but it fell incredibly short in treating this subject in a sensitive, readable, and coherent way.

[Ryan Iseppi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Without a doubt, one of the strangest "biographies" I've ever read. Paul Hendrickson's aim with this book seems to be to paint a quasi-spiritual thread of continuity linking every tragic, salacious, and outré episode tangentially related to the life of Frank Lloyd Wright. If you're looking for insights into FLW's genius, or even if you're just curious about his colorful (to say the least) personal life, there must be better and less aggravating biographies available. Hendrickson's prose is, frankly, obnoxious (while he never misses an opportunity to needle FLW on his own bombastic writing style), as he constantly asks himself rhetorical questions and offers equivocations on the flimsiness of his speculations and allegations. In so doing, he unintentionally reveals the preposterousness of trying to conflate, among other things, the 1914 Taliesin mass murders, the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, FLW's supposed bisexuality, and any number of highly questionable and speculative episodes into an overreaching (and vague) thesis about the curse of genius - the title "Plagued by Fire" gives some notion of the otherworldly conclusions Hendrickson tiptoes around. To be fair, it's not without its interesting passages, but I spent most of my time reading this rolling my eyes and snorting in skepticism.

[Zoann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most unusual biography I have ever read. It is not the usual recitation of life facts, but rather a psychological analysis, with some mysticism and philosophy thrown in. Even the footnotes are different--in "Essays on sources" at the end of the book, rather than annotated to the relevant fact. The author has all the primary sources to back up his theses and has plainly done his research. I learned a lot and it has inspired a desire to see some of Wright's buildings in person. Some quotes I liked: "Photography is such a strange art, able to capture both the utterly mundane and the inadvertently revealing. It can tell you a lie as quickly as it can provide a documentary fact." " 'Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. Because it is the mask that hides all vice, it is the greatest vice. The bad man, at best, is bad, but when he pretends to be saintly he is vicious.' " "'The hypocrite despises those whom he deceives. And, because he is untrue to others, he is untrue to himself and comes to despise himself.'" Richard Lloyd Jones, FLW's first cousin.
"How do you explain bad fortune? You don't." "And not least, our grandson, three-and-a-half-year-old Jackson, prince of the city, emperor of joy."

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there were a few major issues I had with this book, more on those in a minute, this was still a mostly enjoyable read and I particularly enjoyed how Hendrickson went deep in investigative research mode to tease out threads of people tangentially related to Wright. Particularly, I loved the deep dive into the man who killed his mistress and her two children, and refuting much of the common wisdom around his life. I also found the, rather sad and horrifying, story of Wright's cousin's involvement in the Omaha Race Massacre. I liked hearing new research and appreciated what fresh eyes Hendrickson brought to the story. Less so his rather unsupported theory about Wright's latent bisexuality, particularly with early mentor Cecil Corwin. While I'm certain there were some complicated feelings and maybe unrequited desire on Corwin's part, I don't buy Hendrickson's theory. I also was a little put off on his frequent insistences on how "wrong" past Wright researchers are, while still chasing his own thinly drawn conclusions. Overall though, I'm very happy I read this and recommend it to any Wright scholars.

[James Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul Hendrickson’s Plagued by Fire masterfully uses fire as a metaphor for the tumult in Frank Lloyd Wright’s life, from personal tragedies like the 1914 Taliesin fire to his volatile relationships and professional rebirths. Hendrickson captures both the brilliance and flaws of Wright, showing how destruction often sparked his creativity. The fire analogy extends to Wright’s career, where professional setbacks, scandals, and failures fueled his drive to innovate, leading to his most iconic works like Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, which seem to rise defiantly from the ashes of earlier failures.

Hendrickson’s portrait of Wright goes beyond the myth of the genius architect, revealing a deeply human figure—passionate, flawed, and constantly evolving. By exploring Wright’s life through this lens, Hendrickson offers a profound study of resilience and reinvention, showing how Wright, like his designs, was shaped by both the flames of adversity and the creative spark within him.

[Lee Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended for anyone that has ever admired a Wright building. When you know the juicy details of the backstories, do you admire them less? If he “fixed” his life back in Oak Park, would there have been the same body of work? Probably not. Same story for Philip Johnson and his Nazi party connections; I still love his contributions to art and architecture. I don’t think: “There’s that strange glass house I used to like before I knew what I know now.”

Even after living in Oak Park for 30 years, there are always other details you don't know. It’s funny, he wanted to escape the village and what it stood for in the 1900s, but I still love the walks down Forest looking at those fantastic houses. I never tire of them.

Obviously, there are probably thousands of writings on Wright, but the last line is right: “You never get to the end of the knowing.”

The book could have been shorter. Too many pages devoted to Julian Carlton.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hendrickson is such an engaging nonfiction writer. The book flies along. Here he takes a non-chronological approach to Wright's life, focusing on key points and buildings but definitely not exhaustive or comprehensive. The book focuses a lot of time on the murder of Wright's lover at Taliesin -- opening the book with a gory recounting and then returning to the tale in the middle of the book as he tries to explore the identity of the man responsible. The book takes some big swings (the murder at Taliesin is an early domino that results indirectly in the tragedy of the Tulsa Race Riot, Frank Lloyd Wright was bisexual with a homosexual dalliance from an early mentor) that are good reading if not conclusively supported in fact. Throughout a vivid picture of Wright emerges and the book is a page turner of a history.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is like a tornado - the eye is the fire at Taliesin in 1914 - and the stories and tangents keep circling back to the fire. The author obviously did a lot of research, but it is so disjointed. Over and over, he brings up a topic and then states "more on that later.." Hendrickson references most of the biographies as well as Wright's autobiography throughout the book. Obviously with the event happening so long ago and with only two survivors, the author repeatedly acknowledges that much is speculation. And apparently Wright himself was known to fabricate things. My interest was due to a visit to Taliesin, and the book was actually recommended by the people who work there. Wright had an interesting life, I learned a lot, but skimmed parts and was overwhelmed while feeling that I wasn't quite sure what was true.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Frank Lloyd Wright comes alive here without the trappings of adoration that I recall from my earlier years. His designs live on in homes that he had built, but the fact that many occupants have had to "correct" faults to make their homes livable should not be lost. One of the things I found interesting was that so much of his fame came about through what can only be considered self-promotion. He also had serious problems with the women in his life, and it is difficult to believe that he was on complicit in these problems. The author has dug into Wright's father's life, as well, and here we may discover once again the huge impacts of family on living life well. Well worth the time to listen even if you are not terribly interested in architecture.

[Paul Henry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe 1-1/2. I'm not sure what possessed me to put this one on my reading list since I'm not that interested in Frank Lloyd Wright's life. His architecture, yes. His relationship with his father, no. The writing style, I'd call pompous. One indecipherable sentence early in the prologue is 93 words long including 12 commas and a set of parentheses. I had to re-read it several times just to figure out the subject and verb. After that, I looked for the end of the prologue (it's 28 pages long) and skipped to the beginning of the book itself but after reading a few pages I noted the unread Le Carre on my desk beckoning to me. That was an easy decision: put aside Plagued by Fire and pick up the Le Carre.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found Hendrickson’s voice to be pedantic, his approach to the subject too couched in “I/me” language. While I did learn quite a bit about FLW, I’m not sure that the book helped me to situate him in his time and place. We know that he developed an architecture that was uniquely American, but Hendrickson, in my reading, failed to contextualize Wright. FLW’s work had a (literally) monumental impact on the world, but how did the world as he experienced it have an impact on his work? In what ways was FLW a product of his time, and in what ways was he ahead of it, and what made him so revolutionary? I left with a lot of unanswered questions to which good biography (as I see it) should provide some possible answers.

[Carolyn Leshyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so enjoyed this book which brings into focus Frank Lloyd Wright's private and professional life, as well as his relationships with family, friends, and co-workers. He possessed a huge ego and was not always considerate of his many children and those around him. Plagued by trauma early on, he wove a life filled with lies and disdain of his own making.

He was an extremely gifted architect which seemed to come naturally, since his formal education in this area seems limited. Form and function were basic aspects of his creative designs. I've seen and toured many of his houses in the Chicago area and marvel at their design.

[Frank Duke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard book to read. I picked it up thinking I was getting a traditional-style biography architect whose work I admire. I was quickly disabused of that idea. Hendrickson chose to tell the life of Wright through the lives of people close to him -- his father, his mother, his wives, his friends, his servants, his grandson. I have to admit that, once I got used to the approach, I found I was discovering a whole new side of Frank Lloyd Wright. I disagree with some of Hendricksons's conclusions -- specifically that Wright was a repressed bisexual -- but i find I do admire the work.