( On March 6, 1945, after hearing rumors that his son, Jo...)
On March 6, 1945, after hearing rumors that his son, John, was writing a book about their stormy past, Frank Lloyd Wright wrote a note asking him, "What is this talk of a book? Of all that I don’t need and dread is more exploitation. Can’t you drop it?" John assured his father that he would like the book and sent him a copy on its publicationMarch 29, 1946. A few days later, Frank Lloyd Wright returned it with numerous comments penciled in the margin, responding to what his son had written, and with a request that a new, second copy be sent to him. John complied with the request but first transcribed not only all his father’s comments into the clean copy in black pencil but also his own answers to them in red pencil. He also transcribed all these comments into a third copy, again using colors to differentiate his comments from those of his father. This third copy is the basis for this new edition of John Lloyd Wright’s book. The main text of this volume is a reprint of the 1946 edition along with marginal notes, comments, and corrections made by John Lloyd Wright and his father, as well as explanatory notes and an introduction by Narciso G. Menocal. In the postscript, Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, John Lloyd Wright’s daughter, remembering her grandfather and father, says that in this edition "what was a son’s book becomes a father and son book."
https://www.amazon.com/My-Father-Who-Earth-Wright/dp/0809317494?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0809317494
( "An anecdotal reminiscence of America’s chief living ge...)
"An anecdotal reminiscence of America’s chief living genius by his son — short, unconventional, amusing and on the whole revealing." — Book Week. Frank Lloyd Wright is widely regarded as the twentieth century’s greatest architect — an unconventional genius who transformed both residential and commercial building design with his concept of “organic” architecture. During a long and productive life, Wright designed some 800 buildings, received scores of honors and awards, and left an indelible imprint on modern architectural theory and practice. In this charming, readable memoir, Wright the architect and father comes to life through the vivid recollections and firsthand knowledge of his son. John Lloyd Wright characterizes his father as “a rebel, a jolt to civilization, whose romantic theme — purposive planning and organic unity in inventing and combining forms — is an epoch in the architecture of the world.” His unique view of the “epoch” will intrigue architects, students, and all who admire the work of this visionary and uncompromising spirit. An added attraction of this volume is the inclusion of the complete text of William C. Gannet's The House Beautiful, an extremely rare work designed and printed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
https://www.amazon.com/Father-Frank-Lloyd-Wright-Architecture/dp/0486269868?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0486269868
John Lloyd Wright was born on December 12, 1892, in Oak Park, Illinois, the second son of Frank Lloyd Wright, the well-known architect, and Catherine Lee Tobin. During his youth he observed the development of his father's distinctive architectural idiom—the Prairie style—composed of long horizontals, clean rectilinear forms, and orientation to the landscape.
After attending his great-aunt's Hillside Home School in Spring Green, Wisconsin, from 1907 to 1910, he spent a year at the University of Wisconsin.
Frank Lloyd Wright's abandonment of his family for the wife of a client in 1909 caused some estrangement between John and his father for a few years. John Wright moved to San Diego in late 1911, where his older brother, Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. (known as Lloyd Wright), was working as a landscape architect. After deciding that he wanted to be an architect, John Wright worked for several local firms to gain experience. Under the guidance of Harrison Albright, a local architect, he designed the Wood house in Escondido and the Golden West Hotel in San Diego, both of which were strongly reminiscent of his father's work. For the ornament of the hotel Wright collaborated with the sculptor and poster designer Alfonso Iannelli. In late 1913, Wright returned to Chicago to work with his father. From 1913 to 1914, Wright assisted his father with the designs for Midway Gardens in Chicago, and Iannelli collaborated on the sculpture. In August 1914 he accompanied his father to rebuild Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Spring Green, after a deranged servant murdered seven members of Wright's household and set a fire that destroyed the house. In these years Wright began to design children's toys, most notably a series of interlocking play blocks, heavily influenced by his childhood experiences with Froebel "gifts, " a type of playing block his father admired. For the next forty years Wright created a number of block kits, some of which he made and marketed. Many of the designs were sold to Playskool Manufacturing Company. His most successful design was for Lincoln Logs, which came on the market in 1918 and today remains substantially the same as his original design. He went to Japan in 1917 to work on his father's Imperial Hotel commission. A dispute over wages with his father led to his firing in mid-1918, and he returned to Chicago and designed several houses in the Chicago suburbs over the next several years. Wright moved to Long Beach, Indiana, a summer community near Michigan City, Indiana, about sixty miles from Chicago. Between 1921 and 1947 Wright practiced architecture in the Michigan City area, receiving some forty commissions and overseeing about twenty-five completions.
They included a house and studio for himself and his family, two schools, a town hall for Long Beach, a hotel in the Indiana Dunes State Park, an apartment building, and houses of all sizes, from small summer cottages to large mansions. In the 1920's, Wright's designs ranged from conservative "stockbroker Tudor" (utilizing historical imagery drawn from early English houses) to more modernistic, or Art Deco, styles (drawing upon the abstract and colorful patterns used by the latest French designers). "Red Oaks, " designed for businessman H. E. Otte, was one of the more dramatic modernistic houses of the period, with the frequently repeated motif of a pentagon, a two-story living room, and smooth, crisp, stucco surfaces that in their rigor, repetition, and precision were for many in the 1920's a recall of the machine idiom, so popular in those years. Although Wright's work from the 1920's did not stylistically resemble his father's, they shared an interest in relating the building to the site. In 1929, Wright took a trip to Europe, and his work in the 1930's is informed by his contact with European Expressionist and De Stijl design. He soon discovered the value of public relations and began to give names to his houses, such as the House of Steel for Jack Burnham, in Long Beach (1933); the House of Wood for Ken Holden, in Birchwood Beach, Michigan (1933 - 1934); the House of Tile for Lowell Jackson, in Long Beach (1938) — each featuring different materials in a modernist idiom. His work was very well received and frequently published in the national architectural and home design periodicals. Wright lectured frequently to local audiences and in Chicago and wrote an architectural column for the Michigan City News between 1935 and 1937. He continued to design toys in collaboration with Iannelli. Wright spent the war years designing Federal ordnance plants, base housing, and prisoner-of-war camps. In 1946, he published Father Who Is on Earth, which is nominally about Frank Lloyd Wright but contains revealing autobiographical commentary. In 1947, Wright settled in Del Mar, California, near San Diego, where he remained until his death.
He died on December 20, 1972, in La Jolla, California.
( On March 6, 1945, after hearing rumors that his son, Jo...)
( "An anecdotal reminiscence of America’s chief living ge...)
In 1913, John Lloyd Wright married Jeanette Winters, whom he had met in Los Angeles; they were divorced in 1920. Wright married Hazel Lundin in 1921, they had two children. In 1942, Wright and Hazel Lundin were divorced. In 1946, Wright married the ex-wife of a client, Frances Welsh.
Frank Lloyd Wright was married three times and fathered seven children, four sons and three daughters. He also adopted Svetlana Hinzenberg (adopted the surname Wright), the daughter of his third wife, Olga Ivanovna Lloyd Wright.
Catherine Lee Tobin was an American social worker and socialite.
In 1935, Svetlana Wright married William Wesley Peters, a noted architect and engineer, when she turned 18.
Elizabeth Ingraham (Wright) was an American architect. Elizabeth Wright was married to Gordon Ingraham, an architect. The couple had four children.
Alfonso Iannelli was an American sculptor, artist and industrial designer.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. was an American landscape architect and architect, active primarily in Los Angeles and Southern California.
