Many Masks: A Life of Frank Lloyd Wright

by Brendan Gill

Book Overview

"Genius, egotist, mythomaniac, sexual rebel, master of media manipulation, the legendary Wright comes alive in all his cantankerous complexity. . . . A delight from cover to cover."--Kirkus Frank... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399132325
• ISBN13: 9780399132322
• Release Date: November 1987
• Publisher: G P Putnam's Sons
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 9.6" x 6.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

What Price Genius?

"Who was that masked man?" As answered by author Gill, at various times an architectural genius who could shake a groundbreaking concept out of his sleeve, a supreme egotist, an unctuous charmer who bamboozled clients into spending more than they had budgeted, a procrastinator, a supreme manipulator of the media and a family-wrecker. America's (self-anointed) King of Architects wore many masks, many of them unflattering. Gill's well-researched biography ends up prompting the reader to ask whether the artistic ends that Wright achieved justified the means that he employed in bringing his creations to life. Gill does a fine job explaining Wright's objectives at Taliesin North and West, Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum, Beth Sholom temple and at other sites. And he laces his work with numerous passages from Wright's correspondence, leaving the reader shaking his head in sympathy with any number of exasperated clients. However, "Many Masks" falls short when discussing the infamous fire at Taliesin North. While the author provides a workmanlike account of the incident, not much is offered in the way of background on the arsonist or his possible motive, leaving the reader to search elsewhere for answers. Toward the conclusion, Gill excerpts a hitherto-unpublished statement from one of Wright's sons that drives home the degree to which the "Master's" lifelong shenanigans left some of his loved ones emotionally wounded. It's a moving statement that underscores the scorched-earth approach to living that Wright practiced well into old age, which for this reader ultimately debased the worth of Wright's public accomplishments. In summary, "Many Masks" is a finely crafted, sometimes droll and often thought-provoking look at a genuine American Original.

Colorful, Chatty and Informative...

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.

Colorful, Chatty and Informative...

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. 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.

WHAT'S RIGHT WITH WRIGHT...

The Story of Frank Lloyd Wright has been told many times. Aside from his many biographers he is also the inspiration of a well known book and hilarious (unintentionally, though) movie, The Fountainhead. Other than Michaelangelo, I do not know of another architecte who has rated such a treatment. Wright's life was heroic and this book is useful in seeing how that came to be. Gill is suited to the task, he not only knew Wright, but wrote the building column in the New Yorker for many years. This book is a common sense take on Wright's life. Gill explores many of the myths that Wright constructed around his life and finds that Wright's creative powers were not always expended in the direction of his buildings. Wright was a genius who did not feel the slightest need to conceal this fact from the world. He was also a visionary who took the Eurpean architecture of its day and transformed it into the American vernacular. This feat he conttrasts strongly with Beaux Arts school which merely transplanted these European fads. Wright was a real original The book is lavishly illustrated since all of Gills writing does not give the same feel for Wright's genious as a hangful of these images provide. I think that were it possible color photographs might have provided a clearer view. As Gill demonstrates, Wright at times could be a rascal, but he was also a genius even when when all of the artifice of his life is stripped away. This book is a welcomed addition to Wright biographical scholarship.

Good alternate view of FLW for a reader who is already famil

If you do not know much about FLW's life, this isn't the book for you. It assumes that you are familar with his life-story as it jumps back and forth and drops names of people out of sequence to his chronological life story. For the neophyte reader there may be too much verbal description of floor plans. Despite these "flaws" (which forced me to do some background research in his other bios) the book is insightful and revealling as it peels off the layers of masks (most built by FLW himself). The book has many, many, black & white photos of his buildings and furniture - most of which I have not seen in other books. This would be a good companion book for someone who has read FLW's autobiography or other bios. It is amazing he survived, professionally, in spite of his apparent self-destructive habits. I found myself comparing his life to Picasso's - perhaps genius cannot be contained in an conventional life .