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Death in a Prairie
House
Frank Lloyd Wright and
the Taliesin Murders
William R. Drennan
Terrace Books
Publication
date March 2007
LC: 2006031765 NA
232 pages 6 x 9 11 b/w photos
ISBN: 0-299-22210-1 Cloth $29.95 t
(ISBN-13: 978-0-299-22210-9)
Blurbs:
"Death in a Prairie House
is a compelling argument in support of the theory that the
Taliesin tragedy profoundly affected not only the future lives
of those directly involved (not the least of whom was considered
to be the most influential and gifted architect of the time),
but likely, the whole course and development of modern architecture."–Craig
Jacobsen, Taliesin Preservation, Inc.
Reviews:
Chicago Reader: Readings & Lectures
Critic's Choice
On August 15,1914 Julian Carlton
hacked seven people to death in rural Wisconsin and tried to
conceal the deed by setting fire to the house. Caught on the
scene, he drank acid and died before trial. It was big news then,
and it's still news 93 years later because Carlton's victims
included the paramour of 47-year-old starchetict Frank Lloyd
Wright, and the burned building was Wright's controversial studio/love
nest, Taliesin. In Death in a Prairie House: Frank Lloyd Wright
and the Taliesin Murders (University of Wisconsin Press),
William Drennan retells the story, sparing no details and judiciously
placing them in the context of Wright's legendary career and
tangled personal life. (Drennan doesn't worship the shrine of
Wright and picks apart his lame excuses for deserting a wife
and six children for married neighbor Mamah Borthwick Cheney.)
Memorable crime books are about revealing character, and this
one's best when plumbing the psyches of the murderer (a paranoid
West Indian servant with plenty to be paranoid about) and the
self-absorbed genius who buried his grief in 45 more years of
work.–Harold Henderson
Book Reviews by Larry Cox
'Death in a Prairie House: Frank
Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders'
By William R. Drennan (Terrace
Books/University of Wisconsin Press, $29.95)
Frank Lloyd Wright was one of this country's most famous architects.
He was born in Richland Center, Wisc., in 1869. He worked for
a brief time with Louis Sullivan before setting up a practice
in Chicago. An early innovator of open planning, he was one of
the first American architects to design modern private dwellings
that confirmed with the natural influences of the land. Among
his most important projects are the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and
the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
He met and married Catherine Lee Tobin, a red-haired Chicago
woman and local beauty who was a veritable Gibson Girl in the
flesh. They build a home in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb. After
having several children, Wright became bored with his family
and abandoned them in 1909 for Mamah Cheney, the wife of neighbor
Edwin Cheney. The scandal grew even more intense when Wright
built Taliesin, a landmark home near Spring Green, Wisc., which
he used as both a refuge and a secluded love cottage.
The scandal came to a head during the summer of 1914. One afternoon
while Wright was away on business, Julian Carlton, a handyman,
went a rampage. Within minutes he had murdered seven adults and
children and torched the residential wing of the house.
Drennan, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/
Sauk County, documents the scandal and its aftermath in a fascinating
new book. This is a gripping mystery story in addition to being
the authoritative portrait of Wright as a young man. Crisply
written, this highly readable account sorts out that triggered
this senseless tragedy.
Author's
Bio:
William R. Drennan is professor of English
at the University of Wisconsin–Baraboo/Sauk County.
For more information in addition to this
press kit contact our publicity manager, phone: (608) 263-0734,
email: publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu
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