Biography / Architecture / True Crime

 

Death in a Prairie House
Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Murders
William R. Drennan


 “William Drennan’s careful reconstruction of the events at Taliesin before, during, and after August 15, 1914, sheds new light on the tragic happenings of that day.”—Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank

The most pivotal and yet least understood event of Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated life involves the brutal murders in 1914 of seven adults and children dear to the architect and the destruction by fire of Taliesin, his landmark residence, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Supplying both a gripping mystery story and a portrait of the artist in his prime, William Drennan wades through the myths surrounding Wright and the massacre, casting fresh light on the formulation of Wright’s architectural ideology and the cataclysmic effects that the Taliesin murders exerted on the fabled architect and on his subsequent designs.

“William R. Drennan retells the story, sparing no details and judiciously placing them in the context of Wright’s legendary career and tangled personal life. . . . Memorable crime books are about revealing character, and this one’s best when plumbing the psyches of the murderer . . . and the self-absorbed genius who buried his grief in 45 more years of work.”—Harold Henderson, Chicago Reader

“After [Frank Lloyd Wright’s and Mamah Borthwick Cheney’s] sojourn in Europe they settled in Wisconsin, where Frank designed his legendary prairie house Taliesin as their new home. It was an exercise in optimism that nearly destroyed them both. (William R. Drennan’s recent Death in a Prairie House offers a . . . more detailed factual account of what transpired.)” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

William R. Drennan is professor emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin–Baraboo/Sauk County and adjunct instructor in the Department of English at Appalachian State University, in Boone, North Carolina.

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Of related interest
The Domestic Scene, 1897-1927
George M. Niedecken, Interior Architect
Second Edition, expanded

Distributed for the Milwaukee Art Museum

 

the cover of Drennan's book is a collage of old photos of Taliesin, before the fire, the murder ax, and newspaper clippings of the crime.

March 2007
LC: 2006031765 NA
232 pp.   6 x 9   11 b/w photos ISBN-13: 978-0-299-22210-9
Cloth $29.95 t

The first paperback edition
of this book will be available
November 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0-299-22214-7 $16.95 t

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Updated June 11, 2008

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