William R. Drennan
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Completely inexcusable mistakes & shoddy research 1 out of 5 stars.
12 of 20 people found this review helpful.
While Drennan wrote about his amount of research done for this book, he came to incomplete conclusions; completely misinterpreted his research; or lost his references in (I am sure) his piles of notes. It's apparent to those who have studied Wright, or have an interest in him, that, while Drennan refers to books in the bibliography, he didn't study them, particularly in his misunderstanding of a proper floor plan for Taliesin I.
There are things that he just gets plain wrong (page numbers refer to the hardcover version of the book).
Page 6, he writes that Taliesin is on the "banks of the Wisconsin River." It's not. It's just down from the top of a hill (on the brow of the hill, leading to the name "Taliesin", "shining brow" in Welsh) and also separated from the river by a road.
Page 16, he states that Wright spend "five summers" working on his family's farm. Wright spent summers there from the ages of 11-18.
Page 19, He writes that Wright went to Chicago and spent 2 dollars on a concert. Wright wrote in his autobiography that he spent $1.
Page 31, he states that Wright met CR Ashbee in 1896. They met in 1900, which Drennan would have known if he had read one of the books he cites in his bibliography, _Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lost Years, 1910-1922: A Study of Influence_, by Anthony Alofsin.
Page 67, A statue shown in a photograph on this page is referred to as "an [Alfonso] Ianelli sprite" (from Wright's Midway Gardens project in Chicago, IL) when it's actually _Flower in the Crannied Wall_, designed by Richard Bock for Wright's Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, IL (which he would have known had he read Narciso Menocal's article about the statue in _Taliesin 1911-1914: Wright Studies, v. 1_, which Drennan cited in his bibliography).
Page 161 he writes that, "When Miriam Noel learned of Olgivanna, she lay siege to the place and dragged out divorce proceedings for five turbulent years." Wright and Noel were married in 1923, and divorced in 1927.
Page 168, he states that Wright had been buried "next to" Mamah. Their graves are about 20 feet apart. Drennan refers several times to the valley that the Lloyd Joneses lived in as "Bear Creek," but it's never been called that (Helena Valley is acceptable).
He also writes that Wright's family had come across the United States directly to Spring Green, Wisconsin, when in truth they'd actually settled in Ixonia, Wisconsin (on the eastern side of the state) for about a decade before coming to Spring Green.
There are various statements he made that have no citation in the endnotes:
Page 14, Wright's father's turn as a Unitarian minister is described on page 14 as "a 'sop,' it has been called" - no citation
Page 15, he states that Wright's half-sister Lizzie charged that his mother was "spoiling Frank rotten..." - no citation
Page 15, he states that Wright's father "pointedly" called Wright and his two sisters, "Anna's children" - no citation
Page 137, he refers to "One online source" with no citation
Et cetera.
All the while, he writes that all of these other writers have gotten things wrong or misinterpreted things. He is the one who misinterpreted the area, misunderstood Taliesin, Wright's family, and Wright's background.
If you want to know about Wright, read Meryle Secrest's biography. If you want to know about Taliesin I, get _Taliesin 1911-1914: Wright Studies, volume I_, ed. Narciso Menocal (this will also provide you with a Taliesin I floor plan). If you want to read about Wright's relationship with Mamah Borthwick, read Nancy Horan's book, _Loving Frank_. It's historical fiction that is better researched than _Death in a Prairie House_.
Editorial Review:
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.
