Read Fiction and Learn

Reading fiction can be a motivator to read nonfiction. I have just finished reading Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, which is the August selection for the Southeast Arlington Book Discussion Group. It's a novel based on the true story of the affair between Mamah Borthwick Cheney and the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. My undergraduate degree is in architecture so I am familiar with Wright as an architect but less about his personal life. He lived to be 92 so the events of the book occur when he was in his forties.
Wright designed the Edwin H. Cheney house in 1903 and this was how Cheney and Wright met. Wright who was married at the time and Cheney both went off to Europe together in 1909 leaving their families and children behind. This created a scandal at the time. Wright went to Europe to get a book published of his early work, which was published in 1911. I personally and also the library owns an English reprint edition titled The Early Work of Frank Lloyd Wright= The "Ausgefuhrte Barten of 1911." Cheney was divorced by her husband while she was away. Upon their return to America, Cheney and Wright lived together in the home he called "Taliesan". There the story ends in 1914 and I don't want to give the ending away, but it really happened. You will need to read the novel to see how true life can inspire great reading.

I invite everyone to come on August 21st at 7:00pm when we will be discussing the book here at the Southeast Branch. In preparation for the book discussion I did some Internet searching to get more background information about the book. The following links were informative.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12536605
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamah_Borthwick

http://www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact%20Pages/PhotoWrightPortraits.htm

So enjoy your fiction and use it to motivate you to read what it was based upon. The library has a lot books about Frank Lloyd Wright for you to learn more about the Frank of the novel. Here is just a few:

Frank Lloyd Wright by Meryle Secrest

Many Masks: The Life of Frank Lloyd Wright by Brendan Gill.

Picturing Wright: an album from Frank Lloyd Wright's Photographer. by Pedro Guerro.

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Interactive portfolio. by Margo Stipe.

The library also has two VHS titles.

Frank Lloyd Wright PBS

The Homes of Frank Lloyd Wright A&E