Wright Chat

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3838 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

I recently corresponded with Paul Hendrickson, who is writing a biography of Wright, asking him if in his research he found any definitive proof or disproof of the Lincoln middle name. Hendrickson described it as a thorny issue, for which he has found no definitive answer. He noted that his upcoming book will address the Lincoln name with a caveat.

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 18278 Location: San Francisco

(I'm everywhere at once, it seems.) So we've established an earliest appearance of the Lincoln middle name, have we ?

SDR

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3838 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

Gill’s “Many Masks” seems to be accepted as the first published appearance of Lincoln as Wright’s birth middle name.

Mr Hendrickson noted that he found “numerous factual errors” in Gill’s book as well as “notes (that) are frustrating in the extreme”. He does give Gill credit for doing “other things that are quite valuable”.

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 9598

I would like to hear those valuable things.

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3838 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

I’m reading Ron McCrea’s excellent “Building Taliesin”. On page 57, In the list of notes:

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 9598

I missed that note, which refers to page 35, where Ron writes: "As a teenager, he [FLW] had worked on his Uncle James's farm and added the "Lloyd" in his mother's family name to his own." I guess Ron is on the hot plate now to justify the origin of that claim?

In Thomas Hines' paper, "Frank Lloyd Wright - The Madison Years, Records vs. Recollections," he writes: "The United States Census of Madison for 1880 lists the names and ages of the family of William C. Wright and his wife Anna, giving the age of a son, Frank, as being thirteen...." He does not say that "Lloyd" was listed on the census record as the middle name. Of course, he was looking for the birth year, not middle name.

Could it be that different census takers talked to both Wright and Jones households and listed Frank's name on both?

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3838 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

That may have happened. Possibly a verified instance of an error in the 1880 Census? Situations such as this may have led to the mailed census forms beginning in the 1960’s and the more explicit definition of the term “reside”.

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 9598

Errors certainly are not uncommon, I am sure. The 1940 census has my parents renting a house they actually owned, and my uncle, who rented space in the house during his bachelor days, as his sister's husband. I, on the other hand, have never received a census questionnaire in all of the census years of my life.

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3838 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

My thanks to fellow Chatter HOJO for noting a passage from this link:

http://www.daily-journal.com/news/local/drive-nears-end-to-retire-wright-site-mortgage/article_0de9f312-41e1-11e8-88fc-17458af110d2.html

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 18278 Location: San Francisco

I looked at the JLW/Barry Byrne book; coverage of the Lincoln Logs is perfunctory, with no indication of how John arrived at the name. Lincoln in a log cabin seems a perfectly adequate explanation.

Nice photo of the Bradley interior. Did Wright ever use bright brass ?

SDR

SREcklund · Joined: 26 Feb 2013 Posts: 801 Location: Redondo Beach, CA

A quick Google search leads me to believe that Professor Hendrickson could well bring the chops necessary to do a proper biography of a controversial subject, unencumbered by a personal Wright history or ax to grind - two things that seem to plague most previous attempts. That said, I hope he documents his statements in a way that leaves us hip-deep in references as we read ... Wink

_________________
Docent, Hollyhock House - Hollywood, CA
Humble student of the Master

"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 9598

I watched a rerun of "That Far Corner" on PBS last night. (No matter what you miss on PBS, wait awhile and it will pop up again 12 times.) I noticed something I missed the first time: There was a shot of Mamah's grave with the dates 1869-1914. We have all speculated about FLW's reason for insisting that he was born in 1869, even though, since his sister Jane was born that year, it could not have been correct. Perhaps it was his subtle, private tribute to the love of his life? That may be a bit outré, but it's worth considering. (Meanwhile, TFC is worse than I originally thought. It adds more mythology to FLW's history than explication.)

Tom · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2018 12:34 pm Post subject:

Not having seen TFC, I just watched the first 20 min.
Laying aside the psycho/death/mourning thesis -
it does put a certain a sequence of events in clear order for me for the first time.

I'll see it through to the end at some point.
_________________
"taste is less important than non-conformity"
FLLW

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 9598

Careful, Tom. Even the chronology is messed up. Do not take anything therein at face value.

DRN · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 3838 Location: Cherry Hill, NJ

FLASH! This just in, FLLW alumni of the Bauhaus!
https://architectureau.com/articles/germany-launches-international-design-competition-in-celebration-of-bauhaus-centenary/

From the article: