Help - Broadacre City question

owlsclover · Post by **owlsclover** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:39 pm

I am unable to find the prerequisite reading list that Frank Lloyd Wright proposed to would-be citizens of Broadacre City. If anyone could please assist me with this scholarly endeavor it would certainly be appreciated.

Thank you

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:01 pm

Whoa, I'd be interested in that too.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 10:22 pm

I'd be interested to know where the poster learned of this proposed list.

"The Living City," which Wright wrote for publication in 1958, contains his story of the creation of Broadacre City and its many ramifications. I don't find such a reading list within its covers. The book opens with a page of Paracelcus, and closes with two pages taken from an Emerson essay on farming -- both printed in red.

SDR

victoriad · Post by **victoriad** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 10:45 am

There used to be a wooden panel in the Dana Gallery at Taliesin (Hillside building) hand painted with this text:

REQUIRED READING
FOR STUDENTS OF
BROADACRE CITY
LAOTZE
JESUS
SPINOZA
VOLTAIRE
WALT WHITMAN
HENRY GEORGE
WILLIAM BLAKE
LOUIS SULLIVAN
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
NOT FORGETTING
NIETZSCHE
THOREAU
EMERSON

It was not there when I visited last June.

SpringGreen · Post by **SpringGreen** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 10:30 am

Thanks to victoriad for the list (with FLW's name in red, too!).

The sign went with the Broadacre model & lots of other artifacts to MoMA, as part of the movement of archives & objects by the FLW Foundation to MoMA & the Avery Architectural Library. So it, & the other plywood sign with the list of who Broadacre is dedicated to, will only be seen in photographs & exhibitions from now on.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 7:53 am

Interesting that Wright puts himself at the bottom of the primary list and Laotze at the top. Laotze being known for a famous aphorism along these lines: "the foundation of the high is low."

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 10:10 am

The occasional examples of his humility are like desert flowers...

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 11:44 am

Yet Mies said of Taliesin, "This house was not built by an arrogant man."

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:37 pm

I think the veneer of arrogance was mostly a clever and calculated self promotional tool.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:22 pm

I agree with that. His famous saying, "Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former, and see no reason to change," was repeated often. It's a quotable quote which garnered him publicity. Kim Kardashian could learn a trick or two by studying Frank Lloyd Wright.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:26 pm

Love the remark from Mies. Never heard that before.

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Help - Broadacre City question

Help - Broadacre City question

Required reading list