Kathryn Smith

I am called Chapel . . . For nearly six centuries I have roamed the night, a mortal man no longer. Would that I could undo the past -- when I entered the sanctuary of the Knights Templar to wrest from them the Holy Grail, only to discover the chalice I raised to my lips was not the sacred relic but a hellish cup of damnation. Now I shun the day and all things human, driven by an ungodly thirst. And yet... Never have I known a maiden the like of Prudence Ryland, whose beauty and spirit awaken a heart I feared long cold and dead. But her young life is slipping away, and she also seeks the deliverance of the Grail -- unaware that the cost of her search could be her soul. I must help Prudence, for in six hundred years, no other woman has stirred my passions so. But dare I tender to my beloved that which she most desires -- the sensuous "gift" of forever that is both rapture and a curse: my immortal kiss?

This diminutive survey features all aspects of Wright's art, from lowslung Prairie houses to the dramatic, seminal Fallingwater, to larger projects such as his two homes, Taliesin and Taliesin West, culminating in that icon of modernism, New York's Guggenheim Museum. This satisfying volume is complete with drawings and rarely seen works from Wright's own Asian art collection.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is unquestionably America's most celebrated architect. Even today, almost forty years after his death, he continues to tower over the architectural landscape. In fact, his career was so long and his accomplishments so varied it can be difficult still to grasp the full range of Wright's achievement. In this refreshing new study, Wright scholar Kathryn Smith does just that, exploring the grace and beauty found in all facets of Wright's work: from office desks and chairs to his first residential commissions, from magazine cover designs to major public buildings. The concise text and brilliant color photographs chart Wright's entire career, beginning with his apprenticeship to Adler and Sullivan before the turn of the century. Readers witness the Prairie period, Wright's years in Japan and California, his major designs of the late 1920s and 1930s, his Usonian houses, and the monumental late works of his last decades. Smith shows examples of Wright's drawings, furniture, and decorative arts, too, supplementing our understanding of Wright's aesthetic. The book concludes with a glimpse at the architect's seldom-seen collection of Asian art, which once comprised tens of thousands of pieces - a source of much inspiration and edification for the architect and his students, and a key to understanding Wright's views on art and nature. Here is a broad portrait of the master builder who sought the title "greatest architect of all time." Although it may never be possible to fully assess Wright's legacy, Kathryn Smith's authoritative book is a fitting testament to his lasting genius.