Plagued by Fire

The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright

By: Paul Hendrickson

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Frank Lloyd Wright has long been known as a rank egotist who held in contempt almost everything aside from his own genius. Harder to detect, but no less real, is a Wright who fully understood, and suffered from, the choices he made. This is the Wright whom Paul Hendrickson reveals in this masterful biography: the Wright who was haunted by his father, about whom he told the greatest lie of his life. And this, we see, is the Wright of many other neglected aspects of his story: his close, and perhaps romantic, relationship with friend and early mentor Cecil Corwin; the eerie, unmistakable role of fires in his life; the connection between the 1921 Black Wall Street massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the murder of his mistress, her two children, and four others at his beloved Wisconsin home. In showing us Wright's facades along with their cracks, Hendrickson helps us form a fresh, deep, and more human understanding of the man. With prodigious research, unique vision, and his ability to make sense of a life in ways at once unexpected, poetic, and undeniably brilliant, he has given us the defining book on Wright.

©2019 Paul Hendrickson (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Dazzling.... Ingenious.... Plagued by Fire has moments of raw emotional power.” (Amanda Hurley, The American Scholar)

“Hendrickson is one of our great stylists.” (Boston Globe)

“Paul Hendrickson has made a life of taking the figures we think we know, and revealing how little we actually understood them. From the depression-era photographer Marion Post Wolcott to the war-maker Robert McNamara and the writer Ernest Hemingway, his subjects tend to be complex, ambitious men and women caught in the thrust of outsized times. Hendrickson has his work cut out for him with Wright, certainly the most written about architect in the world. Yet this, his longest book might be his most beautifully written - there’s a tone of absolute curiosity and respect, a judiciousness about probing a long-dead psyche, and a depth of understanding about how hidden demons often contribute to the art that artists make which [makes] this book absolutely riveting, as if all the buildings it describes have yet to be built.” (John Freeman, Executive Editor, Literary Hub)

A Biography (with other topics)

This book is fascinating,beguiling,strangely written but overall an interesting take on the greatest American architect ever produced. What I liked about it is that it’s well written and gives several new perspectives on FLW and his life and work,and he definitely does a great job of tearing down the myths Mr. Wright told in his Autobiographies;in particular his parents and the “true” story of their divorce. The one major issue I have is that Mr. Hendrickson spends WAY too much time on retelling the events of August 15,1914. It must have been about half the book when added up with both the chapters dealing with the incident as well as the mentions of it throughout. While a major event in his life,it’s not the main story. This book would’ve been better as a full “cradle to grave” biography in my view,but that’s not what this is. However, Mr. Hendrickson is a gifted enough writer that the story overall is compelling enough to be read. I would recommend it for people who don’t know much about Frank Lloyd Wright and want to get a “taste” of his life,times and achievements.

Lyrical, interesting and informative prose style

I have been a huge fan of Hendrickson since Hemingway's Boat. Highly recommend both works!

Fascinating

Beautifully written, and extraordinarily narrated. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and was sorry to finish it.

Historic

Complicated, as was the topic. I loved the depth, while some descriptions were redundant or perhaps meant yo be whimsical. it certainly went into less traveled tangents, which shed much needed light on the rarely seen tragedies, conflicts and complex patina of FLW's Journey.

Frank Lloyd Wright

This is a skillfully crafted account of a very influential American. I benefitted greatly in lodging my brain in this book. Wright reigned in the first half of the twentieth century, an era of different technology and convention.

Excellent perspective

Many stories I heard for the first time hear even having read other books and visited many of his creations. Almost to well researched and deep. An excellent listen!

Very disappointing

This book does no justice to FLLW personally or his profound genius. Waste of time!

Biography as speculative gossip

If a rule for a biographer is not to get between reader and subject, Hendrickson has never heard of it.
The word "I", meaning the writer, shows up paragraph after paragraph, noticeably when he writes the like of "I can't prove it, but I feel it must be true." He's fond of titillating rumors.
He also writes, in a prose of self-conscious effects and affectations - "hoosegow" is used for 'jail' more than once - long tangents that barely touch on Frank Lloyd Wright. I often found myself wondering why he'd put me through 15 minutes of a passage that said next to nothing about the architect or architecture. Without such padding, this would be a much shorter and clearer book. The leaps back and forth in time are finally wearying as you try to hang on to the chronology.
In a similar vein, he often compares something about Wright to something about Ernest Hemingway. The first time or two confused me. What had they in common? Then he slips in that his recent other biography is about … you guessed it.
Before you buy this, look up the NY Times book review. The reviewer has more time to dismiss this book, which she does with many examples.
I stopped reading and intend to return it,

A Very Nasty Biography of FLW

A very nasty book by an author who obviously dislikes Frank Lloyd Wright. He seldom misses an opportunity to denigrate him, and damns him with faint praise. He never misses the opportunity to add prurient details, many irrelevant to the bio. An example is his long story about the Bradley house in Kankakee. Rather than just telling us how it came to be built and how it was saved, he has to tell us the totally irrelevant, tawdry story of the demise of Mr. Bradley. Another unnecessary diversion is the gruesome details of the killing and burning of Mamah Borthwick. Anyone with reasonable knowledgeable of FLW knows the terrible story of her death and that of her children. Hendrickson revels in recording every blow of the roofers hammer. He then goes down a deep "rabbit hole" to tell us far more than we need to know about the murderer. An example of Hendrickson's reaching for so-called facts is his attempt to resurrect an obscure architect FLW first knew in Chicago, and turn it into a homosexual affair. He does not even consider the possibility that a new, young man in Chicago might reasonably bond with another with similar interests without a sexual aspect. Once again Hendrickson goes for a tawdry tale. His book is full of "quite possibly", "reasonably assume" and "could this have occurred". All these meaningless tales and suppositions tell us more about the author than FLW. Hendrickson clearly added all this sensationalism to attract attention to his book, which in reality adds little to the FLW canon.

Revisionist, sensationalism.

Paul Hendrickson preaches a moralistic revisionist history of one of the worlds most prolific artists. The book is filled with conclusions the author admittedly has no facts or documentation to support. The book is written as a sensationalists ghost story where no exaggerated drama is needed. The book has one redeeming quality, it gives the reader a perfect example of how unartistic closed minds can still feel intimidated by the robust life of a greater man.