Synopses & Reviews
Fallingwater Rising is a biography not of a person but of the most famous house of the twentieth century. Scholars and the public have long extolled the house that Frank Lloyd Wright perched over a Pennsylvania waterfall in 1937, but the full story has never been told.
When he got the commission to design the house, Wright was nearing seventy, his youth and his early fame long gone. It was the Depression, and Wright had no work in sight. Into his orbit stepped Edgar J. Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh department-store mogul"the smartest retailer in America"and a philanthropist with the burning ambition to build a world-famous work of architecture. It was an unlikely collaboration: the Jewish merchant who had little concern for modern architecture and the brilliant modernist who was leery of Jews. But the two men collaborated to produce an extraordinary building of lasting architectural significance that brought international fame to them both and confirmed Wrights position as the greatest architect of the twentieth century.
Fallingwater Rising is also an enthralling family drama, involving Kaufmann, his beautiful cousin/wife, Liliane, and their son, Edgar Jr., whose own role in the creation of Fallingwater and its ongoing reputation is central to the story. Involving such key figures of the l930s as Frida Kahlo, Albert Einstein, Henry R. Luce, William Randolph Hearst, Ayn Rand, and Franklin Roosevelt, Fallingwater Rising shows us how E. J. Kaufmanns house became not just Wrights masterpiece but a fundamental icon of American life.
One of the pleasures of the book is its rich evocation of the upper-crust society of PittsburghCarnegie, Frick, the Mellons a society that was socially reactionary but luxury-loving and baronial in its tastes, hobbies, and sexual attitudes (Kaufmann had so many mistresses that his store issued them distinctive charge plates they could use without paying).
Franklin Toker has been studying Fallingwater for eighteen years. No one but he could have given us this compelling saga of the most famous private house in the world and the dramatic personal story of the fascinating people who made and used it.
A major contribution to both architectural and social history.
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"A cerebral, spiritual, and social pilgrimage....Digging into personal and architectural history, Toker demonstrates spadework of the highest, most exacting, and refined order." Kirkus Reviews
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"Wright's Fallingwater house made America fall in love with modernist architecture, according to this engrossing study...The trenchant analysis of Wright's character and creativity, the often lyrical evocations of his buildings, and the opinionated but insightful overview of the modernist intellectual milieu of the 1930s make the book a wonderful exploration of the psychological and social meaning of architecture." Publishers Weekly
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"A must read for Wright fans, it will also intrigue architecture buffs." Keir Graff, Booklist
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"Immersing himself in his subject for nearly two decades, Toker has covered every corner and then some...His passion ensures that the narrative stays alive...The pages fly by." Matthew Flamm, Newsday
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"[Toker has an] insatiable thirst for every drop of the Fallingwater story...No fact is omitted, no lead is left untaken, and every lead connects, or is made to connect, with the central story." Jack Quinan, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
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"The book demonstrates how the story of one house can reveal a great deal about American identity and the forces that continue to shape it. It is an important work of scholarship yet it reads like a novel." Brent D. Glass, Director, Smithsonian National Museum of American History
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"This architectural biography of a house is the best and most comprehensive yet on the structure and its creators."Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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"Leaping from close examination of the documentary record to freewheeling speculation, [Toker] tries and mostly succeeds in putting this house, its architect and his patron into the context of U.S. cultural history." Los Angeles Times
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"Now architecture historian Franklin Toker throws his smart, well-researched, and amply illustrated book into the ring....Fallingwater Rising describes the details of the planning, construction, engineering, and post-production hype. Christian Science Monitor
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"Toker tell[s] what may well be as close to the truth as we'll ever get about the building and boosting of this singular masterpiece.... as well as a fascinating analysis of the relationship between architect and client." Washington Post
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"Fallingwater Rising...is a dramatic saga of riches, social climbing, bigotry, sex, suicideand genius." House and Garden, (Must Reads)
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"Franklin Toker has performed an invaluable service." Meryle Secrest, author of Frank Lloyd Wright
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"We are fortunate to have this book which tells an astonishing story, as it is unlikely that such a revolutionary work of art will appear again." William Tracy, Larry Woodin, and Deborah Vick, Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy Bulletin
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"A readable, lively history of this unique building, and how it came into being." Nicholas Basbanes, Orlando Sentinel
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"As Toker makes delightfully clear, Fallingwater is not just a great house, its a great story." Library Journal, "Best Books of 2003"
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"This architectural biography of a house is the best and most comprehensive yet on the structure and its creators." Donald Miller, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
About the Author
Franklin Toker, a professor of the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, has published books on church architecture in French Canada, the ancient cathedral of Florence (which he excavated), and the architecture and urbanism of Pittsburgh. He has won both the Porter Prize and the Hitchcock Award. Born in Montreal, he was educated at McGill University, Oberlin College, and Harvard University. A past president of the Society of Architectural Historians, Toker lives with his family in Pittsburgh.
From the Hardcover edition.