Building Taliesin

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss

For more information about “Building Taliesin,” visit the book’s webpage.

Paperback: $35

Available at your local bookstore or buy now online here.

A HOME BEFITTING A TRIUMPHANT, TRAGIC GENIUS

“Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss” details the creation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin, which would be the architect’s principal residence to the end of his life. Author Ron McCrea paints a vibrant picture of the building and its central characters through letters, memoirs, contemporary documents, and a stunning assemblage of photographs - many of which have never before been published. Photos taken by Wright’s associates show rare views of Taliesin under construction and illustrate Wright’s own recollections of the first summer there and the craftsmen who worked on the site.

The book also brings to life Wright’s kindred spirit, “she for whom Taliesin had first taken form,” Mamah Borthwick. Wright and Borthwick had each abandoned their families to be

together, causing a scandal that reverberated far beyond Wright’s beloved Wisconsin valley. The shocking murder and fire that took place at Taliesin in August 1914 brought this first phase of life at Taliesin to a tragic end.

Interview with Ron McCrea on “Live at Five”

“Quite an achievement. The story is compelling and well told and documented. And the sustained, lively and informative interplay between image and text is remarkable.” -Jeffery C. Ballowe

“The successes of ‘Building Taliesin’ are many. It’s an accessible book that tells a wildly fascinating story. McCrea’s writing style is down to earth yet authoritative — the book is a quick and engaging read. ‘Building Taliesin’ is a remarkable contribution to Wisconsin history and to the preservation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy.” -Amelia Cook, “Isthmus”

About the author

Ron McCrea is a prize-winning journalist and former Alicia Patterson Fellow who worked on the news desks of “New York Newsday,” the “San Jose Mercury News,” the “Washington Post,” the “Washington Star,” the “Boston Globe,” and the “Capital Times” in Madison, Wisconsin, where he served for a decade as city editor. He appears in the E! Entertainment Network’s documentary “Mysteries and Scandals: Frank Lloyd Wright” and the BBC’s “Frank Lloyd Wright: Murder, Myth and Modernism,” and wrote the script for “The Making of Monona Terrace: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Last Public Building,” a finalist at the New York Film Festival. He serves on the board of directors of AIA Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Society of Architects, as a professional affiliate member, and was the communications director for Wisconsin governor Tony Earl. He holds degrees from Albion College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.