LOT RR Auction  /  RR Auction: Rare Manuscripts, Documents and Auto...  / 

733

Frank Lloyd Wright

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Frank Lloyd Wright

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2012 Oct 17 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS signed “Frank,” four pages, 5.25 x 8.5, Taliesin stationery, no date. Letter to writer, architectural critic, and friend Lewis Mumford. In full: “Refusing my earnest invitation to come help Taliesin fills me with a vague fear—a fear that I shall, never again, meet the Llewis I loved—he who lived and wrote out of love and understanding, let fall what might—my valiant, vibrant, independently honest Llewis—the Mumford. I now see you have been more badly hurt than I supposed and that therefore I may meet a broadened but wisened professionalized writer with the ifs, buts and alsos of his craft, temporizing for fame, himself a slave of livelihood? I fear because my Llewis, no matter what, would not plead ‘engagement’ when asked with love to come to this capitol of the modern world of Architecture to share experience with love and understanding of this work he was once bound to cherish. (Yes, I refer to this little America within America we call Taliesin)—a radical work he has never seen, where he would naturally feel and be at home with what he loved as his own. And Llewis—how richly well Tallesin could afford to transport you and your Sophie to this Architecture of the Valley of the Sun—plant you both in a little cottage here (your own for a fortnight asking only that you talk to the boys at Sunday morning breakfast and let them talk to you as you answer their queries again Sunday evening. There are 60 of them from all over the world. If you drive yourself you would have an M. G. to wander about wild Arizona. Or if you don ’t drive—a Chrysler and driver to take you. Between times, as the spirit moved, we could talk or not talk as we used to do. And then we would send you back by way of Frisco, if you wanted to go that way to experience the Morris shop etc—etc—Your 'Bay-region’ you know!

You have never seen the work of these later years. Well, here you see the arrogance you find in me because I suppose you could have no ‘engagement’ that could matter enough to hold you away from that experience in the circumstances I propose. You see, Llewis, being so sure of my ground and my star so early in life, I was soon forced to choose between honest arrogance and a hypocritical humility. Well, the world knows I chose honest arrogance. Nor am I sorry. Nor is my Cause. You didn't use to mind? You do mind now, because,—well,—you have so said. And so, I fear, that he—the Llewis of my youth may be no more. Suddenly I am afraid I shall find in his place the professionalized successful Critic with unbreakable engagements—an E. M. Forster 'Critic' (see his last book 'Two Cheers for Democracy' and read his piece on the 'Raison d'etre of Criticism,' if you have not already read it). You will see there what I mean. No, you have never really experienced the creative work into which the work of those early years has developed. I don’t think a man like you needs drink a tub of dye to know what color it is—but—because there was love and understanding between us that is why the rupture was so violent. Whatever the Llewis may now be that I am to meet in New York about the first of February, though the same old depth may no longer apply, yet there may be something precious to preserve?

At any rate, like a man hungry for the honesty of the romantic understanding that is courageous love, I shall be grateful and pleasant as I know you will be for whatever may be left to me. Llewis,—'engagements' in such circumstances as I propose are a cruel bond? Are we too old to break them to play hookey once more? Arrogant as ever—you see?—with the same old affection and a new nostalgia. N. B. By the way, do you reprove me for the ancestral double L by never using it yourself?" Wright has also initialed the postscript, “FLLW,” and made a number of ink corrections and additions throughout the text, writing over 30 words. In fine condition, with some ink and pencil notations to the blank front page.

Sharing similar ideas on the shaping of American architecture, renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the up-and-coming critic Lewis Mumford began their correspondence in 1926. They remained close until 1941, when their differing views on American intervention in WWII led to a very public falling out, beginning a decade of estrangement. When their relationship resumed in 1951, they found themselves in very different places: Wright, the preeminent American architect at the height of his fame, and Mumford, a now established and highly respected critic. It was at this stage in their relationship that Wright penned this letter from his winter home and desert school Taliesin West, reflecting on the friendship lost and hoping to salvage some piece of their past fondness. “Suddenly I am afraid I shall find in his place the professionalized successful Critic with unbreakable engagements,” he writes, giving voice to the doubts fostered by an eventful decade of separation. An incredible personal letter from the correspondence of two pivotal figures in 20th century American architecture and urbanism, this piece shows the arrogance for which Wright was known, along with a softer, uncertain side rarely seen.
Sign In to Bookmark Lot