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A Brave and Lovely Woman
Mamah Borthwick and Frank Lloyd Wright
Mark Borthwick
“A substantive, thoughtful, and carefully wrought contribution to our historical knowledge about Mamah Borthwick. The author’s patient, assiduous research and clear, straightforward presentation offer much-needed correctives to the narrative of Borthwick and her important relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright.”
—Anthony Alofsin, author of Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect
The first detailed portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright’s fascinating and complex mistress
Mamah Borthwick was an energetic, intelligent, and charismatic woman who earned a master’s degree at a time when few women even attended college, translated writings by a key figure of the early feminist movement, and traveled from the American prairie to Europe, Scandinavia, and even Japan. She is best known, however, as the mistress of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and for her shocking murder at the renowned Wisconsin home he built for her, Taliesin. A Brave and Lovely Woman offers keen insights into the narrative of Wright and Borthwick, a love story as American in character as it is Shakespearean in conclusion.
Little of Wright’s life and work has been left untouched by his many admirers, critics, and biographers. And yet the woman who stood at the center of his emotional life, Mamah Borthwick, has fallen into near obscurity. Mark Borthwick—a distant relative—recenters Mamah Borthwick in her own life, presenting a detailed portrait of a fascinating woman, a complicated figure who was at once a dedicated mother and a faithless spouse, a feminist and a member of a conservative sorority, a vivacious extrovert and a social pariah. Careful research and engaging prose at last give Borthwick, an enigmatic but crucial character in one of America’s most famous tragedies, center stage.
Mark Borthwick (1946-2024) served as the director of the U.S. Asia Pacific Council at the East-West Center. He is the author of Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia.
Praise
“Meticulously researched and full of information drawn from newly discovered sources, this book is the first to restore Mamah Borthwick—a highly educated, vibrant, and well-connected woman—to her proper place in the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright and in the history of twentieth-century feminism.”
—Alice T. Friedman, author of Women and the Making of the Modern House
“An incredibly well-written and deeply researched portrayal of Mamah Borthwick. So much of her life has focused on her tragic ending without knowing more specifically who she was as a person: strong, intelligent, and fiercely brave. While her life indeed ended tragically early, there is no doubt that her brave and lovely spirit is still embedded in her home, Taliesin.”
—Carrie Rodamaker, executive director, Taliesin Preservation
“A compelling read from first page to last.”
—Midwest Book Review “Reveal[s] a serious scholar of language, of feminist thought, and modern modes of living for men and women in early 20th Century America. . . . One hopes that this work finally deposes the fictional accounts of Mamah and Wrights’ relationship with [a] richer, and truth-filled, story about two serious people trying to change the world around them for the better, finding support for and from each other.”
—The Whirling Arrow: News and Updates from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
“Casts light on the status of women in the early 20th century and on a period of Wright’s life that the architect understandably preferred to forget.”
—Shepherd Express “Frank Lloyd Wright’s relationship with Mamah Borthwick has long represented a missing link in the often-told story of the architect’s life and early career. As a consequence of the lack of firsthand documentary evidence that has bedeviled serious historians, Mark Borthwick, a distant relative, has attempted to piece together a highly readable narrative combining social and cultural history that elaborates upon earlier studies mainly by means of newspaper reports and stories, both previously known and newly discovered.”
—Neil Levine, author of The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright
“Reclaims [Mamah] not simply as a Wright mistress, but as a fascinating, complicated, highly educated translator, feminist, and force in her own right.”
—Madison Magazine
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Part One
1. Woman of the Hour
2. Heartland
3. Dakota Territory
4. The Prophecy
5. A Nobler Womanhood
6. Mrs. Jarley and Mrs. Cheney
7. Westward Ho
Part Two
8. Moderns in Transition
9. Local Hero
10. Cheney House
11. Modern Drama
12. Lunch at Marshall Field’s
13. Wisconsin Road Trip
14. Hyde Park Hideaway
15. Flight
Part Three
16. Berlin Setup
17. Home Fronts
18. Mission to Stockholm
19. Love and Ethics
20. Secession
21. Berlin to Alvastra
Part Four
22. Home of Tomorrow
23. A House Divided
24. Miss Chicago
25. Mamah of the Hills
26. Taisho Turmoil
27. The Woman Movement
28. Final Portrait
29. Lightning
30. All That Remains
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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