I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current. So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the … them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright.
Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan’s Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel’s stunning conclusion.
Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story.
BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Nancy Horan’s Under the Wide and Starry Sky.
Advance praise for Loving Frank:
“Loving Frank is one of those novels that takes over your life. It’s mesmerizing and fascinating–filled with complex characters, deep passions, tactile descriptions of astonishing architecture, and the colorful immediacy of daily life a hundred years ago–all gathered into a story that unfolds with riveting urgency.”
–Lauren Belfer, author of City of Light
“This graceful, assured first novel tells the remarkable story of the long-lived affair between Frank Lloyd Wright, a passionate and impossible figure, and Mamah Cheney, a married woman whom Wright beguiled and led beyond the restraint of convention. It is engrossing, provocative reading.”
——Scott Turow
“It takes great courage to write a novel about historical people, and in particular to give voice to someone as mythic as Frank Lloyd Wright. This beautifully written novel about Mamah Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright’s love affair is vivid and intelligent, unsentimental and compassionate.”
——Jane Hamilton
“I admire this novel, adore this novel, for so many reasons: The intelligence and lyricism of the prose. The attention to period detail. The epic proportions of this most fascinating love story. Mamah Cheney has been in my head and heart and soul since reading this book; I doubt she’ ll ever leave.”
–Elizabeth Berg
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Years ago, I attended a conference at Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous house, Taliesin, I’ve carried a vision of it ever since: its startlingly flat planes, the Oriental lines of its roofs, the way it snugs into the side of a Wisconsin hill. And indoors, the Zen-like simplicity of furnishings, the wide windows that open onto green landscape, and the …
This is a departure from the mysteries I read most often, but I enjoyed this story of the woman who loved Frank Lloyd Wright, although their affair cost her her reputation and family. The story expresses well the woman’s desire to live her own life in a time period when women were forced to be dependent on men, and describes the frustrations …
This book is a novelization of the true story of Frank Lloyd Wright’s mistress. It was very interesting and brings up lots of interesting questions on morality, happiness, and art. I learned a lot from this book and it made me learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright and his life. Highly recommend!
I absolutely love this book, and I recommend it as often as I can. If you love fiction based on true historical tales (like mine are), you will probably love this book.
If you are an architecture fan, particularly the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, you may be mesmerized as I was. This is one of the only books I’ve ever read that, as soon as …
Thought I knew Frank Lloyd Wright’s story, but all I knew was of his professional life and not even the half of that. This historical fiction novel based on his affair with a married woman sheds light on his personal struggles set within the constraints of the early 1900’s and the terrible price he & his lover paid for that love. Utterly …
If you ever loved a Frank Lloyd Wright creation, you will enjoy this book greatly. Not all geniuses are super nice people and Wright certainly ranks up there among the self-absorbed and self-centered. This book is a fictionalized account but is based in fact, and I found it quite informative.
Wonderful read about Frank Lloyd Wright!
Loved this book! Very interesting. Facts I never knew about Frank Lloyd Write.
I wasn’t aware of this romance with Frnk Loyd Wright and after reading, searched for photos of the houses mentioned in the book. I was amazed to find out it was a true story and learned quite a bit about a man I had always admired.
Interesting to learn about the life and love of this famous architect. He was quite a complex character, as well as brilliant.
Frank Lloyd Wright has always been an interest of mine with his great architecture and homes. I had no knowlege of his personal life until I real this informative and page turning book. A shocking and very informative read. I highly recommend it.
I really enjoyed this one. The book jacket art is wonderful!
While most people might chose this book to learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright, I hope my comments will inspire others to read it due to the limited choices women had in the early 1900s. I can understand why an educated and adventurous woman might be inclined to throw convention away vs leading a boring and unfulfilling life. My paternal …
Frank Lloyd Wright – many of us have fallen in love with his architecture. In this historical novel you will meet someone who fell in love with him. Nancy Horan has constructed a rich story of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the wife of Wright’s client, and the social backlash that she faced. She ran away to Germany with Wright in 1909. You won’t be able …
Good story about architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Tells alot about her, much about Frank Lloyd Wright, and their relationship. Her and her children’s lives end tragically, as you can discover by reading their history online. Found very interesting and a good read.
Read this book when it first came out. I thoroughly enjoyed. I have been a fan of FLWright’s style of architecture. I grew up in a town where we had several homes built by him. It was interesting learning about him & his longtime affair & what a shock it was back in the day.
Excellent – definitely a 5-star !
What a life! Frank Lloyd Wright was larger than life and, if his biography were fiction, it would strain belief.
Read it years ago so my memory is a little foggy! I do however remember loving it!
A must read. Didn’t want to put the book down. A great architect but harsh man. Read it several years ago and still one of my best reads.