Frank Lloyd Wright & Lewis Mumford: Thirty Years of Correspondence

The meeting of two great 20th-century architectural minds is recorded in Frank Lloyd Wright & Lewis Mumford: Thirty Years of Correspondence, edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Archives Director at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and Robert Wojtowicz, chair of the Art Department at Old Dominion University. Wright first wrote to Mumford in 1926, when he was in his 50s and already renowned, and Mumford was in his 30s and making his name in cultural criticism. Mumford, who focused much of his writing on architecture and urban planning, greatly admired Wright's work as ""the exemplar of organic design, built in accordance with the rhythms of modern life""; the two men shared ideas and interests, though Mumford resisted getting too intimate in order to preserve his critical integrity. Their friendship weathered political, aesthetic and personal disagreements (including a 10-year rift regarding U.S. intervention in WWII), but up until Wright's death in 1959 they maintained fondness and admiration for one another. B&w photos. (Dec.)