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Exterior photograph of Taliesin in snow. Published December 1911. Property: the Chicago Tribune.

Another Change at Taliesin

Reading Time: 6 minutesThis part of Taliesin in the photo above is the part that faces the Wisconsin River. A photographer for The Chicago Tribune took this on Christmas day, 1911. The other night I was thinking about changes at Taliesin and remembered something I haven’t written about: the expansion of Taliesin’s “Front Office”. That is, in the […]

Keiran Murphy sitting on the couch in the libing room on Ash Wednesday, 1982.

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Reading Time: 5 minutesMe at the age when I discovered the novel, Dune As far as I know, this post won’t be about Frank Lloyd Wright or Taliesin. Since Dune, Part Two (the second part of Dune, the movie) will be released on March 1, I intend today to write about the novel. In particular, my earliest experiences […]

Photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright by Edward Steichen, Bequest of Edward Steichen. Located in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Wright was not a shyster

Reading Time: 5 minutesA trickster, possibly. maybe an s.o.b. But not a con man (not even on the order of Harold Hill). However, I know why you think Frank Lloyd Wright was like that. After all— He borrowed lots of money from people and couldn’t give it back. And pulled so much money out of former client Darwin […]

Photograph of a portion of the Taliesin estate. Taken in March 2004.

Easy Info on Frank Lloyd Wright

Reading Time: 5 minutesLooking (true) west toward the Taliesin estate from the edge of the parking area of the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center. I’m working on my next post. So, I figured I would throw out easy dates and pieces of information about Wright and Hillside to give you a little amusement. Wright’s height: 5 feet, 8-and-a-half […]

Looking (plan) west in Taliesin's Drafting Studio. Frank Lloyd Wright's desk is on the right, with his vault behind the stone wall. Photo by Keiran Murphy

The Restoration of Taliesin’s Drafting Studio

Reading Time: 7 minutesToday I’m going to write about the restoration of the Taliesin Drafting Studio from 1998-2000. Why? It’s a tangent. On November 9, 2023 I watched a “Wright Virtual Visit” from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. That afternoon, they broadcast a program about the current preservation work at the Hillside theater on the Taliesin estate. […]

Taken in summer, photograph looking (plan) east in "Mrs. Wright's Garden". Taken 1961-1969. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York).

The Prisoner, Taliesin, and my sister

Reading Time: 5 minutes  The photograph above shows “Mrs. Wright’s Garden” at Taliesin. Taliesin’s Hill Crown is to the left of the wall. His sister’s house, Tan-y-Deri, is in the distance on the right. All of us have engaged in things where obscure cultural touchstones are a part of the back-and-forth discussion. For instance: You can show a […]

Exterior photograph of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hillside school. Taken in summer 2009 by Keiran Murphy.

More evidence of Hillside fire damage

Reading Time: 3 minutesA photograph looking northeast at Hillside. You can see the south wall of his theater with the glass, and a wooden structure over the back steps to the Hillside sound and projection booth, and the Hillside chimney with signs of fire on the chimney stack. In my last post on November 3 I talked about […]

Looking northwest at Frank Lloyd Wright's Hillside building during April 26, 1952 fire

Charred Beams at Taliesin

Reading Time: 6 minutesI’m going to write today about two places on the Taliesin estate where you can see fire damage. One place where fire happened, Taliesin, is well known. The other place is Hillside, which you can see in the photograph at the top of this page. See, there are five buildings on the Taliesin estate. 1 […]

Frank Lloyd Wright and Alexander Woollcott standing outside of Taliesin. Photograph in the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Edgar Tafel collection.

A room at Taliesin

Reading Time: 9 minutesAlexander Woollcott with Frank Lloyd Wright outside of Taliesin.  a room that existed before we (or I) knew it existed. I’m going to write about my discovery of that room’s appearance today. It’s the room with the windows that you see behind Wright, Woollcott, and the birch trees. It was thought that the room was […]

The Home page of SaveWright.org before the 2023 Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy conference.

2023 Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Conference

Reading Time: 4 minutesNext week, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy is holding their 2023 conference. The conference will be in Minneapolis-St. Paul and its theme is “Colleagues & Clients: Women’s Roles in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architecture”. Due to my connection to Taliesin and my life in the Wrightworld, they’re awarding me the “Wright Spirit Award“. So I’m […]

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