Working with Mr. Wright

Book excerpt: Working with Mr Wright. is a personal recollection by one of Frank Lloyd Wright's former apprentices of his years at the Taliesin Fellowship. Curtis Besinger provides a lively account of daily life in this community of architects established by Wright in Wisconsin and Arizona. An apprenticeship with the Fellowship entailed architectural tasks, such as drafting, designing, and overseeing projects, including the actual building of Taliesin West; as well as humbler assignments - from milking the cows to harvesting wheat - related to maintaining the farm that surrounds the Fellowship in Wisconsin. The social life of the Fellowship, filled with music and film, and planned in detail by Wright himself, is also recounted with wit and humor. Through these engaging recollections, illustrated with photographs, plans, and drawings made during Besinger's years at the Fellowship, Wright's eccentric personality, his working practices, and his unique creative vision emerge, along with a host of personalities who contributed to the unique Taliesin experience.