[UCP Books]: Marion Mahony Reconsidered
“Mahony at last has the book her remarkable career deserves. It is, moreover, a dangerous book for those who believe Frank Lloyd Wright single-handedly invented everything emanating from his Oak Park studio. Without reservation, this book belongs in the library of those interested in Mahony, Griffin, and Wright as well as in the genesis of modern architecture in America.”
Christopher Vernon, University of Western Australia
Marion Mahony Reconsidered
Edited by David Van Zanten
| Publication Date: July 15, 2011 | $45.00 • £29.00 |
| International publication date: August 08, 2011 | 978-0-226-85081-8 |
Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) was an American architect and artist, one of the first licensed female architects in the world, designer in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Chicago studio, and, together with her husband, Walter Burley Griffin, a central figure in the Prairie School of architecture. But as we learn in Marion Mahony Reconsidered, Mahony was an adventurous designer in her own right.
This book paints a vivid portrait of a woman’s place among the lives and productions of some of our most noted American architects. We journey from Mahony’s origins in the Chicago suburbs, through her years as Wright’s right-hand woman and her bohemian life with her husband in Australia—whose new capital city, Canberra, she helped to plan—up until her golden years in the middle of the twentieth century. Packed with richly detailed analyses of Mahony’s works and populated by an international cast of characters, Marion Mahony Reconsidered greatly expands our knowledge of this talented, complex, and enigmatic modern architect. David Van Zanten is the Mary Jane Crowe Professor in Art and Art History at Northwestern University. He is the author of Sullivan’s City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan, among several other books.
For additional information, please contact Laura Avey at (773)702-0376 or lavey@press.uchicago.edu.