Frank Lloyd Wright and Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Part intellectual biography and part history of American architecture, Ayad Rahmani’s book is a rich and engaging exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s philosophical scaffolding. Rahmani demonstrates, in particular, the centrality of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s contributions to Wright’s worldview and his architectural theories and craft. An authoritative and beautifully written study.” ~Scott Slovic, coeditor of Ecocritical Aesthetics: Language, Beauty, and the Environment

“Frank Lloyd Wright was an important interdisciplinary thinker as well as a great architect, publishing close to twenty books. Ayad Rahmani, also an architect and interdisciplinary thinker, offers an invigorating and original interpretation of Wright in the context of his Emersonian roots. Rahmani includes provocative comments on Wright in relation to modern technology, the atomic age, critical theory, and much more. Rahmani’s interdisciplinary approach enables us to contextualize Wright in relation to the history of ideas and the modern critical analysis of culture at large.” ~David Michael Hertz, author of Angels of Reality: Emersonian Unfoldings in Wright, Stevens, and Ives

“By exploring Wright and Emerson at the intersection of their thoughts and creations, Rahmani substantially deepens our intellectual understanding of both men with an abundance of interconnected, fresh insights.” ~Jack Quinan, author of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo Venture: From the Larkin Building to Broadacre City