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I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, where it was almost obligatory to take a junior high class trip to Fallingwater. I remember very little about my visit, other than enjoying the woods around the house and wondering why all the beds seemed so small. I knew nothing about the famed architect behind the house. It was an ignorance that I decided to finally remedy with Paul Hendrickson’s new biography, “Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright.”
Calling it a biography doesn’t fully capture what the author is attempting. While the book is technically a biography, it’s more than that. Sometimes it’s a meditation on the nature of Wright’s work, on genius, or on the man himself. Sometimes it’s an exploration – a guided tour of Frank Lloyd Wright, with Hendrickson leading us along a meandering path. The writing style, with the author himself appearing as a frequent character, lends itself to exploration. Hendrickson is fond of saying things like, �