Chasing FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: His Life and Mine, Intertwined

Part memoir, part architectural history, Chasing Frank Lloyd Wright will interest architecture buffs, local historians, KU alumni, students and anyone who enjoys a lively coming-of-age tale. Set in the 1950s, Chasing Frank Lloyd Wright follows the author from his days as a hot-rodding teenager in an oil rich Oklahoma town to his transformation into a dedicated student of architecture, following the Organic Architecture trail laid down by Mr. Wright. Like most college students the author struggled to balance his extra-curricular activities with his studies, though his distractions included many chance encounters and friendships with celebrities: jazz singer Nellie Lutcher, Afro-Cuban percussionist Candido, band leader Stan Kenton, Regional painter, Thomas Hart Benton, KU basketball star, Wilt Chamberlain to name a few. The author reflects on the life and philosophy of Frank LLoyd Wright, interweaving Wright's development with his own. Dozens of vintage photographs taken at the time and place by the author document many important works by Wright, Bruce Goff and others as they appeared in the 1950s along with scenes of Lawrence, the KU Campus, Bartlesville and Norman Oklahoma, Taliesin Wisconsin and surrounding areas. This memoir tells the back story of how this young architect, who dreamed of following in the footsteps of his idol came to forge his own identity that while indebted to Wright, was uniquely his own.