Wright's Women

 Jim Koenig, Cub Reporter

Recently, NPR rebroadcast an interview with T.C. Boyle on his historical novel The Women, an account of Frank Lloyd Wright’s notoriously bizarre and complicated love life. Boyle himself, much like Wright, is notorious for self-promotion and a love of the limelight, which works well in painting a portrait of Wright through the women of his life. Adding to his Wright-specific credentials, Boyle currently lives in a Wright-designed house, the George C. Stewart house in Montecito, California (1909). Although the topics of Kitty, Mamah, Miriam, and Olgivanna in the interview often sound like a series of National Enquirer headlines, it’s true that Wright may have been the Paris Hilton of his time when it came to media attention.

The Buffalo connections cited throughout the interview are numerous. We find that Boyle is married to a Buffalo native, has visited the city many times, and has even been to the Darwin Martin House!  Additionally, the Martin House is kindly mentioned by a caller from Buffalo, who commends the efforts to restore the Martin House Complex to its original grandeur. Both have great things to say about the site and its place within the Wright’s career. It feels great to bask in some of the publicity that Wright and Boyle always garner!

A recording of Tom Ashbrook’s interview with T.C. Boyle can be heard at http://onpointradio.org

Thanks to John Kociela and Cherie Messore for the tip.