The primary appeal in this book is the photo collection. While the accompanying text throughout is quite interesting, I think most people will buy it for the pictures. And excellent pictures they are.

For buildings that still exist, the authors/editors took brand new photographs specifically for this book. You would be hard pressed to find similar quality photographs anywhere else.

However, if you are interested in an introductory reading on Wright's work, you won't be disappointed. The reading level seems to be geared towards someone who already knows who Wright is, but is not familiar with his lesser known works, or with the details of his life and of architecture. The authors did a splendid job of placing Wright's work in the context of the time and place, and highlighting that which is fundamentally American about both. From the insight on Wrights life and works, you will learn not only about some of the foremost icons of American architecture, but also about American culture itself. The passion the authors have for Wrights work really shows through in every page, both through photographs and text.

I read every single word and closely examined every single photo. I can promise that if you're honestly interested in learning about Wright's work, as well as his place in history and culture, you will not be sorry you bought this book.

I have been a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture for over 30 years, and have seen many of his finest buildings. No book that I have seen in those years is as good as this one for explaining his life, the development of his architectural style, providing the details of his best work, and showing stunning photographs of exteriors, interiors, and views. If you only buy one book about Mr. Wright, I suggest this one. I have it with me tonight as I begin a one week pilgrimage to his finest work in the midwest. Each night, I will reread the sections about the works that I will be seeing the next day.

The book would be worth buying, just for the photography alone. For those buildings that still exist, brand new color images were made. These are so magnificently reproduced that they actually exceed the appearances of the originals! I don't know of another book of architectural photography where I could make the same statement. It is as though you are seeing the scenes in Wright's eye, as the pure forms that he was seeking to reproduce. Also, you get lots of images. For example, the home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois section displays 10 large color photographs. Naturally, for the buildings that do not still exist, you have only historical photographs, some in black and white. But these are very fine, as well.

Most books with wonderful photographs usually have limited essays. Masterworks is the happy exception. The essays are clear, thoughtful, and extensive. Yet they tie together to tell the story of Mr. Wright's development. So, they are more like chapters in a book rather than stand-alone essays that such books usually inspire. I was particularly pleased with the information about the materials and building methods that Mr. Wright experimented with and used at various stages of his career.

As wonderful as the photographs and essays are, what made the book special for me were the many draft sketches and conceptual diagrams in Mr. Wright's own hand. To see the transition from first sketch to final details was wonderful.

If you know Mr. Wright's work, you will be aware that he often designed his own furniture and sculptures for the buildings, and had craftsmen execute them. You will see many fine examples in the book of these details presented in their most dramatic ways.

The book also has good balance. Many books about Mr. Wright favor his homes, or his famous works, or his public buildings. This one creates a balance over his entire career of all his work. So you get a decent amount about his Usonia period as well as his Prairie years.

Here are the works that are covered in the book: Home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois; William H. Winslow House, River Forest, Illinois; Susan Lawrence Dana House, Springfield, Illinois; Arthur Heurtley House, Oak Park, Illinois; Ward W. Willits House, Highland Park, Illinois; Larkin Company Administrative Buidling, Buffalo, New York; Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois; E.E. Boynton House, Rochester, New York; Avery Coonley House, Riverside, Illinois; Meyer May House, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, Illinois; Midway Gardens, Chicago, Illinois; Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan; F.C. Bogk House, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Aline Barnsdall House, Los Angeles, California; John Storer House, Hollywood, California; Paul R. and Jean S. Hanna House, Stanford, California; Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania; Herbert Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin; S.C. Johnson & Son Administrative Building, Racine, Wisconsin; Herbert F. Johnson House, Wind Point, Wisconsin; C. Leigh Stevens House, Yemassee, South Carolina; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City; Arnold Friedman House, Pecos, New Mexico; Herman T. Mossberg House, South Bend, Indiana; Kenneth Laurent House, Rockford, Illinois; Unitarian Church, Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin; David Wright House, Phoenix, Arizona; William Palmer House, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Isadore J. Zimmerman House, Manchester, New Hampshire; H.C. Price Company Tower, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Harold Price, Sr. House, Paradise Valley, Arizona; Gerald B. Tonkens House, Amberley Village, Ohio; Beth Sholom Synagogue, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; Don M. Stromquist House, Bountiful, Utah; Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California; Taliesin III, Spring Green, Wisconsin; and Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona.

After you finish enjoying this book the first time, ask yourself what has been Mr. Wright's lasting impact on America. How has his work affected your life? How will it affect your grandchildren's lives?

Turn an optimistic view of people living in natural harmony into reality!

A great reference and must have for anyone interested in Wright. Detailed pictures and text.

Sam's book, written from his cabin 100 miles north of the arctic circle, is a contemporary adventure story par excellence. I'm a recent University graduate in sustainable agriculture now living in Alaska. I appreciate Sam's view of living with the land, not just upon it.

Edge of Tomorrow By Sam Wright Reviewed by Frank Kadish

Few people are able to synthesize their lives from being born and raised in the west, to being a scientist, to become a minister in a free thinking liberal church, to an be outdoorsman and to put into practice his philosophy by combining it with living off the land as our ancestors did. My wife bought the book at our meeting of our group interested in communing with nature. I spent the last three hours reading it in one gulp. It has been as satisfying an afternoon as I have had in many a year.

Sam structures his philosophy and experience with the calendar and the events of the year in his in his cabin just below the Arctic Circle. His wisdom comes thru the stories he tells and the parables that he creates. With his wide-ranging experience in life, his story becomes an adventure of the mind.

Get the book and enjoy.

I got this book last x mas. I still read and look at it every month. I think it's a great review of a very special person who really knew how to draw !

When I first saw the FallingWater House, I saw that FLW was really an special person. This book shows us that all his masterpieces were just a clue of what he was able to do, of the buildings he could create. In FLW Drawings, you can see many perspectives representing his newest toughts and ideas, and proving that he really would have changed the world of architecture if God had givven him 30 years more (as he used to say). article: João Paulo Salgueiro

In this book, Wright expounds upon his innovative and groundbreaking ideas about architecture - specifically, that architecture should be organic in nature. Spanning his entire career, including blueprints and sketches for buildings never constructed, In the Realm of Ideas give anyone with even a passing interest in architecture the grounds to understand the architectural revolution that occurred in the early part of the 20th century. Wright was an integral part of that revolution; he stood at the center. In the Realm of Ideas provides his thoughts and reflections on the nature of architecture, something we all should consider in today's world of chrome and glass buildings that jab at the sky and crowd the center of our cities.

Not only can one read about some of Mr. Wright's many idiosyncrasies about such things as religion, science, music, ethics and morality, to name just a few, the book comes with 2 cassette tapes that allow you to actually HEAR selections from Sunday talks to his apprentices.

This book is a "must hear" for all Wright lovers who want to know why he was such a great architect as well as a brilliant speaker.

I was hoping to find out more about life in the Brooks Range. Be warned! This is not a travelogue, or account of life in the Brooks Range, at least not more than a superficial account. This book is chock full, full to overflowing, with sentences of the following ilk: "It was a strange experience to visit the United States when you are living in the United States but not really in the United States, because people in America did not think of us as really being in the United States. But we are. Yes, we really are."

That was taken from a random page. I could have given a better example if my purpose in writing this was anything greater, but it is not. No. It is not. Oops, I'm talking like the author. I get it, of course, but it becomes too much.

Other gripes: Extended periods of time spent in the U.S. (as it were) and Britain described.

This book is Sam Wright's personal meditation. Some people might be interested in that. I was looking for information on the Brooks Range, and while some is given, the quantity is quite small considering a 200+ page book.

This book is a jewel: A beautiful meditation about humanity and its place in the universe, as told through the eyes of a man who lived with his wife for 20 years in Alaska's Brooks Range, the world's last great wilderness. The writing is both profound and familiar. The style is such that you often feel that Wright is sitting next to you, talking to you. It is truly a work of wisdom, and one that is as much a philosophical meditation as an observation of nature.

The Brooks range is a uniquely beautiful and austere place; This book is a unique, and undeservedly obscure treasure. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Sam and Billie lived in the Brooks Range in a 12 by 12 cabin, summer and winter for a dozen years. Sam's story is more than a cronicle of subsistence living in America's last great wilderness. Sam reintroduces us as a human community to a life that we have known but has been lost in our modern context. He asks questions that many of us are asking about our relationship to each other and the natural world. It is truly a spiritual journey. If you like Sam's book you might also like Billie Wright's book, Four Season's North, written about their first year in the far north.

I got this one dirt cheap. Another book on Wright to ad to your collection. Better than some, but I imagine there is better ones out there.

Much like Wright supposedly worked from the core, this book is a nice method of getting to the heart of the matter. The matter in this case is Frank Lloyd Wright because his personality, like his houses and structures, still stands out and has some gathered meaning that's not apparent which is worth seeking for the man was a leader and inspiring teacher as well as an intimidator who 'ticked' people off.

Of course, his finished products nullify any notion that sweat was involved because they evoke harmony. For that sake, it's not a surprise that many books are out there now, including this one, that can assemble pieces of history to derive life-validating conclusions after he's deceased, as we continue to be amazed at Wright architecture.

Wright's chosen projects began with love of the land, then complimentary design. Many of Wright's earlier works were never realized due in part because he designed as a hire and then clients did not want to pay what he was charging.

Wright's life too, apart from his projects, was architectonic. He was at a peak always and never eased up toward achieving his designs until the day he died. Wright's architectural wonders we know today were projects completed when he was a septuagenarian. His first sixty or so years were spent getting educated, getting married and divorced, losing work, gaining work, and finally building up the means to teach and form his school of designers and team of construction workers.

Wright was an engineer of sorts before he designed houses. His renown for environmental harmony and organic localized designs was not a result of unbridled passion or random artistry. Wright was a planner, calculator and stubborn perfectionist.

The editor has attempted to dispel myths and revisit customary sayings about Wright by publishing this compilation. These writings are not in chronological order but in order of the editor's chosen themes. Some entries are not fine writing but they convey a first-hand knowledge of the man.

Approximately thirty writers describe Wright through acquaintence or through scholarly studies while he was living. About a third of the book is personal correspondence. All writers knew him in one way or the other. The editor points out in the introduction that the first English-language book about Wright came out when Wright was seventy-two years old.

I don't recommend this book as a primer on the life of Wright or as an introduction to his architecture. This book should follow traditional-style biographies, if any, and you should certainly look at pictures and be familiar with the U.S. locations of his famous works.

The reviewer from Chicago has mistaken this book for another one. The author of this book is not Thomas A. Heinz. Mr. Heinz's books are of exceptionally high quality. This book as well as the Visual Encyclopedia authored by Mr. Thompson does contain a number of mis-identifications and an upside down picture of the Hollyhock House ornamentation.

This marvelous book is in 3 languages, English, German and French, in tandem, on each page. Printed on thick, glossy stock by Taschen, it is well written by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer in a clear and graceful style, and expertly edited by Peter Gossel and Gabriele Leuthauser. The contents are as follows:
Part One: "Essay"; this is the section where most of the text is, and consists of these topics: Background, The Prairie Houses, The Space Within, Materials, Nature, The Flow of the Work, and Human Values.
Part Two is "Selected Buildings and Projects".
The final pages are devoted to a chronological biography and list of executed works.

Mr. Pfeiffer writes that "His eloquence in the manner in which he wrote and spoke of nature is surpassed only by the buildings he set on the earth" (pg. 28). The way his work is an integral part of its surroundings is pure genius. The photograph on page 118 of the famous Fallingwater House, with the waterfall seeming to come from the structure is a perfect example of this.
The architect is quoted as saying "Nature is all the body of God we will ever know" (pg.26), and his creations reflect this reverence for the landscape.

Part Two is profusely illustrated in black and white and color, with only explanatory text. As magnificent as these photographs are, what I find the most thrilling are the drawings. They are reproduced in color, many are yellowed, torn and with little adhesive tape marks, but are of astounding beauty, and a glimpse into the mind of this unique and brilliant man.

Mr. Pfeiffer became Frank Lloyd Wright's student in the Taliesin Fellowship, and is the director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is one of numerous books he has written on Wright's life and work, and it is a fitting tribute to one of America's creative giants.

There are some of the best of the photos of Wright's work in this book, After seeing this work, Edgar Kaufmann, jr. hired Heinz to take the photos for his Fallingwater coffee table book.

Aparently the Reader from California has copied this review on to several of Mr. Heinz's book pages. This review does not seem to be appropriate to this book. This can easily be determined by simply looking at the three wonderful photos of the Hollyhock house. None of them are upside down. None of the 100 photos are mis-identified. These are wonderful photographs and this may be the first of Mr. Heinz's 20 some books, all are delight to have and look through.

Mr. Heinz, we want more of your work, keep at it.

A good introduction to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The book focuses primarily on Wright's residential work ("Fallingwater" is included), though there are a few churches, a civic center, and of course, the Guggenheim Museum. The photographs are terrific, but the writing is, while eloquent, nevertheless a bit lacking; one gets the impression the poor writer was hired merely to wrap words around the pretty pictures. Still, if you're new to the work of this masterful, prolific artist (as I am), this book serves as a good introduction.