Wives and Lovers
At a time when society still viewed a wife as ‘property’ of her husband and few women pursued a career outside the home, Mamah Borthwick Cheney cast aside convention for a life with her soul mate, Frank Lloyd Wright.
An educated woman, Mamah (nickname for Martha) collected a BA from the University of Michigan in 1892. A free thinker even then she penned essays supporting the fledgling Women’s Movement in the late 19th century.
But marriage to a balding electrical engineer, ripped the 30-year-old
woman from the world of academia in Port Huron, Michigan, and plunked her down in Oak Park, Illinois, back in her father’s house.
Instead of being a ‘handmaiden to knowledge’ and ‘doctor of the soul’, she became a mother, twice over to her deceased sister’s child, Jessica, and her own son, John, born in 1902. A daughter, Martha, was added to the family in 1905.
No longer a translator who spoke six languages fluently, but a diaper changer extraordinaire who hustled to keep the dark old house clutter free to please her husband.
That’s when Edwin Cheney began campaigning for a modern home and Frank Lloyd Wright entered the picture.
Wright’s desire to create architecture, “that was true–something that emerged like a plant from the earth” awoke Mamah’s youthful interest in nature fostered by her amateur-naturalist father.
Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank commented, “I think what (Wright) saw in Mamah was a very attractive woman, a woman with a great deal to say–curious about the world in the way he was.”
Loving Frank chronicles the real-life love affair of the two sycophants. An affair which began during the planning stages of a garage to complement the Cheney’s home and continued until her death in 1914.
The lover’s scandalous behavior also forms the last section of The Women, T. C. Boyle’s 2009 novel dealing with the wives and mistresses of the renowned architect.
Writing in reverse order, Professor Boyle opens the book with Olga Ivanova Lazovich (aka Olgivanna), Wright’s last wife, before moving backward to wife number two, Miriam Noel and finishing off the text with Mamah.
About 30 years younger than the Oak Park architect, the dancer from Montenegro, apparently learned to co-habit with Wright at Taliesin in a way no other women had. After several stormy years at its beginning, their marriage lasted until his death in 1959 and produced one daughter, Iovanna.
While grieving over the loss of Mamah and trying to recreate their love nest in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright took up with Maude Miriam Noel, a noted, upper-crust sculptress. Their tumultuous marriage lasted only six months since the sexually charged morphine addict couldn’t abide being overshadowed by her celebrity husband.
Sadly, Katherine, Wright’s tenacious wife of 20 years, is mentioned in only one passage of The Women.
No matter which novel your group chooses to read and discuss, either will furnish a wide variety of topics to hash over during your monthly gathering.
Suggested discussion questions for Loving Frank can be found here.
At the present time, no discussion questions could be found online for The Women.
Thank you for including information about his other wives/lovers.
In a very mild way, I can say I experienced some of Mamah’s frustration at becoming a diaper changer instead of using my education for more “important” things. Now, in retrospect, I think the “diaper-changing” role, with all it implies, is a noble calling. I thank God for that period in my life. And there were still many opportunities and years to use my education for other things.