By all indications, Horan has succeeded.Ĭhapter 1 begins with Mamah rushing through slushy streets in a Chicago suburb to see Frank give a public talk, and it soon is evident that the reader is not witnessing the beginning of their relationship, but has been dropped into an ongoing intrigue of illicit love. However, some other historical literature provided guidelines, and Horan strove for as authentic a depiction of both the lives and the time. Wright's autobiography includes but doesn't dwell on her.

And nothing else she might have authored is known to posterity aside from ten letters she wrote to Swedish feminist author Ellen Key and the published translations Mamah completed. No extant Mamah/Frank correspondence has come to light. Precious few pieces of her writing could be uncovered. As author Nancy Horan notes, piecing together a picture of Mamah required a great deal of research. Loving Frank is a fictionalized exploration of Mamah (pronounced May-muh, and a nickname given to little girl Martha Borthwick by her grandmother) and Frank's life together, told almost exclusively from Mamah's perspective, although via third person. We were more than merely happy even when momentarily miserable.' As Wright wrote in the same letter to THE WEEKLY HOME NEWS newspaper on August 20, 1914, 'Mamah and I have had our struggles, our differences, our moments of jealous fear for our ideals of each other - they are not lacking in any close human relationship - but they served only to bind us more closely together.

From 1907 through 1914, their affair, highly publicized at times, flourished. Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect, wrote those words about Mamah Borthwick Cheney, the woman for whom he'd left his wife, Catherine.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan