Loving Frank

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is a renowned architect whose work marrying buildings and nature gains him international acclaim. Loving Frank presents a fictionalized version of the real-life figure, focusing on his affair with translator Mamah Bouton Borthwick. Living in Oak Park, Illinois, when the novel begins, Frank is married to Catherine and has six children by the time he and Mamah begin an affair. At the time, his work is the subject of controversy due to its deviation from classical architecture styles. He’d left school because few were interested in his passion for organic architecture. In Mamah, Frank finds intellectual connection.

Frank’s family motto is “[t]ruth against the world” (125), and he strives to live by it. He is unashamed of his relationship with Mamah but is selective in disclosing it for fear of her receiving backlash; however, it is important to note that he can afford to voice such as a man and public figure, unlike Mamah. During the couple’s press conference, he states, “I believe we can’t be useful to the progress of society without a stubborn selfhood […] I wanted to be honestly myself first and take care of everything else afterward” (245). The statement makes it seem like Frank’s family, or at the very least his children, are not his priority—allowing the press to criticize him as a father as they do Mamah as a mother. Despite these remarks, he does seem to care for his children and struggles when they come to criticize him; he is eventually able to repair his relationship with his son, John, who becomes an architect like him.

Frank’s charm lies in his ability to “make a legend out of a happenstance” (156). Even as his work gains fame, he fears people will come to see him as common. As a result, he often hyperbolizes stories, and Mamah wishes he could recognize his own strengths. Frank’s constant need to imagine a more beautiful life leads him to financial troubles, and this becomes a source of tension between him and Mamah. Ultimately, he learns to live his truth with some compromise and honors Mamah’s death by planning to rebuild the half-burned Taliesin—the house he designed specifically for them.

Edwin “Ed” Cheney is Mamah’s husband when the novel begins. He is a kind man described as “draw[ing] his contentment from simple things—Cuban cigars, the morning streetcar ride with the other men, tinkering with his automobile” (4). He was persistent in his pursuit of Mamah and was welcoming of her sisters. Mamah is initially content with Ed but eventually wishes to be challenged intellectually.

When Ed finds out about Mamah and Frank’s affair, he is angry but ultimately blames himself. He wishes for Mamah to return to him, revealing his own struggle to feel like enough for his wife. However, when Mamah leaves their children with her friend Mattie—inadvertently exposing them to Mattie’s death—he begins to question Mamah’s character and believes Frank has corrupted her. This incident demonstrates Ed’s prioritization of his children; he even continues to let Mamah’s sister, Lizzie, stay in their home, as she cares for her nephew and niece.

Eventually, Ed sues Mamah for divorce and remarries a woman named Elinor, signifying that he has moved on from his first wife. In a tragic turn, Mamah, John, and Martha are murdered, leaving Ed with his children’s bodies. His and Frank’s farewell closes the novel, highlighting how the men in Mamah’s life were affected by her. This switches the gendered paradigm in which women are often framed as the objects of men, forced to live with the consequences of men’s actions. Instead, it is Ed and Frank who will have to live with Mamah’s decisions, and their civil goodbye symbolizes their respect for her as well as their personal growth.

Lizzie Borthwick is Mamah’s living sister, as the two lost a sister named Jessica. She lives in Oak Park for much of the novel, ultimately moving out after Ed remarries. She is a teacher and paid for Mamah to attend graduate school. Mamah describes Lizzie as someone who “prefer[s] to live unobtrusively, going about her business pleasantly, her delicate antennae cueing her to slip out of a room when talk turn[s] private or uncomfortable” (51). As a result, being forced into the spotlight by Mamah’s decision to leave Ed for Frank causes a great deal of stress.

At first, Lizzie is somewhat supportive of Mamah but still encourages her to return home. However, after years of separation, a newspaper article quotes her as calling Mamah “[her] unhappy, misguided sister” (254), and Mamah is uncertain how much of this to take at face value. When the sisters meet in Chicago for the first time in years, Lizzie voices her frustration at having to care for their mother and Mamah’s children in Mamah’s place. Mamah comes to recognize these sacrifices, and the sisters develop an “uneasy peace” when Lizzie drops Martha off at Taliesin for the final time (326).

Catherine Wright (1871-1959) is Frank’s first wife, and her presence haunts Frank and Mamah, as she refuses divorce. The couple often see her as the villain in their love story: Catherine paints herself as a loyal wife in comparison to Mamah, a “homewrecker” with no consideration for Frank’s children or her own. However, Mamah comes to relate to Catherine once she realizes some of Frank’s vices, such as his unreliability when it comes to paying bills; without an official tie to him through marriage, it is unlikely that he would pay child support. Mamah realizes loving Frank comes with a cost, one that both women understand.