Working with Mr. Wright; What It Was Like

New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. First Published [stated]. Presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The format is approximately 8.25 inches by 10.25 inches. xx, 313, [1] pages. Illustrations (over 100 listed). Foreword by James F. O'Gorman. Notes. Personae. Sources. Appendix. Index. Curtis Wray Besinger was born in Stanberry, Missouri on June 12, 1914. He received his Bachelor of Science in architecture at the University of Kansas in 1936 and spent three years working with Joseph Radotinsky and other architects in Kansas City. Besinger joined Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowship in 1939. As a Junior Apprentice he worked on construction projects, participated in musical programs, directed the chorus, and assisted in the drafting room. During World War II, as a conscientious objector, he spent three years working on federal reclamation, wildlife and forestry-service projects in the Midwest and West in lieu of military service. Returning to Taliesin in 1946 as a Senior Apprentice, he worked on 37 projects and was for a period third in command. After 16 years as a Taliesin Fellow, Besinger left the Fellowship in 1955. His 1995 book, Working with Mr. Wright: What It Was Like, draws heavily on the correspondence in both this collection and the Library's Frank Lloyd Wright collection. Joining the KU faculty, Besinger taught architecture for 29 years, attaining full professorship in 1965. He was technical editor of House Beautiful in 1956-1957 and architectural consultant in 1957-1965. He also had an architectural practice, partly in association with Fritz (Fredric) and Fabi Benedict in Aspen, CO. Working with Mr. Wright. is a personal recollection by one of Frank Lloyd Wright's former apprentices of his years at the Taliesin Fellowship. Curtis Besinger provides a lively account of daily life in this community of architects established by Wright in Wisconsin and Arizona. An apprenticeship with the Fellowship entailed architectural tasks, such as drafting, designing, and overseeing projects, including the actual building of Taliesin West; as well as humbler assignments - from milking the cows to harvesting wheat - related to maintaining the farm that surrounds the Fellowship in Wisconsin. The social life of the Fellowship, filled with music and film, and planned in detail by Wright himself, is also recounted with wit and humor. Through these engaging recollections, illustrated with photographs, plans, and drawings made during Besinger's years at the Fellowship, Wright's eccentric personality, his working practices, and his unique creative vision emerge, along with a host of personalities who contributed to the unique Taliesin experience.