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Early handwritten draft for a public statement by Frank Lloyd Wright, who wrote this statement both as an apology and an explanation to the people of Spring Green, Wisconsin, for recent events surrounding his house-studio, Taliesin. The statement, entitled “Taliesin III,” penned in black ink on five pages, 7.75 x 11, is signed at the conclusion, “Faithfully, Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin June 8th – 1926,” who discusses the public misconceptions of Taliesin, whilst reflecting on the property’s various hardships and tragedies.
It reads, in part: “I have learned long-since that no personal animus nor intent to do harm lie behind most ‘news’ references to Taliesin or myself. A pestilential vulgar touch is laid on both – ‘natural’ I say because somehow Taliesin is mixed up in popular imagination with ‘women’; ignorant because regardless of true circumstances. ‘The public,’ is there is really any such foolish animal, takes for granted that where there are ‘women’ there must be demoralization – blame and disgrace. And journalism of the base sort suppressing facts it may privately know to the contrary…That ‘demoralization’ should enter the popular mind with women is not fair…
Taliesin really stands for high-minded achievement in substantial human thought and rare fine feeling. It is essentially a workshop and a home for intelligent student workers and their wives, mostly from foreign countries. It is beautiful – but there is nothing ‘loose’ or luxurious or ‘palatial’ about it. It depends for its support solely on what its master can earn by his work. It is home-made by the man who lives in it…It is seriously bent upon a useful mission in this wagging world. And could the results it has already achieved by hard work be seen by you you would understand that what I say is true. The unfortunate comrade whose shelter Taliesin originally was, met her death here in one of those unaccountable strokes of human fate that is like a streak of lightning. Those privileged to touch the personal life of the Taliesin of that time in its difficult circumstances respected it highly. Only those who did not know it imagined it eccentric or profane.
Tragedy suddenly destroyed that life forever and left a black hole, the smoking crater of a volcano upon the hill where once Taliesin stood. I was left to rebuild it – better and stronger than before. I tried to share the life I had dedicated to high purposes and great work there with another poor woman whose refuge it became at a time when I was ill and she was destitute. This phase of Taliesin was ill-starred from its unsuitable beginning…Always I intended to give my support to the unfortunate victim of – of what? Of her own evil passions? But the seeds of decay were already there and the process on its way when her life with me began ten years ago…I had no chance against it from the first and now less than none since heartless ‘news’ mongers have caught its theatrical, irrational, jealous fury and professional sob-sisters exploit it in my name in silly headlines on page one…I must be patient and hope that you my towns-folk will be kind – for Taliesin is not what you are led to think.” Another included page, 7.75 x 5.5, contains Wright's rewritten version of the statement’s first two paragraphs. The statement bears copious handwritten corrections by Wright in both ink and pencil. In fine condition.
This statement appears to be an early, longer, and far more detailed version of a public apology that Wright had printed in The Weekly Home News, the local newspaper of Spring Green, Wisconsin, on June 10, 1926, two days after this offered ‘letter’ was written. The reason for the pubic statement was due to a recent media swarm of Chicago reporters who descended upon the village to photograph Wright’s ex-wife, Miriam Noel, and her attempts to gain entry into her former home, Taliesin
A sculptor, morphine addict, and self-proclaimed spiritualist, Noel became involved with Wright not long after the tragic death of his partner, Mamah Borthwick, one of seven murdered by a deranged Taliesin servant on August 15, 1914. After divorcing his first wife, Catherine ‘Kitty’ Tobin, Wright married Noel on November 19, 1923. The couple quarreled a great deal and, in less than a year, they were separated. Soon thereafter, Wright began a relationship with Olgivanna Lloyd, and Noel filed for a divorce, alleging desertion and cruelty.
On April 20, 1925, Taliesin caught fire for the second time in a span of ten years. Wright remained optimistic, but between the expensive rebuild and the barrage of paparazzi, the future looked glib. At the end of August 1926, one of Wright’s attorneys (Levi Bancroft) advised Wright to spend some time away from Taliesin, while he and others tried to settle things with Miriam and the Bank of Wisconsin.
Wright and his coterie—Olgivanna, her daughter, Svetlana, and Iovanna—traveled to Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, where they stayed in a cottage for about a month. However, by driving Olgivanna across the Wisconsin-Minnesota state line, instead of having her get out and walk, Wright inadvertently violated the Mann Act. On October 21, 1926, Wright was apprehended and brought to the county jail, where he stayed for the weekend until a judge was finally made available. The charges were eventually dropped, and on August 25, 1928, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, Wright and Olgivanna were finally married.
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