Loving Frank

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2007

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2, Chapters 15-24

Part 2, Chapters 25-32

Part 3, Chapters 33-44

Part 3, Chapter 45-Afterword

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Background

Historical Context: Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Bouton Borthwick

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect who designed over a thousand architectural works. He was born in Wisconsin in 1867, attended the University of Wisconsin, and then left to apprentice with architects, including famous architect Louis Sullivan. He moved to Chicago and eventually married Catherine Tobin; later, he began an affair with translator Mamah Bouton Borthwick. The Author’s Note points out that few documents related to Borthwick still exist and that, as a work of historical fiction, the novel draws on a number of sources to reconstruct Borthwick’s life—specifically, sources related to the period in which she was associated with Wright. Their time together coincided with Wright’s “Prairie style” of architecture, which included a long, low plan that ensured an intimate relationship with the land. After the Prairie style, Wright switched to a more “Usonian style” of architecture, designed with aesthetic and use in mind (“About Frank Lloyd Wright.” The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 2023).

After Borthwick’s death and the events of the novel, Wright remarried twice. He also released An Autobiography (1932) and The Disappearing City (1932) and opened an architectural school at his home. He worked on architectural projects until the end of his life. Some of Wright’s most famous works include Falling Water in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois. Many of these buildings are open to the public and operate as museums, though some are private residences. To date, Wright is lauded as one of the greatest American architects to ever live.

Social Context: The Woman Movement in the Early 20th Century

From the start of Loving Frank, translator Mamah Bouton Borthwick is involved with women’s rights activism. At the time, “feminism” was not yet coined as a term, and so the late-19th and early-20th-century activism surrounding women was known as the “Woman Movement.” Upper- and middle-class women were limited in their roles in society, while impoverished women and women of color were typically relegated to menial, laborious tasks. The Woman Movement around the world advocated for change for women, though many of its leaders did not always agree on what this change would look like (Cruea, Susan M. “Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement.” University Writing Program Faculty Publications, 2005). For example, the novel mentions Ellen Key, a Swedish philosopher whom Borthwick served as a translator. Key was not always beloved by the Woman Movement, as she prized motherhood as the epitome of work for women, though she saw it as true work rather than simply staying at home.

Borthwick herself was involved with the Nineteenth Century Woman’s Club, an organization founded in Tennessee in 1890 that would become one of the largest charitable women’s clubs in the United States. However, its focus slowly shifted to civil reform (Wedell, Marsha. “Nineteenth Century Club.” Tennessee Encyclopedia, 2023). The clubs across the United States would frequently host lecturers whose speeches were meant to edify listeners on education, equal pay, suffrage, and motherhood. These events were meant to encourage women to act independently and raise funds for their causes.