Loving Frank

In 1914, John and Martha stay with Mamah and Frank. The children are unaccustomed to life at Taliesin, but Mamah is committed to accommodating them. Frank joins the children on a horseback ride, and they go to see cranes in a meadow. Mamah likes that the cranes have their own view of the world.

A new cook named Gertrude Carlton arrives at Taliesin with her husband, Julian, who works as a servant. Mamah questions Gertrude about bringing her husband, but she stands her ground. Mamah and Frank enjoy dinner. Frank is deep in a project designing a beer garden and rarely home, so they take time to sit together. Frank recounts a disagreement with a sculptor on his project, and Mamah grows frustrated but does not say anything.

Mamah has decided to keep translating for Ellen, though she hasn’t forgiven her for her unsolicited advice. Frank suggests that they buy the local newspaper for Mamah to run. He will soon go to Japan to work on the Imperial Hotel, and she won’t be joining him. That night, she continues to think about the newspaper and resolves to write a book about women’s stories.

Mamah goes to Chicago for the opening of the Midway Gardens, a project that has struggled. The event is her and Frank’s first time out together since the newspaper scandal. Mamah secretly visits the building without telling Frank and sees how playful it is. She grows even more excited for the party. She gets a short haircut, one that reminds her of her friend in Berlin.

Mamah enjoys her time at the Midway Gardens. There, she meets the owner of the Little Review, Margaret Anderson, who wants to publish her and Frank’s translation of Goethe’s Hymn to Nature. Frank’s son, also named John—who worked on the Midway Gardens—approaches Mamah and expresses how happy his father is with her. She nearly cries.

The chapter opens with the introduction to Mamah’s book, which draws on her own life. She emphasizes that her book is a collection of women’s stories. As she finishes the introduction, John and Martha return from a horse ride. John had come from staying with friends in Waukesha, and Lizzie brought Martha from Chicago. Lizzie and Mamah strike a tentative peace, and Mamah recognizes that her sister’s life has been irrevocably changed by her choices. That night, Mamah asks her children if they’re homesick, and John asks if she misses Oak Park. She instead expresses her love for them.

After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Mamah worries about her friends in Germany. Meanwhile, conflicts among the staff force Mamah to fire the cook, Gertrude, and her husband, Julian, though she empathizes for the Black couple—as they have had to adapt to a primarily white community. The next day, Mamah notices Julian is wearing a pair of Frank’s pants. She grows concerned and sends a telegram to Frank, asking him to come home.

Julian enters the dining room during lunch, and Mamah notices his pants are wet. Then, she sees the ax in his hand. He sets the house on fire, and she and her children flee. However, Julian follows, attacking Mamah. She sees the ax over her head and then blood. She falls and crawls toward John, who tries to get Julian off of her.

At the Midway Gardens, Frank and his son, John, work on a mural; however, the money for the project has run out. Frank receives the news that his house is on fire and worries for Mamah. He and John leave, running into Ed at the train station. When the trio arrive at Spring Green, Frank’s cousin reports that Julian is missing and Mamah and Martha are both dead. The group goes to the house, and half of it has been burned. The narration reveals that Julian was eventually found and arrested. The next day, Ed finds his son John’s burned body.

Frank wakes the next day and wishes he had been at Spring Green when Julian attacked. Ed intends on taking his children’s bodies home, and Frank decides to bury Mamah that day. He goes to Taliesin and learns Julian locked all the doors and poured gasoline on the walls (thus his wet pants). He lit a fire and then killed Mamah and her children. He then attacked the workmen.

Frank retrieves what he can from the house, finding pieces of his work and Mamah’s. Ed takes the coffin containing his children’s bodies, and he and Frank part for the final time. Frank cuts flowers from Mamah’s garden and covers her body with them. Then, he buries her in his family’s plot. He reads from Goethe’s Hymn to Nature, which they translated together.

In total, seven died from Julian’s attack. Knowing the press still villainizes Mamah as a “homewrecker,” Frank writes a letter to the Weekly Home News; he emphasizes that she had her own soul and life. He reiterates that they both wanted to live their lives as honestly as they could while protecting loved ones from the fallout. He thinks of his life with Mamah and remembers coming home to go on a horseback ride with her; they later made love in a clearing.

Two weeks after the fire, Frank is still haunted by Mamah’s death. Julian dies in jail, and Frank throws himself into work, cutting himself off from his family. One morning, the carpenter comes to see him. He heard Frank wishes to build again, and they agree to start Taliesin anew. Frank plans on mixing glass and pottery left from the fire into the foundation for the house.

Author Nancy Horan addresses the readers, recounting growing up in Oak Park, Illinois, and hearing of Frank Lloyd Wright. She learned about Mamah Borthwick Cheney but found little information about her. She used newspapers, memoirs, censuses, and Mamah’s letters to Ellen Key to form a historically accurate image of Mamah. Horan notes that none of the letters in the novel are Mamah’s, except for a short piece written to Ellen and Frank’s editorial in the Weekly Home News.