Customer Reviews

Julia Morgan, Architect of Dreams (Lerner Biographies)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read this book when it first came out to review for our library collection. It has always been one of the books that has stood out in my mind as an unforgettable. It is terrific not just for the youth but also adults. It is an exemplary biography for an exemplary woman. Julia Morgan was one of our countries first women architects. It is an excellent biography for girls and the general public. An excellent comprehensive read of one of our countries finest architects. I highly recommend it for someone looking for an oustanding, informative, inspiring fun read for our youth.

I've been somewhat familiar with Julia Morgan's architecture for many years, so it was interesting to read about her life. This is a nice quick read for an adult, but would really be wonderful as a gift to that niece or nephew who aspires to be an architect. The book does a good job of demonstrating how important Miss Morgan's determination and leadership skills were to her success, in addition to her obvious artistic giftedness.

As a Berkeley grad I was disappointed to learn that one of my heros, John Galen Howard, who was chief campus architect in the early 20th century (and designer of the Campanile, among many other of the granite buildings), acted in such a petty way towards Miss Morgan, blocking any campus building contracts from going to her because she had the audacity to leave his office to go solo. On the other hand, Bernard Maybeck sounds as though he was as delightful as the Berkeley brown shingles he designed.

A touching aspect of the book is how it illustrates Miss Morgan's kindness to everyone she came in contact with. She designed a playhouse for the children of the man who chauferred her to and from the Hearst Castle site. When her own mother was getting old and fearful she built an exact replica in San Francisco of the bedroom her mother had lived in for many years in Oakland.

This is a great little book. It gives insight to Julia Morgan the person more than Julia Morgan the Architect. There seems to be plenty of books covering her work but this is a bit more personal. I really enjoyed it.

The book was shorter and smaller than what I expected. After visiting Hearst Castle last year and hearing about this architect, I wanted to learn more. I think that there are better books out there.

Other than the big coffee tables books on Morgan's architecture, I was hoping to learn more about the woman, so I got this book and Cary James's book to see what they were like. They are both good, but this one I thought is much, much better. It told me exactly what I wanted to know and I finished it in about 2 hours. An adult would have no problem with this book, it is not childlike at all. I found out everything I wanted to know about the person Julia Morgan in this book.

Wow. I wanted to do a good book for my book report. This book was just the right one. It's about the life of Julia Morgan and what she was like. Now, if you don't like biographies, I don't either. This book waas really good though. I recommend this to anyone that hates biographies. The other reason I think I liked it is that my name is similar to hers! This book is all about the true Julia Morgan.