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A Brave and Lovely Woman: Mamah Borthwick and Frank Lloyd Wright Hardcover – March 14, 2023

by Mark Borthwick (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 14 ratings
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Mamah Borthwick was an energetic, intelligent, and charismatic woman who earned a master’s degree at a time when few women even attended college, translated writings by a key figure of the early feminist movement, and taught at one of Germany’s best schools for boys. She is best known, however, as the mistress of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and for her shocking murder at the renowned Wisconsin home he built for her, Taliesin. A Brave and Lovely Woman offers an important corrective to the narrative of Wright and Borthwick, a love story as American in character as it is Shakespearean in conclusion. 

Little of Wright’s life and work has been left untouched by his many admirers, critics, and biographers. And yet the woman who stood at the center of his emotional life, Mamah Borthwick, has fallen into near obscurity. Mark Borthwick—a distant relative—recenters Mamah Borthwick in her own life, presenting a detailed portrait of a fascinating woman, a complicated figure who was at once a dedicated mother and a faithless spouse, a feminist and a member of a conservative sorority, a vivacious extrovert and a social pariah. Careful research and engaging prose at last give Borthwick, an obscure but crucial character in one of America’s most famous tragedies, center stage.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Wisconsin Press
  4. Publication date
    March 14, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0299342905
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0299342906
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A substantive, thoughtful, and carefully wrought contribution to our historical knowledge about Mamah Borthwick. The author’s patient, assiduous research and clear, straightforward presentation offer much-needed correctives to the narrative of Borthwick and her important relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright.”—Anthony Alofsin, author of Wright and New York: The Making of America’s Architect

“Meticulously researched and full of information drawn from newly discovered sources, this book is the first to restore Mamah Borthwick—a highly educated, vibrant, and well-connected woman—to her proper place in the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright and in the history of twentieth-century feminism.”—Alice T. Friedman, author of Women and the Making of the Modern House

“An incredibly well-written and deeply researched portrayal of Mamah Borthwick. So much of her life has focused on her tragic ending without knowing more specifically who she was as a person: strong, intelligent, and fiercely brave. While her life indeed ended tragically early, there is no doubt that her brave and lovely spirit is still embedded in her home, Taliesin.”—Carrie Rodamaker, executive director, Taliesin Preservation

“A compelling read from first page to last.”—Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Mark Borthwick (1946-2024) served as the director of the U.S. Asia Pacific Council at the East-West Center. He is the author of Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Wisconsin Press; First Edition (March 14, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0299342905
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0299342906
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

About the author

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Mark Borthwick

Mark Borthwick

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After graduating from Northwestern University, Mark Borthwick served in the US Army in Vietnam. He received a PhD in anthropology from the University of Iowa followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University and a Congressional Science Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He served on the staff of the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs in the US House of Representatives and became the US Executive Director of the US National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation upon its inauguration by the President and Secretary of State in 1984. Subsequently he was the Director of the United States Asia Pacific Council in Washington, a project of the East-West Center. His book, Pacific Century, accompanied the award-winning, ten-hour PBS television documentary of that name.

A distant relative of Mamah Bouton Borthwick, he is the author of her biography, A Brave and Lovely Woman (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023).

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
14 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kim C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Even-Handed and Well-Researched
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2023
Verified Purchase
This biography was carefully written and researched, presenting the facts without any judgment. Having been authored by a distant relative, I somewhat expected a favorable bias; thankfully, this was not present. Mamah Borthwick's life was followed in chronological order, offering a lot of new material—including details about her time at the University of Michigan, as well as her active role in her sorority, which carried well past her college years. It also cleared up some misconceptions about certain events—such as when she left Port Huron to return to Oak Park (well before her marriage), or her departure from Boulder to head overseas with Frank Lloyd Wright (well after her children had returned home).

The questions that weren't answered—and will never be answered—are the core of my curiosity: why this highly intelligent woman made such seemingly poor choices in her personal life. This biography hasn't changed my opinion of those choices. While I certainly appreciate her meaning to—and influence on— Frank Lloyd Wright, she was no feminist hero. My sympathies lie with the family she left behind.

I did find a handful of small errors in the book. For example, a picture of the Imperial Hotel is captioned as taken in the 1930s; however, it's clear from the cars on the street that it's at least the mid-1950s, if not a bit later. Another error was the year of Edwin Cheney's death (1942, not 1947 as stated in the book).

This book has lingered with me after finishing it, which is always the sign of a meaningful read. As a Chicago-area resident, it's almost mandatory to love Frank Lloyd Wright—I've visited his home/studio, as well as several other properties—but this book has made me want head to Oak Park and finally take a walk past the Cheney House. I'd also like to head up to Taliesin to see the place that FLW and Mamah called home. Kudos to Mark Borthwick for doing such a fantastic job with a challenging subject!
5 people found this helpful
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Lisbeth
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting But Bogged Down With Details
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2024
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I wanted to learn about Mamah Borthwick and her story but the book so far has been bogged on architecture and tedious Chicago history instead. I hope it will improve, as I am on chapter 7 and rather bored.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed study of an amazing woman.
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2024
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A fascinating story about an exceptionally accomplished woman, and her complicated relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright.
A must read that gives you a true account of a real feminist during the early twentieth century.
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Seafields
5.0 out of 5 stars Much better than I thought it would be.
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2024
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Author presents a fuller picture of Mamah Borthworth and her relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright than any we’ve seen before.
2 people found this helpful
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s k robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars An important filling in of a historical gap.
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2023
Verified Purchase
A readable compilation of what is known about an important individual in Wright's life. Even sadder than before knowing her fate.
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Stuart G.
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the truth about Mamah Borthwick
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2023
As the head of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, I was provided an advance review copy.

In A Brave and Lovely Woman, author Mark Borthwick examines the life and work of Mamah Borthwick—the woman often referred to in sensational terms as Frank Lloyd Wright’s “mistress"— revealing a serious scholar of language, of feminist thought, and modern modes of living for men and women in early 20th Century America.

Mamah (using her first name to distinguish her from the author, her distant cousin) has often been treated superficially by Wright’s biographers as merely the wife of a client, whom he whisked away to Europe in an extramarital affair that brought tragedy to the two of them. But Borthwick’s deep research, which uncovers extensive material not previously published, reveals a strong-willed and well-educated woman ambivalent about her own marriage and perhaps the institution of marriage itself—long before Wright comes into her life. Her work translating early feminist Ellen Key informs both Borthwick and Wright about different ways of thinking about marriage and relations between men and women in general, and as a result provides a guiding defense for their relationship. Borthwick’s account shows that Wright was far from being the womanizer he is often-purported to be; rather, he sees Mamah as an equal and advocates for her as a professional and a scholar, with, as Borthwick notes, “a measure of respect that he did not always extend to others.”

In this chronicle of Mamah’s and Wright’s struggles against the social mores of the day, two antagonists emerge. The “yellow press” of the day felt free to invent or exaggerate the details of their relationship, in a drive to sell newspapers and without regard to the personal impact on the lives of those involved in the affair; and these spurious accounts in turn have informed writers of fiction, plays, and opera to present the matter through the lens of scandal. The other antagonist is Catherine Tobin, Wright’s wife, who refused for years to give him a divorce, who planted false information with the media, and who, it seems, manipulated her own children to embarrass Wright publicly. While sympathies may naturally extend to Catherine as a scorned spouse with young children, Borthwick makes it clear that much agony for all could have been avoided if she had given Wright the divorce he asked for, ending a marriage that was no longer working.

Borthwick also contributes new scholarship around the murder of Mamah and others at Taliesin. Where recent books have tried—and failed—to provide insight into the circumstances and motivations of the murderer, Borthwick triumphs with a fact-based narrative of the events that should definitively supplant the breathless speculation that has haunted the memory of August 1914. One hopes that this work finally deposes the fictional accounts of Mamah and Wright’s relationship with a richer, and truth-filled, story about two serious people trying to change the world around them for the better, finding support for and from each other.
5 people found this helpful
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