Author Mark Lamster's biography of architect Philip Johnson, "The Man in the Glass House", is a superb examination of a man who, in many ways, was the embodiment of his class and time. An anti-Semite - he was an open admirer of Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930's - he tried to make amends for his actions by designed for no fee a temple in Port Chester, New York. He was opinionated and never failed to give his views a thorough airing. He was diagnosed bi-polar (I'm not sure if that was before his death or after) and his life was filled with emotional ups-and-downs. He was openly gay from an early age and his relationships with men were an important component of his life. He was a masterful designer of buildings and individual rooms. Philip Johnson lived to be almost 100 years old
Lamster's biography of Philip Johnson was the first since Franz Schulze's, "Philip Johnson: Life and Work", which was published in 1996. That book was an excellent look at Johnson's life but maybe the final bio couldn't be written until after Johnson's death in 2005.
Philip Johnson was born to wealthy parents in Cleveland. He and his sisters enjoyed European cultural trips and a high-style of life. He entered Harvard at a young age but took seven years to complete his degree. Given his inheritance years before this parents' deaths (there was something murky about Homer Johnson's finances at the time...), he lived the life of an aesthete at college and ever after. He really did not need to work, but he found his interests were almost totally on architecture - both its history and its practice. Johnson spent his young adulthood making his way
learning how architecture has influenced the world. It was during the 1930's that Johnson was enraptured by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. He came out of his infatuation, but the term Nazi-lover followed him throughout his life.
Mark Lamster's biography is a complete view of Johnson's life. He doesn't try to downplay Johnson's more egregious societal beliefs but does balance those out with how they affected his life and work. If you read and enjoyed Franz Schulze's biography of Philip Johnson, I think you'll enjoy Lamster's book.
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