Included among Wright's complete books and articles reproduced here are 'The Disappearing City, ' covering the problem of urban density; his famous prophetic solutions for more livable metropolises; his concise, powerful agenda for American architecture, 'An Organic Architecture'; and his writings on the creation of his school, the Taliesin Fellowship. The articles are accompanied by photographs and drawings (many previously unpublished) of Wright's work.

In the early fifties, he is honored both nationally and internationally with a large retrospective exhibition of his work that travels throughout Europe, displaying his unquestioned brilliance in one prestigious venue after another, beginning, ironically enough, with the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and passing from there to the Kunshtaus in Zurich, one of the few modern buildings in Europe that he unequivocally admired.

These writings cover Wright's personality and life style, Wright's clients and his work, the discovery of Wright by Europeans, and more recent evaluations by Lewis Mumford and Reyner Banham, among others.

Architect, designer, and teacher, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was also an enormously productive and influential writer, publishing a prodigious number of articles, letters, and complete books. His writings have become indispensable inclusions in architecture libraries and have influenced generations of architects, city planners, designers, environmentalists, and architectural enthusiasts in this country and throughout the world. This is the fourth volume in the highly acclaimed series of Wright's written works, most of which are out of print and have never before been systematically compiled for publication. Arranged chronologically, Volume IV includes the years of world conflict and postwar recovery-- a rich, prolific period during which Wright created designs for some of his best-known buildings. The predominant themes of these writings are his outspoken antiwar stance, his political isolationism, and his magnificent plan for living in the late twentieth century-- Broadacre City-- which he offers as a challenge to materialism and as a means of rehumanizing the nation and its citizens through decentralization. The essays here consist of published and unpublished manuscripts, as well as the Taliesin Square-Papers, which Wright privately published in the early 1940s as a non-political voice from our democratic minority. The writings not only look forward to new solutions but also reflect poetically on his life's work and the sources of his inspirations. Included here are the final book of his autobiography, composed primarily of personal reminiscences, as well as a discussion of life with the members of the Taliesin Fellowship, his school and apprenticeship system, and hislasting tribute to his great teacher, Louis Sullivan, in Genius and the Mobocracy. His architectural message is consistent with his previous writings: the United States needs an architecture that will reflect the democratic values of the nation and encourage the creative life of the individual. Wright also continues his attack on the International Style, decrying its lack of cultural character and soulless universality. Wright created more than 200 designs during this period-- highlighted by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the S.C. Johnson and Company Research Tower, and the Florida Southern College campus, as well as factories, theaters, civic centers, and more than 100 residential designs, many of which are illustrated here with previously unpublished drawings.

This volume begins with the exciting new contribution of three previously unpublished lectures the young Wright delivered to Chicago audiences as he expounded his basic philosophy of architecture, and ends with his famed "Kahn Lectures", given at Princeton University in 1930. 110 illustrations, 50 in color.