Reading the very well written book "The Valley of the God-Almightly Joneses" by Maginel Wright Barney, the sister of Frank Lloyd Wright. The book concentrates on the maternal side of the family, the Lloyd-Jones. The grandparents, Richard Jones and Mary Lloyd came from Llandysul before they emigrated to Wisconsin. There is some circumstantial evidence that we may be related to the Joneses on my father's side of the family.
Their Welsh Unitarian family were a very strong influence on Maginel and her brother Frank although this does not come out in the numerous biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an amazing character and lead a life too colourful for Hollywood. From a very early age he had been groomed for great things by his mother Anna Lloyd-Jones and he knew that he was a genius. He is quoted as saying:
"Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility, I chose the former and have seen no reason to change"
If he was alive today he would be a tabloid reporters dream; totally indiscreet in his private life and always armed with a headline quote. But unlike todays so-called celebs he was a man of real talent, who changed the world of architecture.
In my article, to be published in the Western Mail tomorrow I talk about FLlW and his philosophy of Organic Architecture. I think that he would have demolished Cefnmeurig and started again on the same site. I just wonder whether he would have retained the same strongly defined reception rooms. His preference was for open plan rooms that flowed into each other. This matched the vast and open landscapes of the American Mid-West but if he had stayed in West Wales he may have designed interiors that mirrored the small enclosed fields that surrounded him. Who knows.
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