Pomegranate Communications

Building the Pauson House; the letters of Frank Lloyd Wright and Rose Pauson.

Quite an intriguing book, edited and introduced by the great-nephew of Rose Pauson, the San Francisco-based artist who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build her a house near Phoenix. The house, which came to be known as Shiprock, was built in 1940-2 and then burned to the ground in 1943; and the ruins were a landmark for many years. This lovely presentation of letters, shown in facsimile one to a page, is very evocative. Typewritten and handwritten communications — some lengthy, many quite short — are complemented by photos of the house itself and some of the drawn plans. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

C.F.A. Voysey; architect designer individualist.

C.F.A. Voysey was an influential architect and decorative artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, beloved by the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements for his colorful, nature-inspired wallpapers and admired by the emerging Modernists for the warm, simplified lines of his cottage and furniture designs. O'Donnell, former editor in chief of Style 1900 magazine, presents the biography of a brilliant and highly principled, yet humorous and kind designer, accompanied by a survey of his work including handsome architectural drawings, period photos, charming furniture and fixture designs, and 65 luminous color reproductions of his captivating wallpapers and textiles. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Louis Sullivan; creating a new American architecture.

Cannon, author of several books on Chicago architecture, presents a pictorial survey of the works of Louis Henry Sullivan, who was mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, creator of the skyscraper, and famously expressed the modernist credo "Form follows function." While he precedes each section with biographical detail, Cannon maintains the focus on Sullivan's work, including contemporary photography of each of his extant buildings in Chicago and several outside the city, as well as period photographs of important demolished sites such as the Schiller Building. James Caulfield's rich and detailed photography captures the Art Nouveau grace and Prairie School simplicity of skyscrapers, warehouses, churches and temples, banks and private homes, and salvaged fragments of dismantled buildings including the Chicago Stock Exchange. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)