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Summary: A compulsively readable classic for American Studies & Art
Review: A model of art history, this deliciously gossipy, profoundly researched, pellucidly clear and eminently insightful overview of American social, cultural and modern art history from the vantage of one object must rank with Henry Adams' "Mont Saint Michel & Chartres" as a timeless classic. Virtually every page holds a miniature essay on, e.g., history of American retailing, architectural modernism, fashionable ant-semitism before WWII, the department store in diffusion of high culture, visual representation of American optimism in the Depression, designing a home for a dysfunctional family, Wright's inexhaustible eccentricities and a very fine brief biography (including his odd relations with Jews), urban history of Pittsburgh (Toker--an early Renaissance specialist--wrote an underappreciated urban/artistic popular study of the city where he has lived for many years), "nature" in American culture, Objectivist philosophy (remember that rite of passage of our youth?) and much more. I can think of few other works that immerse a reader so fully and enjoyably in a time, place and the interface of vast historical and cultural forces.Every college course on America since the Civil War should assign this book. I recommend it to everyone who loves to read and especially who loves to see a well-prepared mind at play with a fascinating panorama and telling details. I am not a relative, professional colleague or in any other way obligated to say the above, just a former history teacher who owes Professor Toker thanks for a great read. Robert Goldman, Manhattan, NY
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Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: At first glance, a book about Fallingwater might appear to be narrowly focused and of little interest to non-architects. In fact, Franklin Toker has written a thoroughly engaging book that weaves together biography, architecture, and cultural history. The story of America's most famous house becomes inextricably tied to the lives of E.J. Kaufmann, his wife, son, and, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright. In this biographical mix Toker explores relevant and fascinating components of American social and cultural history from the 1930s to the present. If you've visited Fallingwater, or are a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, this is a must read. Even if you haven't travelled to Bear Run and know little about Wright, this volume is worth reading. Fallingwater Rising is simply a great book.
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Summary: Fallingwater Rising
Review: Being born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois where Frank Lloyd Wright did much of his early work, I developed an interest in Wright that I explored over the years by reading books on Wright and by visiting his buildings. Clearly this is the finest book I have ever read on Wright and his work. It moves beyond architecture to place Wright, his client, and the great house, Fallingwater, in a comprehensive social and historical context which makes the building both more understandable and more enjoyable. Not at all a book for the specialist. I would have read this book with great pleasure even if I knew nothing about Wright and his architecture.
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Summary: Another Fallingwater Book ? This one is a page-turner !
Review: Carefully researched social history of the time and place and revealing portraits of the larger-than-life key players ... intricately woven around the irresistable story of an architectural icon. It all fits together seamlessly and will keep you reading late into the night.
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Summary: Structure, Architect, Client: A Fine History
Review: Fallingwater is quite out of the way. It was a country house, a weekend retreat, and as such was placed way in the Pennsylvania woods. Yet every year, 140,000 people visit it, and Franklin Toker demonstrates in _Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House_ (Knopf) it is the most-visited home in the United States except for those visited for history or for an association with a personality. People come to see Fallingwater because it is an architectural masterpiece. And yet, as Toker says, "Visiting Fallingwater has only a little to do with architecture and engineering: the quality we perceive here is essentially spiritual." Because of the deep allusions to nature (the most common remark is that the house seems to have been part of the surroundings or to have grown out of them naturally), every visitor from every culture, even one who has no love for modern architecture, finds something appealing in the building. Toker, a professor of the history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, obviously loves his topic, but more importantly, he knows not only twentieth-century architectural history but specifically the history of one of the main commercial builders of Pittsburgh. There is plenty to read about Wright here, but the world knows him well already (though the book does puncture myths, some complimentary and some not). E. J. Kaufmann, however, if known at all is known as the man who built Fallingwater. He was an astute businessman, a Pittsburgh department-store tycoon and philanthropist. Wright needed the house because at the time his reputation had stalled and he had no clients, and Kaufmann needed the house to redress the anti-Jewish snobbery of Pittsburgh. It worked for both sides wonderfully. That does not mean they had an easy relationship. Wright demanded loyalty of his clients, worshipful obedience, and got it much of the time. But Kaufmann was not worshipful, and could not be bullied. After the unalloyed success of Fallingwater, he continued to build personal and commercial structures, sometimes dangling the commission in front of Wright, sometimes getting plans but never building with him again. They were the city Jew and the Midwestern isolationist, and as Toker reflects, it is amazing they accomplished anything at all. Toker tells all about the most memorable aspect of the design, the overshoot balcony, which was a late addition to the plan. Toker makes plain that Wright had a brilliant and intuitive sense of form and structure, but he was not an engineer, and Fallingwater was imperiled by the start. Only recent reinforcement cables have kept it from falling down. Toker includes a fascinating chapter about the "hype" and the "buzz" that surrounded the house from its beginnings. Wright's friend, Henry Luce, got the building into his own magazines and into newspapers all over the world. Ayn Rand took details of the Fallingwater story and included them transformed into fiction for her novel _The Fountainhead_. A final chapter is devoted to Kaufmann's son, Edgar Junior, who was briefly a student of Wright's (not a happy time for either). He was "an important American aesthete of the twentieth century," but he also cultivated the idea that he was the real spark that got his dad to erect Fallingwater. He may have been deluded or lying, but he did take loving care of the place, donating it to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy which makes it accessible to the public. He was himself one of the many sources consulted for this big and well-illustrated volume. Toker is an obvious fan of the house, and of Wright, and of Pittsburgh, and his enthusiasm shows in richness of detail and anecdote in a volume that shows architecture to be surprisingly exciting.
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Summary: Fallingwater Rising...and Rising
Review: Franklin Toker has constructed a masterpiece. The book's own architecture -- layout, typeface, illustrations, photos, and jacket, but mostly the GLORIOUS WRITING! -- rises to the level of its subject. Even the persnickety Frank Lloyd Wright might have been pleased with this book. The field of architectural criticism/history is a snoozefest of pscho-babble and partisanship. Here's something different: an eminently readable -- indeed, fun -- book that's rooted in solid scholarship and original research. Toker's great contribution to the Wright/Fallingwater canon has been giving social, cultural, and political context to this Wrightian masterpiece. For example, he documents the deep antisemitism of Pittsburgh's baronial class through the first third of the 20th century, and how this affected department store millionaire E.J. Kaufmann's (eventual) embrace of Wright and modern architecture. Fallingwater was as much a gorgeous rebuttal to the backward-looking architecture and social attitudes of Pittsburgh's ruling elites as it was a country retreat for the Kaufmann family. Toker also examines Fallingwater in the context of Wright's rivalry with the European modernists like Mies and Neutra, the institutionalization of modern art in the U.S., and the nexus of art, publicity, and merchandising in the 20th century. This is a must read!
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Summary: First Class
Review: I found this an engrossing read; really quite excellent. Toker places the building in a series of contexts - FLW's and Kaufman's personal and career arcs, political, economic, social etc, then leavens incredibly detail with extremely acute insights into motivations and intentions which in sum I found wonderful. Highly recommended for interested novices like me, and I'm sure great value too for open minded cognoscenti. I eagerly await Toker's next epic.
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Summary: great book
Review: I have been reading nonfiction for 50 years and this book makes my top ten list. This is a multi-faceted, muilt-level story written in a very informative and interesting fashion. It is the biography of a world-class architectural wonder with fascinating parents (the architect and owners), a beautiful setting (Western Pennsylvania), a difficult birth, and a long life. This book will make you want to visit Fallingwater, or visit again if you have already been there
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Summary: Fallingwater Rising
Review: I just finished reading, Fallingwater Rising, and I found it an informative and very enjoyable book. The insight Dr. Toker's book brings to the events and personalities, which led to the creation, construction and preservation of Fallingwater were both enlightening and stimulating. I have been fascinated by Frank Lloyd Wright and his creative genius for many years. Yet, as beguiling as his creative powers were, the personality of the man that accompanied them is to me even more interesting. Fallingwater Rising added new insight to both sides of this very complex man. I also appreciate the research which was done on the Kaufmann family and the influence they had on Fallingwater Rising. Putting the creation of the house into the context of the times and the personalities which surrounded it give added depth to our appreciation of both the process and it's results. This book would also be of great interest to anyone interested in any of the other well-known architects of the 1920's - 1950's. It helps bring insight to how the work of Gropius, Le Corbusier, Neutra and Mies van der Rohe influenced the design of Fallingwater and in turn, how Fallingwater influenced them and their designs of the 1940 - 1950's. If you need a Christmas present for any one interested in architecture or architects, this book would make a very good choice. All in all a very good and stimulating read.
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Summary: Architecture, History + Personalities -- a great combination
Review: If you have any interest in a well-written story which weaves history, architecture, social and cultural conditions, PLUS unique personalities of wealth and power -- then this book is for YOU.
Read this engaging book, ostensibly about the creation of one of America's most famous private homes known as 'Fallingwater Rising'-- and you'll quickly discover that it is about so much more.
Professor Toker has done a wonderful job of telling this worthwhile tale.
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