Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is unquestionably Americas most celebrated architect. Even today, almost forty years after his death, he continues to tower over the architectural landscape. In fact, his career was so long and his accomplishments so varied it can be difficult still to grasp the full range of Wrights achievement.

In this refreshing new study, Wright scholar Kathryn Smith does just that, exploring the grace and beauty found in all facets of Wrights work: from office desks and chairs to his first residential commissions, from magazine cover designs to major public buildings. The concise text and brilliant color photographs chart Wrights entire career, beginning with his apprenticeship to Adler and Sullivan before the turn of the century. Readers witness the Prairie period, Wrights years in Japan and California, his major designs of the late 1920s and 1930s, his Usonian houses, and the monumental late works of his last decades. Smith shows examples of Wrights drawings, furniture, and decorative arts, too, supplementing our understanding of Wrights aesthetic. The book concludes with a glimpse at the architects seldom-seen collection of Asian art, which once comprised tens of thousands of pieces — a source of much inspiration and edification for the architect and his students, and a key to understanding Wrights views on art and nature.

Here is a broad portrait of the master builder who sought the title "greatest architect of all time." Although it may never be possible to fully assess Wrights legacy, Kathryn Smiths authoritative book is a fitting testament to his lasting genius.

Kathryn Smith is the author of Frank Lloyd Wrights Taliesin and Taliesin West and Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollyhock House, and Olive Hill: Buildings and Projects for Aline Barnsdall, and is a former professor of architectural history at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.