Wright, Frank Lloyd

12 typed letters signed ("Frank," "Frank Lloyd Wright," "FLLW"), 13 pages (various sizes, on Taliesin and Taliesin West letterhead), Spring Green WI and Phoenix AZ, 7 June 1945–10 February 1959. 3 typed envelopes — with other material as described below.

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"I THINK ARCHITECTS ARE ALL THAT IS THE MATTER WITH ARCHITECTURE." A FINE GROUP OF 12 LETTERS, 8 TO NEW YORK ARCHITECT ARTHUR C. HOLDEN.

Arthur C. Holden (1890–1993) was an architect best remembered for his courageous fight to preserve Greenwich Village against destruction at the hands of Robert Moses. Wright appealed to his friend on several occasions to help him with New York City and State bureaucracy. Writing on 15 August 1950, he pleads for help: "The disagreeable Connecticut chapter, I imagine, has urged the New York license-bureaucracy to unseemly wrath because I am building several cottages at a place near Plainsfield, N. J. in New York state in their neighborhood. As a matter of fact, having already built  five or six buildings in Buffalo and Syracuse before the license law was passed to classify us with dogs, etc., I am now a malefactor because I didn't know I needed bureaucratic permission to build. They say I do and threaten me with arrest.…I appeal to you as a friend to help….Bureaucracy must be a profession of ignorance? It must pay?"

At the time of the controversy over the American Legion's opposition to Wright's being asked to design the Air Force Academy in Colorado, he writes on 17 September 1955, "As you know I think architects are all that is the matter with Architecture and so have never really joined their A. I. A. — although I've always done whatever else they asked of me. In love with Architecture, life-long, I have found architects mostly in the way; their professionalism, like that of the editors of their favorite magazines, just this side of thievery. You should know that many if my statements regarding the architects in question were made with a belly-laugh, not in print. But I enclose a copy of my statement apropos the American Legion and the Air-Force Academy invitation to appear before Congress and tell the truth. I did. So did the A. I. A. appear and either lied about the whole proceeding or there is no meaning in the A. I. A. pretense of ethics in Architectural practice, etc., etc." 

Also included are letters from various fellows and employees at Taliesin to architect Noverre Musson and Musson's copies of 8 Taliesin Square-Papers. A few telegrams and other miscellaneous items are also included.