---
product_id: 6984580
title: "Loving Frank: A Novel"
price: "€ 25.09"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.at/products/6984580-loving-frank-a-novel
store_origin: AT
region: Austria
---

# Loving Frank: A Novel

**Price:** € 25.09
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Loving Frank: A Novel
- **How much does it cost?** € 25.09 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.at](https://www.desertcart.at/products/6984580-loving-frank-a-novel)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The House of Lincoln , an “enthralling” novel that brings “the buried truths of the ill-starred relationship of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright to light” ( The New York Times Book Review ). “Masterful.”— People “A fascinating love story.”— San Francisco Chronicle “Truly artful fiction.”— The New York Times “I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.” So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably to this novel’s stunning conclusion. Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story. Winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor

Review: Complex, well-developed characters - Set in the first decade of the 1900‘s, Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan is part soap opera, part Architectural Digest, part travel guide and a must read for feminists and Frank Lloyd Wright-ophiles alike. It’s easy to see how the uber-talented Wright struggled to make a name for himself and his Organic Architecture in the stifling mindset of the early 20th century. Wright, who liked to say he saw God in nature, strove to make his buildings so in tune with their natural surroundings it looked as though the buildings were birthed from the very ground upon which they sat. It’s also easy to see how an intellectual feminist, suffragette and very married woman, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, gave up everything she thought was hers: devoted husband, Edwin; two beautiful children; a warm relationship with her sister, Lizzie who had sacrificed much to put Mamah through college; and a cushy, affluent lifestyle in the suburbs of Chicago; and threw in her lot with Wright. Mamah was married -- one of the few options open to women at the time -- but not terribly happy. She’d turned over the raising of her children to their nanny and busied herself with women’s issues and lectures at the University, but couldn’t really find her niche. She and Edwin were more like partners who ran a home and raised children together rather than soul mates. Along came Wright, flamboyant, eccentric and completely self-assured in his craft, despite the lack of a formal architectural education, with charisma and genius out the wazoo. Married at the immature age of 19, Wright had six children with his wife, Catherine, and while Catherine threw herself into their children, Wright threw himself into his work and giving “his gift” to the world. Mamah loved Edwin in a way, but Frank’s marriage to Catherine had been a shell for years. Still she would not give Frank a divorce. Frank and Mamah’s relationship started innocently enough, he the up and coming architect with wild new ideas, and she the sublime intellectual with her feminist ideals and steady husband, the clients, yet the magnetism between Frank and Mamah was inescapable. A spark ignited, one that almost sent the lovers up in flames after the media in Oak Park got wind of the scandal They tried to fight it for the sake of their families, but the pull was too great so they ran to escape, these two highly individualized citizens of the world, to Germany where Mamah met the Swedish writer and feminist, Ellen Key a meeting that again altered her life. Mamah took a solo trip to Sweden to learn the language as a prerequisite to being hired to translate Key’s works into German and English and then she and Frank were in Paris, and Italy, and Japan and with much trepidation on Mamah’s part, finally back home to Wisconsin, Wright’s boyhood home, where he built Taliesin East, an architectural marvel and the first place since childhood that Mamah truly felt she belonged. At the time it was the consummate dwelling and encompassed all Wright believed about organic architecture. Perhaps in the 21st century, the lovers could have lived at Taliesin in peace, but the early 1900’s was not a broad-minded, forgiving time. That the book ends in tragedy is both shocking and expected. The world wasn’t ready for this kind of love, and maybe not even this kind of architecture, but their love, like Nature herself, was resilient, and the legacy lives on through Wright’s masterpieces, and now, Horan’s writing.
Review: Richly imaginative - In 1972, I attended a conference at Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house, Taliesin, and I've carried a vision of it ever since: its startlingly flat planes, the Oriental lines of its roofs, the way it snugs into the side of a Wisconsin hill. And indoors, the Zen-like simplicity of furnishings, the wide windows that open onto green landscape, and the glowing walls that seem to shimmer with their own inner light. I can understand why Mamah Borthwick Cheney fell in love with its architect and loved him with an outrageous passion until she died. I may have been a little in love with him myself when I left that remarkable house. Loving Frank is a fictional recreation of the true story of the adulterous affair with Wright that pulled Mamah Cheney away from her young children, her husband, and their prosperous, comfortable life in Oak Park, Illinois. Wright himself was married, the father of six children, and a rising young architect. The two were drawn together in 1903 when Wright designed a house for the Cheneys. Mamah Borthwick was a scholar and feminist when she married Edwin Cheney, and one of the things Nancy Horan does best in this tumultuous novel is to show how the egotistical, charismatic Wright reawakens her desire to be more than simply a mother and wife-to dream dreams impossible for those whose existences are constrained by convention. Horan also brings to life Mamah's terrible dilemma: how to create and sustain a life based on passion when that means giving up her two children, whom she also deeply loves. And Horan tellingly illuminates the conflicted relationship between Mamah and Ellen Key, a Swedish feminist and writer whose liberal ideas about sex, marriage, and child-care were far ahead of her time. Loving Frank is all the more remarkable because it is Nancy Horan's first novel. The pace and intensity may lag a bit in the middle and drop off after the tragic events of 1914. And I might have wished for a more detailed documentation of sources. Still, these are minor reservations about what is overall a fine achievement, a rich, compellingly imaginative work that allows us to see into the private emotional lives of two intriguing people: the man who significantly influenced American architecture for over fifty years, and the woman who loved him. It's a book that will be remembered. Susan Wittig Albert is the author of several historical novels, including Death on the Lizard (Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries, No. 12) . A longer version of this review may be read on the Story Circle Book Review website.

## Features

- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Mamah Barthwick Cheney
- Love Affair

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #46,788 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #67 in Biographical Historical Fiction #106 in Biographical & Autofiction #1,767 in Literary Fiction (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 5,535 Reviews |

## Images

![Loving Frank: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81eldKG-F2L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Complex, well-developed characters
*by P***S on November 14, 2015*

Set in the first decade of the 1900‘s, Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan is part soap opera, part Architectural Digest, part travel guide and a must read for feminists and Frank Lloyd Wright-ophiles alike. It’s easy to see how the uber-talented Wright struggled to make a name for himself and his Organic Architecture in the stifling mindset of the early 20th century. Wright, who liked to say he saw God in nature, strove to make his buildings so in tune with their natural surroundings it looked as though the buildings were birthed from the very ground upon which they sat. It’s also easy to see how an intellectual feminist, suffragette and very married woman, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, gave up everything she thought was hers: devoted husband, Edwin; two beautiful children; a warm relationship with her sister, Lizzie who had sacrificed much to put Mamah through college; and a cushy, affluent lifestyle in the suburbs of Chicago; and threw in her lot with Wright. Mamah was married -- one of the few options open to women at the time -- but not terribly happy. She’d turned over the raising of her children to their nanny and busied herself with women’s issues and lectures at the University, but couldn’t really find her niche. She and Edwin were more like partners who ran a home and raised children together rather than soul mates. Along came Wright, flamboyant, eccentric and completely self-assured in his craft, despite the lack of a formal architectural education, with charisma and genius out the wazoo. Married at the immature age of 19, Wright had six children with his wife, Catherine, and while Catherine threw herself into their children, Wright threw himself into his work and giving “his gift” to the world. Mamah loved Edwin in a way, but Frank’s marriage to Catherine had been a shell for years. Still she would not give Frank a divorce. Frank and Mamah’s relationship started innocently enough, he the up and coming architect with wild new ideas, and she the sublime intellectual with her feminist ideals and steady husband, the clients, yet the magnetism between Frank and Mamah was inescapable. A spark ignited, one that almost sent the lovers up in flames after the media in Oak Park got wind of the scandal They tried to fight it for the sake of their families, but the pull was too great so they ran to escape, these two highly individualized citizens of the world, to Germany where Mamah met the Swedish writer and feminist, Ellen Key a meeting that again altered her life. Mamah took a solo trip to Sweden to learn the language as a prerequisite to being hired to translate Key’s works into German and English and then she and Frank were in Paris, and Italy, and Japan and with much trepidation on Mamah’s part, finally back home to Wisconsin, Wright’s boyhood home, where he built Taliesin East, an architectural marvel and the first place since childhood that Mamah truly felt she belonged. At the time it was the consummate dwelling and encompassed all Wright believed about organic architecture. Perhaps in the 21st century, the lovers could have lived at Taliesin in peace, but the early 1900’s was not a broad-minded, forgiving time. That the book ends in tragedy is both shocking and expected. The world wasn’t ready for this kind of love, and maybe not even this kind of architecture, but their love, like Nature herself, was resilient, and the legacy lives on through Wright’s masterpieces, and now, Horan’s writing.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Richly imaginative
*by S***N on September 18, 2007*

In 1972, I attended a conference at Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house, Taliesin, and I've carried a vision of it ever since: its startlingly flat planes, the Oriental lines of its roofs, the way it snugs into the side of a Wisconsin hill. And indoors, the Zen-like simplicity of furnishings, the wide windows that open onto green landscape, and the glowing walls that seem to shimmer with their own inner light. I can understand why Mamah Borthwick Cheney fell in love with its architect and loved him with an outrageous passion until she died. I may have been a little in love with him myself when I left that remarkable house. Loving Frank is a fictional recreation of the true story of the adulterous affair with Wright that pulled Mamah Cheney away from her young children, her husband, and their prosperous, comfortable life in Oak Park, Illinois. Wright himself was married, the father of six children, and a rising young architect. The two were drawn together in 1903 when Wright designed a house for the Cheneys. Mamah Borthwick was a scholar and feminist when she married Edwin Cheney, and one of the things Nancy Horan does best in this tumultuous novel is to show how the egotistical, charismatic Wright reawakens her desire to be more than simply a mother and wife-to dream dreams impossible for those whose existences are constrained by convention. Horan also brings to life Mamah's terrible dilemma: how to create and sustain a life based on passion when that means giving up her two children, whom she also deeply loves. And Horan tellingly illuminates the conflicted relationship between Mamah and Ellen Key, a Swedish feminist and writer whose liberal ideas about sex, marriage, and child-care were far ahead of her time. Loving Frank is all the more remarkable because it is Nancy Horan's first novel. The pace and intensity may lag a bit in the middle and drop off after the tragic events of 1914. And I might have wished for a more detailed documentation of sources. Still, these are minor reservations about what is overall a fine achievement, a rich, compellingly imaginative work that allows us to see into the private emotional lives of two intriguing people: the man who significantly influenced American architecture for over fifty years, and the woman who loved him. It's a book that will be remembered. Susan Wittig Albert is the author of several historical novels, including Death on the Lizard (Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries, No. 12) . A longer version of this review may be read on the Story Circle Book Review website.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mamah May-muh Martha!
*by V***G on August 7, 2008*

Mamah, May-muh, Martha! She was born at the wrong time and wrong place! She was educated in Ann Arbor Michigan at the turn of the 20th century, had the pedigree of the upright Midwestern railroaders who valued work and honesty, married a decent and loving businessman-gregarious provider, had the tenacious intellect of a sharp librarian-school marm and suffragist-feminist, was a "looker", but she was too crazy in love with a man who would have given her the world but could not. Darn! Mamah Cheney could have had it all but she was sideswiped by her lust for life on the fastlane, the big ego of Frank Lloyd Wright, the promise of being the polyglot sidekick of Swedish born suffragist Ellen Key, and in the end, she had nothing for herself and her two (three including her orphaned nephew) children who she left behind to find love and fulfillment with the iconic architect. This fictional account of a love story gone tragically wrong and painful, leaves me reeling with wonder, I cannot help but raise some points that challenge thinking outside the home, domesticity, community, society and even world affairs. First of all, can a mother really be so wildly in love so as to leave her very young children behind to traipse all over Berlin, Italy and Japan to pursue finding herself and her paramour's budding career? Given that Frank Lloyd Wright was really brilliant (after the fact), was he really worth it? Her marriage to Edwin Cheney was flailing but was she really really that unhappy? She had little Martha with Edwin while she was consorting with Frank! I think it was a case of moral fiber fraying and falling dangerously to an abyss that she couldn't get enough fortitude to figure herself out of. Granted that it was the zeitgeist of women's emancipation and feminism, the attendant focus on lack of rights to get out of bad marriages, lack of equal pay for men and women, identity issues surrounding motherhood and caring for children, did Mamah really blaze into the forefront to liberate women of all ages for all time? Or did she just end up exonerating herself? Was her sacrifice worth the cause? Her alliance with Ellen Key's cause was almost a chance event in her search for herself and her raison d'etre for villyfying her home and turning her loved one's lives upside down. The Swedish suffragist had modern ideas about women's morality and new feminist roles, I think Mamah was eagerly quick to translate Key's ideas as seen through her private moral dilemma, adultery. In Berlin, Key was tagged as the "wise fool of the feminist movement", vacillating between being a protector of children and the essence of mothering as a human species-forwarding endeavor versus a woman's fulfilling her happiness through achieving her personhood through being allowed the choices and liberties to propel one's potential. I think Ellen Key was wise, period. In Nancy, France, she had told Mamah to find herself first, without Frank, and pursue her own niche in the world, otherwise Frank will just be another "diversion". It was Mamah who could not find her moral compass and was torn, time and time again between her love for her offspring and her love for Frank and herself. It is a pity that her "soulful" translations of Ellen Key's work coulda-woulda been heard by a bigger audience had she sent it to The Atlantic Monthly and not published with those who were affiliated with Frank Lloyd Wright's folios. Horan's skill in writing allowed for her characters to be heard, to be seen in both good and bad lights, she allowed all their foibles, their humanity to filter through the puritanical times when society was quick to judge moral turpitude. She allowed her readers to look for understanding and to be compassionate; that her characters were flawed, slaves for higher ideals of truth and beauty and most of all, love. But in being so, they chose paths that were dangerously selfish and hurtful to others. I will not be quick to say that the tragedy of Mamah's end in Taliesin is divine retribution, but simply a horrific event in the life that already has gone through baptism by fire, a fall from grace that happens when people are just going about their daily lives because people are the way they are, fallen from the very start.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.at/products/6984580-loving-frank-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.at/products/6984580-loving-frank-a-novel)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Austria*
*Store origin: AT*
*Last updated: 2026-05-12*