Characters
Mamah Borthwick: Full name Martha Bouton Borthwick Cheney. Involved in affair with famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Well educated and advocate for women rights. Mamah is the protagonist of the book. Leaves her children to go to Europe with Wright. Struggles to come to terms with everything. Murdered by Julian Carlton.
Frank Lloyd Wright: Brilliant architect. Involved in affair with Mamah. Wright's mother considered him a favorite and pampered him as a child. He considers himself so fascinating and quite a genius that people should be honored to work with him. He often spends money he doesn't have.
Catherine Wright: Wright's wife. Refused to divorce him despite ongoing and long-term affair.
Edwin Cheney: Mamah's husband. Loyal to Mamah but allows divorce.
Martha Cheney: Mamah’s and Edwin's daughter. When Mamah leaves, she is too young to remember much about her mother.
John Cheney: Mamah’s and Edwin's son. John was very close with his mother before she left. When his mother returns, she finds that he also has changed.
Lizzie Borthwick: Mamah's sister. A devoted sister who remains single and lives in the Cheneys’ household, Lizzie takes care of Mamah's children before and after she leaves.
Jessie Borthwick: Mamah's sister who died from complications during child birth.
Dickie Bock: Artist who worked for Wright at Oak Park Studio.
Marion Mahony Griffin: Female architect who worked with Wright.
Robert Herrick: Mamah's professor at the University of Chicago.
Mattie Brown: Mamah's close childhood friend. Mattie dies shortly after giving birth to a child.
Alden Brown: Mattie's husband. A miner.
Ernst Wasmuth: Worked with Wright as a German publisher intent on publicizing Wright’s architectural ideas in Europe. Result was a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs known as the Wasmuth Portfolio.
Ellen Key: a renowned advocate for the women's movement in Europe. Based in Sweden. Inspires Mamah and engages her to translate her work.
Walter Burley Griffin: architect who worked with Wright in Chicago. Wright owed him money. Married Marion Mahony.
Taylor Woolley: architect who worked with Wright in Europe. A good friend of both Wright’s and Mamah's.
Else Lasker-Schuler: Poet who befriended Mamah at Cafe des Westens in Germany where she taught and took classes in languages.
Jennie Porter: Wright's sister. Has a son named Frankie.
Billy Weston: workman for Wright at Taliesin.
Anna Wright: Wright's mother. Smart woman who pampered Wright as a child and adult.
Josiah: young carpenter apprentice for Wright at Taliesin.
Elinor Millor Cheney: Edwin's 2nd wife.
Emil Brodelle: Wright's drafting man at Taliesin.
Gertrude Carlton: cook and married to Julian Carlton.
Julian Carlton: Employed by Wright at Taliesin. When released by Mamah he goes crazy and kills Mamah, her two children, and two of Wright's workmen. Attempts suicide. Dies in prison due to starvation.
John Lloyd Wright: Wright's son. Works with Wright on some projects.
Read more about this topic: Loving Frank
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The Nature of Familiar Letters, written, as it were, to the Moment, while the Heart is agitated by Hopes and Fears, on Events undecided, must plead an Excuse for the Bulk of a Collection of this Kind. Mere Facts and Characters might be comprised in a much smaller Compass: But, would they be equally interesting?”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“It is open to question whether the highly individualized characters we find in Shakespeare are perhaps not detrimental to the dramatic effect. The human being disappears to the same degree as the individual emerges.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)