Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect who designed over a thousand architectural works. He was born in Wisconsin in 1867, attended the University of Wisconsin, and then left to apprentice with architects, including famous architect Louis Sullivan. He moved to Chicago and eventually married Catherine Tobin; later, he began an affair with translator Mamah Bouton Borthwick. The Author’s Note points out that few documents related to Borthwick still exist and that, as a work of historical fiction, the novel draws on a number of sources to reconstruct Borthwick’s life—specifically, sources related to the period in which she was associated with Wright. Their time together coincided with Wright’s “Prairie style” of architecture, which included a long, low plan that ensured an intimate relationship with the land. After the Prairie style, Wright switched to a more “Usonian style” of architecture, designed with aesthetic and use in mind (“About Frank Lloyd Wright.” The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 2023).

After Borthwick’s death and the events of the novel, Wright remarried twice. He also released An Autobiography (1932) and The Disappearing City (1932) and opened an architectural school at his home.