Summary

In the Prelude, Mamah Borthwick reconstructs previous events in her life. Mamah married at the age of thirty after a life of study and solitude. She and her new husband moved into the house she grew up in to watch over her widowed father. . Not long after they moved in, her father died in his sleep. A year later, her sister Jessie died in childbirth. Mamah, Edwin, and Mamah's sister Lizzie assumed responsibility for the orphaned infant.

Edwin did not like disorder, and the house on Oak Park was cluttered. He wanted a new house. So, he took Mamah to see Arthur Huertley's. It had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright whose trademark was open designs.. Edwin was president of Wagner Electric so he could afford to have a house built by Wright. Since he really wanted a new, uncluttered...