Biography

Kathryn Smith is an architectural historian, historic preservation consultant, and Frank Lloyd Wright authority. She was one of the first scholars to have complete access to the unpublished drawings and letters of Wright at the Taliesin Archives in Arizona. She used this experience in her first major book, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, HOLLYHOCK HOUSE AND OLIVE HILL: PROJECTS AND BUILDINGS FOR ALINE BARNSDALL (1992), which received a fellowship from the Graham Foundation. Over a ten period, she was a visiting guest of Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship at Wright's homes in Wisconsin and Arizona, with this knowledge, she wrote FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S TALIESIN AND TALIESIN WEST. She has also published widely with Rizzoli International, Harry N. Abrams Inc, and Abbeville Press. Her book, SCHINDLER HOUSE, has become a classic. She has been accorded several honors including the Wright Spirit Award for Professionals from the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in 2001. In 2003, she was Scholar-in-Residence at Wright's Robie House in Chicago. She is currently at work on her next book, WRIGHT ON EXHIBIT, ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBITIONS, 1894-1959 under a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.