“Review of *The Drawings of Louis Henry Sullivan*, by Paul E. Sprague”

AboutRobert Twombly reviews Paul E. Sprague's *The Drawings of Louis Henry Sullivan*, a catalogue of the 122 Sullivan drawings in the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection at Columbia's Avery Architectural Library — drawings Sullivan gave to Wright days before his death and which Wright's foundation later sold to Avery. Twombly summarizes Sprague's stylistic periodization of Sullivan's ornamental development and his account of Sullivan's design process (the Beaux-Arts esquisse method, plan-before-elevation habits), then takes issue with Sprague's claim that Sullivan regarded his drawings as expendable utilitarian documents, arguing this contradicts Sullivan's own evident care in dating and ultimately preserving them for publication. The review situates the volume against the small existing shelf of Sullivan biography — Hugh Morrison, Wright's *Genius and the Mobocracy*, Willard Connely, Sherman Paul — and calls it an important addition despite reservations about Sprague's interpretive framing.

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