“Review of *Louis Sullivan: His Life and Work*, by Robert Twombly”

AboutCharles B. Hosmer Jr. reviews Robert Twombly's *Louis Sullivan: His Life and Work* (Viking, 1986), assessing it against Hugh Morrison's pioneering 1936 biography as the new standard treatment of Sullivan's career. Hosmer notes that Twombly, drawing on the full range of Sullivan scholarship available by the mid-1980s, integrates far more material on Sullivan's personal life than Morrison chose to include, and weaves his critical assessments throughout the narrative rather than reserving them for summary chapters. He highlights as controversial Twombly's speculation about a possible latent homosexuality in Sullivan's life, judging the evidence offered insufficiently documented, while noting the book gives comparatively little attention to Sullivan's drinking problem during his years of professional decline. Hosmer praises the book's appendixes, particularly its catalog of Sullivan's built work compiled from Twombly's own site visits to nearly all surviving Adler & Sullivan and solo Sullivan buildings, as an essential research tool given how many structures had been lost since Morrison's 1930s fieldwork. Placing the book within cycles of Sullivan scholarship — from Morrison's "prophet of modernism" framing to Willard Connely's 1960s emphasis on Sullivan's character flaws — Hosmer concludes that Twombly charts a balanced middle course and calls the book "a fitting successor" to Morrison's biography.

PURL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28198612%2973%3A3%3C774%3ALSHLAW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H