Description
Beauty and danger in America’s most celebrated Gilded Age family. The Architect of Desire by Suzannah Lessard is the haunting memoir of the author’s great-grandfather, Stanford White — the celebrated architect and founding partner of McKim, Mead & White, designer of the original Madison Square Garden and the Washington Square Arch, and victim of the 1906 “crime of the century.”
Lessard weaves family history with her own story, revealing how the scandal’s long silence echoed through the generations of the White family — the shooting by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw over chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit, and the darker legacy of obsession and secrecy behind the beauty of White’s buildings, which shaped the author’s own life in ways she spent years uncovering.
Published in 1996, this brave, beautifully written memoir is both architectural history and a deeply personal reckoning — for readers of literary memoir, architecture lovers, and anyone drawn to stories of family secrets and survival. A powerful meditation on beauty, power, and the courage to speak truth.
Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family
The Architect of Desire by Suzannah Lessard is the haunting memoir of the author’s great-grandfather, Stanford White — America’s most celebrated Gilded Age architect and the victim of the 1906 “crime of the century.” White, a founding partner of McKim, Mead & White, designed landmarks like the original Madison Square Garden and the Washington Square Arch before he was shot by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw over chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit.
Lessard weaves family history with her own story, revealing how the scandal’s long silence echoed through the generations of the White family. Behind the beauty of Stanford White’s buildings lay a darker legacy of obsession and secrecy — one that shaped the author’s own life in ways she spent years uncovering.
Published in 1996, this brave, beautifully written memoir is both architectural history and a deeply personal reckoning. It will appeal to readers of literary memoir, architecture lovers, and anyone drawn to stories of family secrets and survival. A powerful meditation on beauty, power, and the courage to speak truth.
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