Oak Park Legends
Frank Lloyd Wright
Birth/Death Dates:
1867 — 1959
Resident Dates:
1889 — 1910
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) lived in Oak Park for two decades until 1910, launching a new type of American architecture, raising a large family with wife Catherine, and developing his flamboyant personal style.
Wright believed that architecture should not be slavishly based on historic styles, but instead should be an organic art form that owes much to nature.
Source: http://oprfmuseum.org/people/Frank-Lloyd-wright
Photo: Wikipedia
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
951 Chicago Ave, Oak Park
His Studio in Oak Park was a creative, fertile breeding ground of architects like William Drummond, Charles White, Jr., John Van Bergen, Marion Mahoney Griffin and many others who also collectively made a mark on architecture.Tens of thousands journey from around the world each year to visit his Home and Studio on Chicago Avenue and numerous other buildings he designed, including Unity Temple on Lake Street.
Source: http://oprfmuseum.org/people/Frank-Lloyd-wright
Photo: Wikipedia
Ernest Hemingway
Birth/Death Dates:
1899 — 1961
Resident Dates:
1899 — 1919
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was born in Oak Park and lived in the village for nearly the first two decades of his life, completing his last formal education at Oak Park and River Forest High School.
After leaving high school he worked briefly as a reporter, before leaving for the Italian front during World War I; he was seriously injured and returned home within the year.
In 1922 Hemingway married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives, and the couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent.
During his time there he met and was influenced by writers and artists of the 1920s expatriate community known as the "Lost Generation."
His first novel, The Sun Also Rises, was written in 1924.
Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea in 1952 Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in a plane crash that left him in pain or ill-health for much of the rest of his life.
Hemingway had permanent residences in Key West, Florida, and Cuba during the 1930s and 40s, but in 1959 he moved from Cuba to Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.
His style of prose - sparse and lacking the Victorian flowery language that he disliked - has been emulated by generations of writers since. He wrote dozens of novels and short shories, became known around the world as a macho sportsman, and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for his writing.
Source: http://oprfmuseum.org/people/ernest-hemingway
Photo: Wikipedia