This program will be held in-person at the Newberry.
Join us to hear from Nora Wendl, who will discusses her new book, Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth.
The iconic Edith Farnsworth House is a singular glass home designed by Mies van der Rohe. But the oft-told history of the house overwrites Farnsworth’s role as Mies’s collaborator and antagonist while falsely portraying her as the architect’s angry ex-lover.
Nora Wendl’s audacious work of creative nonfiction explodes the sex-and-real-estate myth surrounding the Edith Farnsworth House and its two central figures. An eminent physician and woman of letters, Farnsworth left a rich trove of correspondence, memoirs, and photographs that Wendl uses to reconstruct her voice. Farnsworth’s memories and experiences alternate with Wendl’s thoughts on topics like misogyny and professional ambition to fashion a lyrical examination of love, loneliness, beauty, and the search for the divine.
Eloquent and confessional, Almost Nothing restores Edith Farnsworth to her place in architectural history and the masterpiece that bears her name.
Copies of Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth will be sold through the Newberry Bookshop and a book signing will be held after the talk.
The program is presented in partnership with the Edith Farnsworth House.
Cost and Registration
This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.
Registration opens May 1.
About the Author
Nora Wendl is an essayist, artist, and associate professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico.