Frank Lloyd Wright's MANY women

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867) was born in Wisconsin. His Welsh preacher grandfather, Richard Lloyd Jones, crossed the Atlantic in 1844 with his wife and children, settling in a fertile part of the Midwest near Chicago, a landscape with a lasting influence on Wright's work. Wright's apprenticeship with prominent Chicago architects served him well. In 1889 at 22 he married, designed and built a house for himself and wife Catherine Kitty Tobin in Oak Park, a new outer suburb. It was fine example of the Arts and Crafts style, but soon key signs of Wright's taste showed through. In 1893, he was sacked and set up his own practice; he extended the house to serve his growing family and office. His additions included a studio and a large barrel-vaulted playroom.

 

 

FLW with cape, cane and hat

Architecture Here and There

Wright's designs became more experimental eg elongated, open-plan Prairie Houses of this period. And he began to wear broad-brimmed hats, red-lined cape and cane daily. Meantime Wright and Kitty  had 6 children, but Wright left the children to Kitty's care.

In 1903, Wright designed an Oak Park house for Edwin Cheney, and soon fancied Edwin’s wife, Mamah Cheney, a modern feminist with Wright’s intellectual standards. They fell in love, although Wright had been married for c20 years. Often they drove through Oak Park, so perhaps the gossip meant Wright's wife refused him a divorce, and Edwin Cheney refused one to Mamah.

Frank and Olga driving around Oak Park together

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Academics argued that Wright worked with the Prairie Style, esp re single-family houses. Alas Wright was not getting large commissions for commercial or public buildings. In 1909 Wright & Mamah Cheney travelled to Europe, leaving their spouses & children. What drew Wright at 42 to Europe was the chance to publish his work portfolio with Ernst Wasmuth so they went to Wasmuth Berlin’s offices. Wright remained in Europe for a year and then Cheney granted Mamah a divorce. Kitty still refused to grant one to Frank! 

Taliesin, Wisconsin

Wiki

Wright returned home in Oct 1910 and persuaded mum to buy him land in Spring Green WI, near mum's Welsh Lloyd-Jones family. Then in 1911 the couple returned and began to build a flowing bungalow in Helena Valley WI, the Taliesin theme coming from his mum's side: Taliesin in Welsh mythology was a poet, magician & priest.

But tragedy struck in 1914. Wright was working in Chicago when Cheney lunched with her 2 children and some estate workers. Domestic servant Julian Carlton poured acid around Taliesin’s livingrooms, locked the doors, set the house afire and axed 7 of the 9 diners: Cheney, her children and 4 workers. Carlton survived the acid but died in gaol. Wright was devastated. Plus they were shunned by neigh-bours outraged by sinful lives and “Slow Pay Frank's” constant refusal to pay his debts.

In 1922, Wright's wife Kitty gave a divorce, although Wright had to wait a year until he married his 2nd wife, Maude Miriam Noel, sculptor-architect-Bohemian clairvoyant. They wed in Nov 1923, but her addiction to morphine soon saw their marriage failing. In 1923 Mrs Anna Lloyd Wright, Frank's mother, also died. Meanwhile they travel led together to Japan, where Wright was commissioned to build the Imperial Hotel Tokyo by 1923. He threw spent years building the elegant hotel where work-ers were surprised to see the US architect arrive in velvet suits. Wright visited Japan often, and assimilated many ideas there.

In 1924, separate from Miriam but not divorced, Wright met a mystic dancer from Monte-negro Olga Hinzenburg at a Russian Ballet in Chicago. This new exotica joined the Tal-iesin household, a place where Wright's workers lived in a hippy community, growing their own vegetables & making music together. Olga and her child had followed her husband to Chicago seeking a divorce.

The couple moved to Taliesin in 1925 with Olga pregnant. Wife #2 Miriam was deranged & jealous, with drug-fuelled explosions, and misfortune restruck. In Ap 1925, an electrical fault from crossed wires caused a fire and destroyed the house. It was insured for  rebuilding but not to cover the loss of Wright's c$1 mill art collection. His home was ruined and he was broke, yet he rebuilt the living quarters Taliesin III.

After his daughter’s birth in Dec 1926, another scandal broke: when Miriam heard about the birth and tracked Olga to the hospital, demanding to see HER HUSBAND'S BABY. Later she had Wright arrested. Olga's ex-husband sought custody of his daughter. Also in 1926, Wright and Olga were accused of violating the Mann Act which prevented immigrant prostitutes arriving, and were arrested in MN. Miriam competed with Mamah's ghost AND with Wright's tough mother. And she created a serious fight when the next woman came along. In a rush of litigation, she hurled accusation at Wright, accusing Olga of being an Undesirable Alien. Miriam tried to own Taliesin, pursued the couple to Calif, had them arrested, harassed them by phone and smashed their house. She finally agreed to the divorce IF Wright paid her! The charges were dropped.

Wright designed summer estate Graycliff, Wright & Miriam Noel's divorce was finalised (1927) & Wright staged a come back in architectural history. The International Style a la Le Corbusier had arrived in America and middle-aged Wright seemed tired! For a while he tried working in LA where his son Lloyd had a successful practice. There he designed a Mayan-looking Ennis House, and Hollyhock House, a huge site for an oil heiress. But Wright disliked cities. 

                                   

L-R: Kitty, Mamah, Miriam, Olga

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In 1928 Wright and Olga married, inviting paying students to Taliesin to study Wright's holistic designs. By 1932 a small group enrolled & created Taliesian Fellowship. In this alternative education, the architect expected his men to work in fields, cook and listen to Bach & Beethoven. Apprentice Austrian Rudolph Schindler described Wright in a letter to architect Richard Neutra: He's devoid of consideration but energetic.

The Taliesin project helped support the family in the Depression. It also led to some of Wright's most important commissions, including Fallingwater (1937) the exquisite house he built over a Pennsylvania waterfall for Edgar Kaufmann, father of a Taliesin Fellow. Fallingwater revived Wright's career, and during the last 25 years of his life he designed as many buildings as his early busy period. He was Guggenheim Museum N.Y’s architect, the most memorable, organically round building in a city of straight lines. 

In 1937 he bought acres in Paradise Valley AZ near Phoenix and built a desert camp for winter school. And Wright's winter home near Phoenix that was particularly beautiful; he called the open-plan house in Scottsdale AZ Taliesin West. The winter home & desert laboratory is now headquarters of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and a major attraction for fans. Olga served as president of the Foundation for 25+ years and protected her husband's architectural work. But his buildings preserved as historic monuments, not living architecture. Only with increasing interest in low-energy, low-impact buildings were the two schemes relevant again: both his homes were designed to be cool in summer & warm in winter without mechanical ventilation.

As interesting as Wright's women may have been, they were exciting largely BECAUSE they were involved with Wright. Yet while Wright designed charming C20th buildings, do fans know about the axe murders, madness, drugs, endless women and fires? Since his death at 91 in 1959, there have been writings examining the cultish community Wright built. To preserve the work the School of Architecture Wright now runs accredited BA, MA courses and summer school. And the Wright From Within Outward Exhibition at N.Y’s Guggenheim Museum explored how buildings could fit into the landscape.

Falling Water, 1937

fallingwater.org

The Taliesin arrangement helped support the family in the Depression. It also led to some of Wright's key commissions, including Fallingwater (1937) the exquisite house he built over a water fall in Pennsylvania for Edgar Kaufmann. Fallingwater revived Wright's career, and during the last 25 years of his life he designed as many buildings as he had in the busy period from 1893-1911. He was architect of the Guggenheim Museum N.Y, the memorable organically round building in a city of straight lines. But it is Wright's winter home near Phoenix that was the most beautiful. In 1937, he bought hundreds of acres in Paradise Valley and built a desert camp where his school could relocate for the cold months of the year. Called Taliesin West, its open-plan living quarters were furnished like a tent.

Wright and Olga ran Taliesin West as a community based on the Armenian guru with whom Olga had lived and studied before meeting Wright. The guru’s teachings called for daily forms of dancing, making Taliesin laughable. His belief in the value of creative work continued under Olga's supervision after Wright's death but for decades, Wright's reputation suffered, with the teaching at Taliesin regarded as eccentric and his buildings preserved as historic monuments, not living architecture. But with increasing interest in low-energy, low-impact buildings, schemes like Taliesin and Taliesin West are relevant again: both Wright's homes were built using local materials and were designed as cool in summer & warm in winter without mechanical ventilation.

The private life of a public man is always fascinating, incl the story of Wright's women. He needed challenging, attractive women by his side and his relationships were essential to his work. In any case, the architect's genius always won through! Like other self-styled great men, Wright raised selfishness to a fine art. He was prepared to sacrifice others as well, except for those he currently deemed essential.  Even Wright's 1st wife and mother of 6 of his 7 children, got short shrift in life. 

However interesting & decisive Wright's women may have been, the unavoidable fact remains that they were interesting largely as far as they were involved with Wright. Yet architecture remained in the margins of these books, something Wright was off doing while his women desired. While Wright de-signed some of the most beautiful C20th buildings, his personal life was problematic. Now read Marcus Field who told of axe murders, madness, drugs, endless wives and redemption. Since his death at 91 in 1959, there were biographies, memoires and exposés examining the cultish community Wright built.

To preserve Wright's work, the School of Architecture Wright now runs accredited BA and MA courses and a popular summer school. And a major exhibition at N.Y’s Guggenheim Museum in 2009 explored how buildings could fit into the landscape: Wright, From Within Outward.

Panama Canal: corruption or poor science?

Europeans dreamed of a Central American canal for ages; even Pres. Ulysses Grant sent 7 feasibility expeditions. As tra­v­­el and trade in the Western hemisphere increased, a canal became essential. To sail from the At­l­­an­tic to Pacific, ships went around treacherous Cape Horn taking c21,000 ks (New York-San Francisco).

The isthmus separating Gulf of Panama

from the Caribbean Sea

     

In Feb 1881, driven by patriotism and capitalised by mainly small in­vestors, the Panama Company began work on a canal that would cross the Col­ombian isthmus of Panama and unite the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans. This can­al would make its stockholders rich, just as the Suez did for its investors. Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-94) showed the tiny cross-Panama rail­way had made $7+ million in 6 years although building that rail­road HAD cost 6,000+ lives.

Even though he had little financial expertise, De Lesseps handled prom­oting and money-raising for the canal project. His enthusiasm for the pro­ject, and his faith in technology, att­racted many stockholders. Frenchmen keenly invested because public loans were backed by the French gov­ernment, thus a patriotic public service.  

French share certificates

signed by de Lesseps

When work started in 1881, digging progressed slowly but st­ead­ily. The French contr­ol­led modern equipment, from locom­ot­ives to tug­boats & dredges, while their crew was made mostly of West Indian & Indian lab­ourers. De Lesseps, who’d visited Pa­nama only in the dry season, disregarded the rain warnings of men who knew Pa­nama in­tim­ately. Now his crew discovered imp­as­sable jungle, tor­r­ential rain, ins­ects, sn­akes, swamps, hell­ish heat and smallpox. In 1881 the Fr­ench recorded 60 deaths from disease. In 1882 deaths doub­led. In 1883 420 died mainly from malaria and yellow fever, but the Co. of­ten fired sick labourers to reduce medical costs. Doctors at the French hos­p­ital at An­con worked hard but 3 out of 4 men hospitalised there died.

Ch­agres River crossed the canal route 14 times! De Lesseps' decid­ed to dam and divert the river, ignoring eng­in­eers’ advice re the impossible task. But in the rainy season, this River rose to a monst­rous torrent that swept everything aw­ay. Chest deep in mud, the Fr­en­­ch force contin­ued. The rain and Chag­res often de­st­royed what en­g­ineering and hard labour won; mudslides buried men, sup­p­lies, mach­ines.

In 1887 Gustave Eiffel agreed to build Panama Canal's locks. This was his biggest contract AND the riskiest. So he was gr­ant­ed major financial advantages and solid guarantees, all­owing him to collect his profit as soon as the work began.

When the Canal Co failed in Dec 1888, French investments were lost and Panama meant fraud; c$287 m had been sp­ent, 50 million cubic ms of rock were moved, 11 miles of canal dug & 20,000 men killed. The money end­­ed and shareholders voted to dis­s­ol­ve the Co, placing it in legal re­ceiv­er­ship.

The wor­th­less Canal Co. stock made investors fur­ious, demanding the Fr­en­ch government conduct an 1893 Inquiry which named many individuals and in­stitutions. The br­ibes, slush funds and in­fl­uence ped­dling also pr­oved that many legis­l­ators were involved!! Key fin­an­ciers Baron de Reinach and Cornelius Herz allegedly gave bribes to targets. The public claimed that the VERY REA­SON for their con­fid­en­ce, government back­ing of loans, was the key factor in the crisis. And although some culprits were impr­is­oned or fined, de Rein­ach died before he was sen­tenced. Ferdinand & Charles de Lesseps, and Gust­ave Ei­f­fel, were sentenced to (non-enforced) prison terms. Herz fled to Eng­land. Eventually the burden was born ONLY the c800,000 French citizens who saw their investments eliminated.

So President Roosevelt took up the cause. In 1901, Roos­evelt passionately spoke of the Panama Canal to Congr­ess. In 1902 the U.S agreed to buy rights to the French canal property and equipment for c$40 mill and U.S Dept of War began negotiating a Panama treaty with Colombia.

When Colombia slowed negotiations, Roosevelt & Panam­an­ian bus­iness int­er­ests collaborated on a revolution las­ting br­ief­ly. Colombian soldiers in Colón were each brib­ed $50 to down arms; USS Nashville cruised off the Panaman­ian coast in supp­ort. In Nov 1903, the nation of Panama was born.

The U.S took control. Americans had written the Pan­amanian Constit­ut­ion in advance, after a payment of $10 million se­cured a canal zone and rights to build. The pro-canal lobbyist Phil­lipe Bunau-Varilla, instal­l­ed as Pan­amanian minister to the U.S., signed a treaty favourable to US in­t­erests. The $40 million given to J.P Morgan for distribution to French stockholders faded amid rumours of larceny.

The Americans' first year in Panama (1904) replicated the French disast­er. The chief engineer, John F Wallace, developed no action plan; the food was putrid and living conditions abysmal. Disease struck, 3 out of 4 Am­ericans went home, and Wallace soon followed. The Americans had poured $128 useless millions into the swamps of Panama.

Clever John Stevens took over, he who’d built the Great Nor­thern Railroad across the Pacific NW. He ultimately saved the troubled canal with a new plan i.e a well-housed, well-fed, disease-free labour force. Dr William Gorgas, who’d earlier eradicated yellow fever in Havana by killing mosq­uitoes & sanit­ation. Workers drained swamps, swept ditches, pav­ed roads, instal­led plumbing and sp­rayed pesticides. Towns rose with housing, schools, churches, shops and halls.

Pres. Roosevelt visiting the Canal

1906, PBS

After 9 months of Capitol Hill lob­bying, the push for Roosevelt’s fav­oured Lake and Lock Canal succeed­ed and the canal's engineering was ch­ang­ed. Stevens planned to dam the Chagres to create the vast Gat­un Lake in Panama's interior where a series of locks could raise ships from the Atl­antic side to the level of the lake. The boats could cross the lake, then de­scend by another set of locks to the Pacific. This plan was near­ly iden­tical to one proposed by French engineer Godin de Lépinay in 1879 when M de Lesseps promoted his sea-level plan. With sanitat­ion complete, gig­an­tic steam shovels scooped tons of earth, and railroad cars ran on double tracks, dumping tailings on the Chagres dam.

By Dec 1905 yellow fever had been eradicated. In Nov 1906 Roosevelt happily visited the canal. In Feb 1907, Chief Engineer Stevens resigned and Col. George Goethals, an Army engin­eer who built lock-type canals, quickly took over.

First ships ready to test the Canal, 1913

At Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side, workers poured concrete for a wall 8' wide, 12' high and 133 miles long. They built cul­v­erts/rail­­road tunnels to channel water from Gatun Lake into the locks. Pitt­sburgh's furnaces roared as 50+ mills, foundries and mac­hine shops chur­ned out the metalwork. There were lost equip­ment and deaths, but progress!

In May 1913, steam shovels broke through the Culebra Cut and the last cement was poured at Gatun locks. The Chagres filled Gatun Lake, and en­g­ineers prepared for the canal's first trial run in Sept. The  end was near! The Panama Canal opened officially on Aug 1914. Sadly just as German troops were driving across Belgium to Paris.

A cruise ship sails down the completed Canal

Many thanks to PBS 

Edinburgh's 17th century Tron Kirk

Tron Kirk/Church was commissioned in Edinburgh by King Charles I from Scot­t­ish architect John Myle, as part of the plan to upgrade Edinburgh to city status. And it seems that the timing was critical. King Charles was try­ing to impose an Episcopal structure onto the reluctant Scottish Church. This was just after the bishopric designation of Edinburgh’s High Kirk St Giles in the royal charter of 1633.

Looking along the Royal Mile to Tron Kirk.

Furthermore the location was also significant. The North-West parish congreg­at­ion had been displaced by St Giles’ changing status, and they required a new home. So the new church was built on the Edinburgh's gorgeous Royal Mile.

As the building went up in the 1630s and 1640s, the architectural taste was mixed, reflecting both the cultural tastes and the politics of that period. The side of the Kirk facing Hunter Square looks like a Dutch church or town hall of the same era. Other parts of the building look Palladian, with strong Gothic elements.

Scottish Historic Buildings Trust

 

Change over the centuries was inevitable. For example, the Great Fire of Edinburgh in Nov 1824 ravaged Scotland’s capital. Ten lives were lost and hundreds of families made homeless due to the inferno. £200,000+ worth of damage was inflicted on the south side of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile which included the toppling of the Tron Kirk’s famous Dutch-influenced steeple. The current Tron Kirk steeple, which was a totally new design, was not created until 1828.

The church has been largely closed to the public since soon after WW2 and it was very fortunate to escape destruction. Plans to remove the church were regularly floated in order to improve traffic flow around the busy junction of the Bridges and the Royal Mile. Luckily for Tron Kirk, it became a key part of a large plan to restore the historic heart of the city. The goal was to bring unused heritage buildings back to life as cultural and arts venues.

A restoration programme commenced in 1974 and even then there was a surprise: work on the floor and foundations of the church uncovered the remnants of 16th century shops and dwellings on historic Marlin’s Close. Naturally the site soon became interesting to historians and archaeologists. The excavated remains of the medieval Marlin’s Close have now been glassed over, creating a unique and fascinating window into Edinburgh’s past.

The Kirk’s connections with Hogmanay were interesting. While the winter solstice was celebrated among the Norse in ancient times, the link to the Vikings’ celebration of Yule (then the Twelve Days of Christmas) might also have played a role. Perhaps these pagan winter festivities were not always popular with the stout Scottish clerics of the Protestant Reformation, but this changed. By the late C17th, various areas of Scotland were developing their own Hogmanay rituals including, or perhaps especially Edinburgh.   

                

Edinburgh Hogmanay, New Year's Eve

DanFlyingSolo

As a result, Edinburgh Hogmanay celebrations these days are probably some of the best attended in the world. And in Dec 2012 the Tron Kirk was open, for three hectic days and nights, to people welcoming in the New Year. The title, A Festival of the Extraordinary: The Drambuie Surreal Sessions, might suggest that some alcohol was involved. However the goal was always to help secure the future of the Tron Kirk as a central arts and culture venue in Edinburgh.

Today Tron Kirk Market is run by the Scottish Design Exchange, the company who support local artists and designers. The market provides space for 21 local artists and designers, selling a range of handmade products eg pottery, jewellery, woodwork, original art and prints

Tron Kirk Market

The original stained glass windows are still protected.

The Conservation organisation, Edinburgh World Heritage, submit­ted the plans to the Edinburgh City Council to open a visitor centre in the church. Now approved, this visitor centre will explain the history of the capital's Old and New Towns from inside the 17th century site. Perfect.

Voltaire: writer living pre-Enlightenment

François Marie Arouet (1694-1778) was the son of a treas­ury of­ficial. In 1704, soon after his mother’s death, Arouet was sent to the Jesuit Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris for 7 years. He wrote poetry and performed in plays in Latin and French and when Arouet left Coll­ège at 17, the lad wanted to become a writer. Having already planned a law career for his son, dad forced Francois to be a lawyer’s assistant for two years, but the lad devoted his en­ergy to writing satirical poetry instead. So his father sent him to the country with marquis de Saint-Ange Louis de Caumartin, writing history.

When King Louis XIV died in 1715, Arouet went home. The king’s reign had been miserable, so things HAD to change for the bett­er, and he was welcomed into Paris’ literary society. In the Duchess of Maine's circle, Arouet again contributed to a libellous satirical poem ridic­ul­ing the Prince Regent Orleans. And as a result he was again exiled from Paris in May 1716! Was the young man truly reckless? Or just naïve?

Some "unacceptable" quotes by other writers were falsely ascribed to him, making him look worse. So soon he was back in Par­is’ infamous Bast­il­le prison. Inside he worked on a new play and this tragedy Oedipe was his 1st theatrical success. It was also in this prison that he began The Henr­iade, an ep­ic poem about Henry IV, and he adopted penname Voltaire. Voltaire was gaoled for a year for satirising politics & religion in La Henriade. Released in 1718, Oedipe was successfully perf­orm­ed in Paris, running for 45 nights estab­lish­ing Vol­taire’s fame as a great playwright at 23 and making money! And securing him a regent’s pension. In 1725 he conflicted with a powerful young nobleman, Chev­al­ier de Roh­an, who insulted Voltaire. Soon after, the writer was called outside while dining with a Duke and was beaten by Rohan’s thugs. Voltaire soon chall­enged Rohan to a duel, but was arrested that day and was thrown into the Bastil­le, again! 

copy of the pastel portrait of Voltaire, 1735

originally painted by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour

meisterdrucke

Af­ter prison Voltaire chose exile in Brit­ain for 3 years. New King George II was not a lit­erature fan, but Queen Caroline loved poetry and welcomed Voltaire into society. Quickly mastering English, he published The Henriade in English, dedicated to the Queen. And befriended a stimul­at­ing group eg Prime Min Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Boling­­broke, poet Alexander Pope & playwr­ight William Congreve. And he read the work of two of the great think­ers of the C17th: natural scient­ist Isaac New­ton and phil­os­oph­er John Locke.

In Britain Voltaire produced 2 works: Essay Upon Epic Poetry and Essay Upon the Civil Wars in France in 1727. He wrote that humans con­troll­ed their own des­t­iny, rejecting the idea that Divine Inter­vention guided history. After he'd been im­p­ressed by Britain’s free­dom of speech & religious tol­erance, Voltaire returned home in 1729 and saw the UK’s constitut­ional mon­archy as the more progressive. It was easy pub­lish­ing Lett­ers Concerning the Eng­lish Nation in Eng­lish (1733), but pub­lishing the Letters in French was not. The publ­isher was sent to prison and the book was burned publicly.

Voltaire met brilliant mathem­at­ician-scientist Emilie de Breteuil marquise du Châtelet in 1733 and at her invitation the wr­iter moved to Cirey in E France. There they began their 16-year affair. They were a perfect Enlighten­ment couple working together, stud­ying natural sciences, performing their own lab ex­periments, studying history and philosophy. They collected and studied 21,000+ books. Mme du Châtelet’s translation of Newton’s Principia and Volt­aire’s Elements of Newton’s Philosophy were key to in­tro­ducing the new natural philosophy ideas to the Continent
                                                       

Mahomet the Prophet, a five-act tragedy

by Voltaire, 1736.

Wiki

In 1740-9 Voltaire moved between Brussels, Cirey and Paris. His most successful play in the 1740s was Mahomet the Prophet, playing in Lille and then Paris. This study of religious fanaticism por­trayed Mohammed as a power-hungry intrig­ue but Cath­olic clergy saw it as a veiled attack on Christian fanat­ic­ism and burn­ed the book. So Vol­taire asked the Pope for his consent to dedicate Mohammed to him. By then many Frenchmen hailed Voltaire as the greatest writer; he was placed in Germany’s Hall of Fame and was elected a mem­ber of Britain’s Royal Society. But the Ac­ad­émie Fran­çaise rejec­t­ed him again. Only in 1746, with the King and the Pope behind him, was Voltaire fin­al­ly admitted.

Château de Voltaire à Ferney

Voltaire rebuilt the castle entirely from 1758.

Tiqets

Earlier Voltaire received a letter from Frederick Prince of Prussia, starting a long correspondence. In Sept 1749 Madame du Châtelet died in childbirth, devastating Voltaire. So eventually he accepted the invitation of the then-King Frederick to move. The move failed and after 2 years Voltaire was granted leave, leaving Potsdam 1753. Voltaire bought a stylish country house near Geneva in 1754. Having some weal­th then, he built a priv­ate thea­tre but Geneva had a law forbidding theatrical perf­orm­ances. In late 1758 he bought an extensive property on Lake Geneva at Ferney. There he spent his last 20 years, entertaining so­ciety and producing fine works.

The irr­ev­erent Cand­ide (1759) was a witty romance, but also a clear attack on France’s religious philosoph­y. 5 years after Candide, Voltaire published his greatest philosophical writings, Philosophical Dictionary in 1764 where the ideal religion taught morality & rej­ected dogma. Naturally his book was condemned in Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva!!

Candide

published in 1759

In 1778 after 20 years in Ferney, Voltaire longed to return to Paris. He had completed his last work, the tragedy Irene, its first per­formance being at Paris’ National Theatre. His niece-lover Madame Denis was also very keen to return home so they set out, arriving to a hero’s wel­come. The 83 year old man prepared for the opening of Irene, but became seriously ill and soon died. The Church refused to give Voltaire a Christian burial, so his body was taken secretly to an abbey in Champagne and buried.

Voltaire was the perfect Enlightenment man, spending much of his adult career in prison or exile. Alas Vol­taire's France was one in which the monarchy, nobility & clergy dominated. It was an era of book burning and imprison­ment by the ruling class. Ironically the time the French Re­volution began 11 years after Vol­taire died, ideas of universal humanity were popular and only then could Voltaire’s liter­at­ure and campaigning against injustice be truly valued.