To the Editors:
Grateful as I have reason to be for the learned and often complimentary review by Thomas Hines of my biography of Frank Lloyd Wright, Many Masks (“In the Nature of the Architect,” January, 1988), I would like to correct what I consider a distressing factual misstatement contained in the review. Having mentioned Robert Twombly’s biography of Wright, Professor Hines refers to “such seminal critical treatments as Henry-Russell Hitchcock’s In the Nature of Materials: The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1887-1941 (1942); Grant Manson’s Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The First Golden Age (1958); and Norris Kelly Smith’s Frank Lloyd Wright: A Study in Architectural Content (1966),” and adds, “Unfortunately, Gill’s failure to cite such predecessors echoes Wright’s own reluctance to acknowledge influences.” This is simply not the case. In the course of writing Many Masks, I often consulted with my old friend Hitchcock, and his name is cited a dozen times in my index; when I quote for the first time from his book, I give its title in full in my chapter notes. Similarly, Manson’s book is noted both in the text and in my chapter notes and his name in the index is followed by a large number of page citations. As for Mr. Smith’s book, it isn’t mentioned because I happened not to make use of it. What, then, does my purported failure consist of?

I am happy to take this opportunity to correct an error of omission that, though he doesn’t