Editing Frank Lloyd Wright (section)

===Childhood (1867–1885)===
Wright was born on June 8, 1867, in the town of [[Richland Center, Wisconsin]], but maintained throughout his life that he was born in 1869.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hines|first=Thomas S.|date=1967|title=Frank Lloyd Wright: The Madison Years: Records versus Recollections|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4634222|journal=The Wisconsin Magazine of History|volume=50|issue=2|pages=109–119|jstor=4634222|issn=0043-6534}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Huxtable|first=Ada Louise|date=October 31, 2004|title='Frank Lloyd Wright'|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/books/chapters/frank-lloyd-wright.html|access-date=February 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 1987 a biographer of Wright suggested that he had been christened as "Frank Lincoln Wright" or "Franklin Lincoln Wright" but these assertions were not supported by any documentation.<ref>Gill, Brendan, ''Many Masks, a Life of Frank Lloyd Wright'', Ballantine Books, 1987 p. 25.</ref>

Wright's father, William Cary Wright (1825–1904), was a "gifted musician, orator, and sometime preacher who had been admitted to the bar in 1857."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-fhnSK26vMC&q=frank+lincoln+wright&pg=PT12 |title=Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life |last=Huxtable |first=Ada Louise |year=2008 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-4406-3173-3 |language=en |page=5}}</ref> He was also a published composer.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kimber |first=Marian Wilson |date=2014 |title=Various Artists. The Music of William C. Wright: Solo Piano and Vocal Works, 1847–1893. Permelia Records 010225, 2013 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-society-for-american-music/article/various-artists-the-music-of-william-c-wright-solo-piano-and-vocal-works-18471893-permelia-records-010225-2013/D08DC5760AE0D2654A66AD275B84615A# |journal=Journal of the Society for American Music |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=274–276 |doi=10.1017/S1752196314000169 |s2cid=190701799 |issn=1752-1963}}</ref> Originally from [[Massachusetts]], William Wright had been a [[Baptist]] minister, but he later joined his wife's family in the [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] faith.

Wright's mother, Anna Lloyd Jones (1838/39–1923) was a teacher and a member of the Lloyd Jones clan; her parents had emigrated from [[Wales]] to [[Wisconsin]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Secrest |first=Meryle |title=Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1998 |page=36}}</ref> One of Anna's brothers was [[Jenkin Lloyd Jones]], an important figure in the spread of the Unitarian faith in the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]].

According to Wright's autobiography, his mother declared when she was expecting that her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant's ambition.<ref>Secrest, p. 58.</ref>

Wright had two younger sisters, [[Maginel Wright Enright]] (1880–1966) and Jane Wright (1869–1953). Maginel was a successful children's book illustrator and the mother of [[Elizabeth Enright]], who was also a writer and illustrator.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hamilton |first=Mary Jane |title=Nantucket in the Art of Maginel Wright |url=https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/nantucket-in-the-art-of-maginel-wright/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Nantucket Historical Association |language=en-US}}</ref>

Architecture critic [[Ada_Louise_Huxtable|Ada Louise Huxtable]] wrote that Wright grew up in an unstable household marked by a constant lack of resources, unrelieved poverty, and anxiety, resulting in what she described as a deeply disturbed and obviously unhappy childhood.<ref name="nyt">{{Cite news |last=Huxtable |first=Ada Louise |date=October 31, 2004 |title='Frank Lloyd Wright' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/books/chapters/frank-lloyd-wright.html |access-date=January 9, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> His father held pastorates in [[McGregor, Iowa]] (1869), [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island]] (1871), and [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]] (1874). Because the Wright family struggled financially also in Weymouth, they returned to [[Spring Green, Wisconsin]], where the supportive Lloyd Jones family could help William find employment. In 1877, they settled in [[Madison, Wisconsin]], where William gave music lessons and served as the secretary to the newly formed Unitarian society. Although William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music with his children.<ref name="nyt" />

In 1876, Anna saw an exhibit of educational blocks called the [[Froebel Gifts]], the foundation of an innovative [[kindergarten]] curriculum. Anna, a trained teacher, was excited by the program and bought a set with which the 9-year old Wright spent much time playing. The blocks in the set were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form two- and three-dimensional compositions. In his autobiography, Wright described the influence of these exercises on his approach to design: "For several years, I sat at the little kindergarten table-top... and played... with the cube, the sphere and the triangle{{snd}}these smooth wooden maple blocks... All are in my fingers to this day... "<ref>Alofsin, Anthony (1993). ''Frank Lloyd Wright – the Lost Years, 1910–1922: A Study of Influence''. University of Chicago Press. p. 359. {{ISBN|0-226-01366-9}}; Hersey, George (2000). ''Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque''. University of Chicago Press. p. 205. {{ISBN|0-226-32783-3}}.</ref>

In 1881, soon after Wright turned 14, his parents separated. In 1884, his father sued for a divorce from Anna on the grounds of "... emotional cruelty and physical violence and spousal abandonment".<ref>Hendrickson, Paul, ''Plagued By Fire'', New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2019, p. 399.</ref> Wright attended [[Madison Central High School (Wisconsin)|Madison High School]], but there is no evidence that he graduated.<ref>Secrest, p. 72.</ref> His father left Wisconsin after the divorce was granted in 1885. Wright said that he never saw his father again.<ref>Wright, Frank Lloyd, ''An Autobiography'', Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York City, 1943, p. 51.</ref>