When you think of the Farnsworth House, you likely think of its famous architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. But what about the building’s namesake, the woman who commissioned Mies’ work—Dr. Edith Farnsworth?

Author Alex Beam’s new book from Penguin Random House, Broken Glass: Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight over a Modernist Masterpiece, unpacks “the true story of the intimate relationship that gave birth to the Farnsworth House, a masterpiece of twentieth-century architecture—and disintegrated into a bitter feud over love, money, gender, and the very nature of art.”

An editor I was working with suggested several sites, including the Farnsworth House, which I was not familiar with at the time. The House is a stunning beauty as a physical object and one of the greatest architectural pieces of the 20^th century, and I knew it would not be hard to find materials about.

When did you first visit the Farnsworth House?

Probably four years ago. The world is rich with gorgeous photos and illustrations of the house, and you almost get to know it through these amazing images before you visit. Once I was actually there, I was overwhelmed by the size of the house—it towers over you in a very surprising way. It’s built up five feet, four inches, to accommodate the flooding of the Fox River.

It’s also such a visual surprise when you approach it as you do now, which is not necessarily how Edith and her contemporaries would have. Architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright worked hard on the “procession,” meaning how you approach a building or even a part of a building, and the current procession to the Farnsworth, flanking the Fox River, is unforgettable.

Where did you conduct research for the book? Was it challenging to find information?

I got access to the transcripts of the nearly 4,000-page lawsuit Mies filed against Dr. Farnsworth. Journalists love litigation because it means the information is protected and can be quoted. The transcript of the court proceedings is a public document, but the original went missing decades ago. Mies’s biographer Edward Windhorst, and Mies’s grandson, the architect Dirk Lohan, let me use their transcript, and I’m working to make that record public so that future researchers don’t have to go through the same process I did.

I also did research at the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Archive at MOMA, the Getty Research Institute, and the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Archives (Edith was a researcher at Passavant Hospital, which became part of Northwestern). I interviewed Fairbanks Carpenter, Edith’s nephew, who was very helpful.

Edith spent the last 10-11 years of her life at her villa on Via Carota, in Bagno a Ripoli, outside of Florence, Italy. I visited there, which was a fascinating visual experience, but I did not conduct a lot of research.

The Farnworth House has also recorded oral histories with people who knew both Dr. Farnsworth and Mies. They are available online and were very helpful.

Dr. Farnsworth was a remarkable woman and ahead of her time: She was an accomplished research physician in a male-dominated field, a classically trained violinist, a poet and translator, and a world traveler. Has her role in the design and construction of the Farnsworth House been taken seriously?

No, it hasn’t. Wellesley College professor Alice Friedman calls Edith as the patron of the Farnsworth House, which I think is quite accurate. Edith felt that Mies was a genius and this was a highly unusual commission—he had complete control.

Edith Farnsworth Reconsidered is the 2020 programmatic focus of the Farnsworth House, including exhibitions, programs, and events related to Dr. Farnsworth’s life and times. What do you wish visitors today understood about Dr. Farnsworth?

Through the efforts of the Farnsworth House and many others, and hopefully including my book, efforts are being made to put Edith closer to the center of the story of the Farnsworth house, which is crucial. Historically, many people have been dismissive of Edith—saying she just lent her name to a Mies project—but now she’s going to much more fully perceived. Sadly, not enough is known about her.