Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth

by Nora Wendl

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252088766
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	05/20/2025
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Nora Wendl is an essayist, artist, architect, and associate professor of architecture at the University of New Mexico.

Editorial Reviews

Almost Nothing radically changes our understanding of how the history of modern architecture has been created, and illuminates the actual mechanisms of those who have created it. Wendl’s flawless writing is lyrical, propulsive, and incredibly clear. Every idea in this astonishing book is at once new and so well-explained that it feels almost intuitive; the central arguments are rigorous and well-developed while simultaneously being an absolute pleasure to read. I could not turn away from this book, nor did I want to.”—Eva Hagberg, author of When Eero Met His Match: Aline Louchheim Saarinen and the Making of an Architect

From the Publisher