“Louis Sullivan's 'Idea.'”

AboutLawrence E. Scanlon's literary and philosophical analysis of Sullivan's *The Autobiography of an Idea* (1924), written near the end of his life amid "the degradation of cheap Chicago hotels." Scanlon argues against prior critics (Hugh Morrison, John Summerson, an anonymous *Architectural Forum* reviewer, Harry Hansen) who treated the book as either a conventional autobiography or a simple restatement of "form follows function," proposing instead that its central "Idea" is a theory of man's creative power closely paralleling William James's pragmatist psychology and philosophy. Scanlon traces the development of this idea of "power" through Sullivan's autobiographical vignettes — the suspension bridge at Newburyport, the architect who builds "out of his head," the Sistine Chapel frescoes — to Sullivan's late affirmation of man as "Free Spirit" and "Creator."

PURL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0678%28195924%2911%3A4%3C521%3ALS%22%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P