Taliesin Reflections

During the Great Depression, there were few clients coming to Frank Lloyd Wright for designs, so he turned to writing and lecturing. In 1932, he and his wife, Olgivanna, began the Taliesin Fellowship where 30 apprentices came to live and learn from the most influential and imaginative architect of the Twentieth Century. Earl Nisbet was one of those apprentices and Taliesin Reflections relates some of the day-to-day activities that occurred in the Taliesin Fellowship.

Earl Nisbet was born and grew up in San Jose, California. He studied architectural engineering at Heald College in San Francisco following military service in World War II. He worked as a carpenter in San Mateo after the war. When he learned of an experimental project under construction by four former Frank Lloyd Wright apprentices in Woodside, he offered his services in the construction of the Midglen House. Inspired by the dedication of the young apprentices at Midglen, he visited Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin, and was apprenticed from 1951 through 1953. Following apprenticeship, he worked for San Jose architect Goodwin Steinberg, and afterward traveled to Tahiti, finally setting up his own office in Honolulu, Hawaii. Returning to California he executed commissions for a number of residences on the San Francisco Peninsula. Nisbet has contributed several of his Taliesin Reflections to the Northern California Taliesin Fellows Newsletter wherein he recounts, with humor, the day-to-day life at Taliesin. He cites his relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright as the great experience of his life. He now lives and works in Aptos, California.