Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan
Personal Histories of Two Icons of American Architecture
Connecting the origins and outcomes of genius
Cloth – $125
978-0-252-04953-8
Paper – $29.95
978-0-252-08918-3
eBook – $14.95
978-0-252-04868-5
Publication Date
Paperback: 04/13/2026
Cloth: 04/13/2026
Cloth: 04/13/2026
About the Book
Peers, foils, colleagues, and rivals—Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan’s impact on each other still expresses itself in architectural masterworks that anchor Chicago’s cityscape. Trygve Thoreson’s parallel biography places their lives and careers within a panoramic history of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Thoreson delves into their influences while bringing to life the social, intellectual, and cultural milieus of their time. Unearthing a wealth of personal details, Thoreson pays particular attention to the influences that formed Burnham and Sullivan and shaped not only their designs but their conception of themselves as artists. He also examines the confluence of historical forces that pulled the two men together and pushed them apart—a fruitful back-and-forth that built surprising links into their work and steered world architecture in bold new directions.An engaging piece of nonfiction storytelling, Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan reveals new facets of the architects’ personal, intellectual, and artistic lives.
About the Author
Trygve Thoreson is Professor Emeritus of English and Humanities at William Rainey Harper College. At Harper, he designed and developed architecture tours of downtown Chicago for students in the humanities and in retirement has served as a volunteer host at the Chicago Architecture Center. Thoreson is the author of Harper College, The First Fifty Years: William Rainey Harper College 1967-2017.Reviews
“Trygve Thoreson gives us a fresh and consistently enlightening look at these two iconic figures in modern American architecture and city planning by viewing their careers, including their challenging relationship with each other, in the context of their private lives and thoughts. Thoroughly researched, gracefully written, and consistently insightful, this book is essential to a full understanding of Burnham, Sullivan, their work, their Chicago, and their transformative era.” -Carl Smith, author of The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City “This long-overdue biography of two giants of Chicago architectural history is a triumph of scholarship. Trygve Thoreson deftly explores the remarkable story of Burnham’s and Sullivan’s influences—from Transcendentalism to Walt Whitman—and their efforts to reconcile the esthetic with the pragmatic.” -James A. Edstrom, author of Avenues of Transformation: Illinois's Path from Territory to State ???????Related Titles
