Mark Heyman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Well, in the & he started aut that he was up nrost of the night
1- for this definition of genius, Mch he had thwght of but
couldnlt mmrbr Bxacrtly. It stitrmlated 13y Senator Bentmls
m k
of the night before when he called Mr. Wright a genius and,
therely, said he cwld get away with saying certain thhqs. Arxl this
Welsh author, vhm~ he didn't m, said that genius was having the eye
toseeNature, themindtO-NatUre, ardtheheartorcoumge
to follow Nhature, Mr. Wright was very pleased with f w this and
then he exprdd m it. I don't -1 the details, lxrt it was a kind
of way of takirrg the stigrrra E m them genius. It gave genius sane
c o w and broke it dam into three elements. If yew had all three,
you were a genius, I'm sure if he had l2mqht of it the night before,
hevmuldhavetoldSeMtor~~likethat. Wztthepojnt
was that m, like otherrt, often Wright or called him
samthiq whit31 sort of explained to them his ability to do certain
things or his hhavior to get away with certain and so m.
While as a prsm, Wright mver felt that. He felt that-sure, he was
a genius in Berrtcm's sense, krt that's too suprficial and there was
~behirrditarrdherehef~whatIthinkisapn?ettygood
definitim of genius which fits Wright as it mst fit other great
artists.
Q: Were you wer in Wrightls he receivd this kind of
fadrg praise?
A: Well, when Ehnbn said it, he was smiling. I remmkr that. It
was kid of like in quotes, yau knuw, Wh, Erank, you muld get away
with that because you're a genius." Arrl he dl&. But I was present
when visitors--farmus ard not famms visitors--knxlld praise Mr. Wright
excessively and I mean excessively. He sinply werlooksd it. Mtm
all, he had a lot of that met of his life or a part of his life.
He just simply went on with what he ws a3xnrt. Usually, there
wwld be a mnall w, maybe a clierrt or a ptenthl client: with the
cQmaim or fdly or vhtenrsr it was, far or five mle arvl he ms
givirrg themr a tar of his draft- roan and those of us W m
w&dq d d hear it ard mwt of the pople would be silent, I;nrt
sawthzsthemz~dbewmebodyU-mre~muldgush. mybathe
ptxt=on~&~brcn.qht ths qrarp to Wright saw a drawhq ard felt
obligatad to say samethlrrg and Mr. Wright would give these little
abcut the history of this lxlUa and that Mlding, all of
which ws had heard. 'fhis person's msponse might be to heap excessive
praise m him. Of course, he [Wright] was paishq himself while he
was desmibing all of these projects. But this perscx~ wmld just keep
praising hirn -ily. Well, Mr. Wright U d just sixply nut
hear that. He'ddkegard that &that person nwer )olew it, of
cmrse.
Q: What qualities in a visitor wmld stinaulate Wight's attmtiun?