Triangle Books Presents

Intimate Triangle:

Architecture of Crystals,
Frank Lloyd Wright,
and the
Froebel Kindergarten

by Jeanne Spielman Rubin

limited edition hardcover
327 pages with 160 illustrations
ISBN 0971877602
regularly $49.95

Save $10 at Red Hen Books

Excerpts from published reviews:

"My admiration for Intimate Triangle . . . is unbounded, for there is so much to be learned here"; "This is one of those rare books that enters the list of essential reading for those wishing to understand Frank Lloyd Wright and his architecture"; "Rubin has given us a complete explication of one aspect of Wright's creativity upon which others have touched only glancingly" ~ William Storrer, FLlW Update

"A very useful book"; "Froebel's kindergarten emerges as never before as a prime germinating factor for the arts and sciences of the twentieth century" ~ Vincent Scully, Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, Yale University.

"Tour de force"; " an impressive piece of creative scholarship"; "nontrivial statement about an effect of early experience on later human development" ~ Sheldon White, Psychology chair, Harvard University.

"Rubin's most revealing finding is that . . . all of the forms [Froebel materials] and the ways in which they were to be used are based on the science of crystallography." ~ Ada Louise Huxtable, Frank Lloyd Wright

"Rubin, who first recognized that the "Professor Weiss" in Froebel's autobiography was the famous Christian Samuel, established the Froebel crystallography connection;" "Rubin's book is based upon 30 years of original and painstaking research, some of which made its way into Inventing Kindergarten. Intimate Triangle has a more consistent crystallographic focus"; "I recommend them both with great enthusiasm to any crystallographer" ~ Crystal Growth & Design


"If anyone wishes to pursue the connection between early kindergarten training and eventual profession, this book provides many of the clues"; "a scholarly work"; contains many interesting historical anecdotes tracing the influence which members of the various connected families in the USA, Germany, Italy and Switzerland had upon educational reform" ~ journal of The British Crystallographic Association (The BCA).

"Inspired research"; "intellectually stimulating"; "a delightful and immediately useful connection between the science of crystallography, early childhood education, and the practical art of architecture" ~ Alan Friedman, Director of the New York Hall of Science

"This study has turned up the missing link that joins Froebel's kindergarten, the architecture of molecules, and that of Wright in an intimately intertwined threesome" ~ Prairie Avenue Bookshop catalogue

"Provides insights not elsewhere discoverable"; "Rubin has done what no other writer has, namely, discovered the root source of Froebel education principles in Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture. Every serious architect and every dedicated educator should read her book." ~ William Storrer, author of The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion.

"Very special thanks to Jeanne S. Rubin for being more knowledgeable about the importance of the kindergarten than anyone else, and for allowing me to publish some of her research"; "thirty-odd years of kindergarten research ... clarifies the Wright/Froebel/crystallography connection so definitively" ~ Norman Brosterman, Inventing Kindergarten

"A revelation for the serious Frank Lloyd Wright scholar" "the scholarship is elegant"; "Ms. Rubin's detective work will delight the reader who has progressed beyond the more readily available spate of books on Wright" ~ Modernism Magazine

"Rubin . . . illuminates the crystallographic basis of the Froebel kindergarten and the intriguing connections to some of the greatest talentsof the arts and sciences of the twentieth century. A must for anyone interested in early childhood education or the creative forces behind the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright" ~ FroebelWeb

" Elegantly written"; "reads like a well composed mystery novel" "the most important book to date written on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright"; "an amazing exposition on the importance of early childhood education"~ Jetsetmodern.com

About the author:

Jeanne Spielman Rubin -- emeritus professor, Kent State University -- has long been interested in connections between the arts and other disciplines. Representative of her interdisciplinary interests are her activities: concertmaster and assistant concertmaster of the Canton and Akron symphonies, numerous articles published in research and professional journals devoted to music, architecture, and early childhood education; founder and director of the Suzuki program for young children at the university. This started a five decade exploration of Froebel's Kindergarten, and its connections to crystallography and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Rubin's initial articles (listed below) inspired Norman Brosterman's Inventing Kindergarten and Scott Bultman, owner of Uncle Goose Toys and FroebelUSA.com.

Some representative articles published and papers presented:

"Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Molecular' Architecture." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians, Toronto, Canada, 2001.

"The Froebel-Wright Connection: A New Perspective." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 48, no. 1 (March 1989): 24-37; responses to letters to the editor, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 48, no. 4 (December 1989): 413-17.

"Letter to the Editor." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 53, no. 3 (September 1994): 376-77.

"Montessori and Suzuki Training: Parallels." Paper presented at the 30th Anniversary Conference of the American Montessori Society, New York, August 1980.

"Thirtyfive Unpublished Booklets on Montessorian Education." Paper presented at the 14th Congress of the International Society of Music Educators, Warsaw, Poland, 1980.


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