The catalog accompanies the exhibition at the MAK Center at the Schindler House, co-curated by Kimberli Meyer and Susan Morgan, that presents the life and work of Esther McCoy (1904–1989).

This project—the first ever to focus on McCoy’s life and work–recognizes an American original and affirms her unassailable role as a key figure in American modernism. “No one can write about architecture in Southern California without acknowledging her as the mother of us all,” declared Reyner Banham.

The volume highlights the extraordinary range and importance of McCoy’s work: starting in the 1930s and her activist journalism focusing on Los Angeles slum clearances; her inside view of the day-to-day workings of architect Rudolph M. Schindler’s studio; her work with popular and architectural press and the rise of innovative domestic architecture; her campaign to save Irving Gill’s 1916 Dodge House; and her always incisive stories that deliver an irresistibly compelling, first-hand view of American modernism.

Language: English / German