'Frances Elkins: Visionary American Designer' by Scott Powell

Called “the most creative designer we have ever had” by Billy Baldwin, Frances Elkins is revered for her classic, erudite, and multidimensional decor. Ahead of her time, Elkins became a successful decorator, who by the early 1930s, had reached the top of her profession and was considered the only rival to Elsie de Wolfe.

Showcasing never-before-published material , Frances Elkins: Visionary American Designer includes more than sixty interiors that illustrate her outstanding sense of color and her gift of mixing periods and styles —from her early work on the Monterey Peninsula, to houses she designed with her brother in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, to iconic hotel commissions such as the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, to homes for film star Edward G. Robinson, banking heiress Celia Tobin Clark and advertising legend Albert Lasker. With images by top photographers of the day as well as newly commissioned images of extant Elkins interiors, this volume will serve as a revelation and inspiration to fans of design.