Early one spring morning, I drove west from Madison to the village of Spring Green to meet with Eric O’Keefe, one of Wisconsin Club for Growth’s directors. O’Keefe had suggested we meet at the Taliesin Visitor Center, which was built by Frank Lloyd Wright. The land, covered in radiant greenery, is at turns gentle and roughhewn. It marks the eastern edge of the Driftless Area, whose craggy hills inspired Wright. Born in nearby Richland Center, Wright built his home and studio, Taliesin, in Spring Green, as well as the visitor center, a low, beguiling building that spans two hills and houses a restaurant overlooking the Wisconsin River. Wright was a model for the architect Howard Roark, the protolibertarian hero of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. It’s a curious choice given that Wright’s work pays tribute to nature, while Roark had little use for natural beauty, a view Rand shared. (“I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline,” Roark announces.) But the landscape of southwestern Wisconsin managed to touch even Rand, who described it fondly in Atlas Shrugged.
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