192. Wright, Frank Lloyd . Typed Letter Signed "Frank Lloyd Wright" to Edgar Tafel discussing the rules and regulations at Taliesin. 4to, single sheet written on one side of Taliesin stationery; light wear, light hand-soiling, creased at folds, pinhole at top margin.Tafel was Wright's former apprentice and worked with Wright on such important designs as Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax Building, and several "Usonian" houses.

Spring Green, Wisconsin, January 4, 1934 [1000/1500]

"To Edgar1 We are here at Taliesin to work and to work hard. A day of hard work requires rather more than the normal eight hours of sleep. Adequate sleep is as essential to a healthy psyche as fresh air and good food. The curfew will ring therefore at ten minutes of ten o'clock -- the lights will be turned out at precisely ten o'clock. All members of the Fellowship are requested to promptly turn in at this time. Those unable or unwilling to conform in spirit to the letter of this regulation will be invited to leave Taliesin.2 The rising bell will ring fifteen minutes before breakfast at seven o'clock. With sufficient sleep everyone should be willing and able to appear promptly at the breakfast table every morning. On Sundays breakfast may be had anytime up to ten o'clock.3 Members of the Fellowship are requested not to seek the town for relaxation. If relaxation of this sort is necessary some quality that should be present in work and fellowship is missing. The seeking of such relaxation in the circumstances set up at Taliesin will prove this. Either the life at Taliesin will be for the purpose of membership here, complete, or the member 'town-relaxed' will be invited to return to the life of the town where, manifestly, he belongs.4 But to avoid drawing hard lines for the present exceptions may be made to the above regulations on appeal to Mrs. Wright or Mr. Wright for special occasions.5 In the light of past experience it appears that the less the life of the private room and the town is practiced and the more the Fellowship foregathers on common ground the richer the quality of our social life will be for all concerned in this endeavor.6 The outside work day begins at Taliesin promptly at eight o'clock -- one hour being allowed each apprentice for breakfast and the upkeep of his room. The outside day at Taliesin ends at fifteen minutes to four o'clock when members will wash and appear at the studio for tea, thereafter working on studio projects until the supper bell rings at six o'clock. Such work as may particularly interest the apprentice can be carried on there after supper. The more the studio life is a feature of Fellowship evenings the better.FINALLY Man is essentially an appetite. Only as the satisfactions of appetite tend to uplift the individual and do not tend to sink him is there culture. Life at Taliesin is seeking earnestly for a natural basis for a natural culture. I hope all will be too much in earnest to put up long with thoughtlessness or willful disregard of the limitations fixed to ensure the growth of that life as a whole.N.B. Emergency notices will appear from time to time which, to some extent, may modify these regulations."