Loretta Lorance

Buckminster Fuller was a very popular speaker in the 1960s and 1970s. Earlier, during the period 1922 to 1933, when he was between 27 and 38 years old, he was President of The Stockade Company until he was fired, then he conceived and attempted to build the Dymaxion House, and then he built the Dymaxion car. In this book, Loretta Lorance carefully compares the facts from this period against the life story that he later told in seminars and books, and finds discrepancies. She uses both Fuller's own “Chronofile” as well as letters by acquaintances and publicly available sources. She suggests that he wanted to make his story more interesting and also to make himself appear better in certain unfortunate events, such as his being fired.

If the book is taken as a mini biography of a short period of Fuller's life, then it is very interesting addition to writing on Fuller, albeit very laborious reading at times (but who am I to criticize?). However, a lot of book reviews have been critical because the author puts far too much emphasis on that limited period in Fuller's life, and too much emphasis on factual discrepancies in his later telling of those events. I agree with that criticism. Although it is clear from start to finish that the author holds Fuller in high regard, the laborious search for omissions, exaggerations, or distortions eventually wears down the reader's enthusiasm for the subject.… (mer)