1953年的一个冬日，一个身穿羊皮大衣的神秘男子在当时还是耶鲁大学戏剧系学生的哈里特·派蒂森眼里显得格外引人注目，她后来才知道他是建筑师路易斯·卡恩（1901-1974）。这次偶然的邂逅为15年的恋情拉开了序幕，派蒂森成为这位建筑师最亲密的知己，他的智力伙伴，也是他**的儿子的母亲。

派蒂森在这里首次讲述了他们之间充满激情、有时甚至是灼热的关系。已婚的卡恩比她大27岁，他给她寄了几十封信——很多都是来自遥远的地方——直到他早逝。这本书将派蒂森自己的故事与信件、明信片、电报、图纸和照片交织在一起，揭示了卡恩的内心生活和他的建筑思想过程，包括对他最伟大的作品（包括已建和未建的作品）的新见解。本书既讲述了一个凄美的爱情故事，也生动地描绘了一位年轻女性在其**伴侣的阴影下努力养家糊口，同时开创出一条艺术道路。

An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn

On a winter day in 1953, a mysterious man in a sheepskin coat stood out to Harriet Pattison, then a theater student at Yale. She would later learn he was the architect Louis Kahn (1901–1974). This chance encounter served as preamble to a fifteen-year romance, with Pattison becoming the architect’s closest confidante, his intellectual partner, and the mother of his only son.

Here for the first time, Pattison recounts their passionate and sometimes searing relationship. Married and twenty-

seven years her senior, Kahn sent her scores of letters―many from far-flung places―until his untimely death. This book weaves together Pattison’s own story with letters, postcards, telegrams, drawings, and photographs that reveal Kahn’s inner life and his architectural thought process, including new insight into some of his greatest works, both built and unbuilt. What emerges is at once a poignant love story and a vivid portrait of a young woman striving to raise a family while forging an artistic path in the shadow of her famous partner.