Bookshelf

Alumni and faculty members who would like to have their books considered for this listing should contact Stacey Himmelberger, editor of Hamilton magazine. This list, which dates back to 2018, is updated periodically with books appearing alphabetically on the date of entry.

The Spiral by Eric Jackson-Forsberg ’90

January 7, 2026

Tags Alumni Book

(NFB Publishing, 2025).

The author worked for nine years as curator for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House complex, and this novel draws from his personal process of discovery. “It’s a meditation on sublimity and the futility of finite knowledge, exploring themes of personal, professional, and spiritual doubt,” he said.

The story’s central character, Holden Maddox, is a curator haunted by his pursuit of the truth. As the publisher notes, “His esoteric study of Frank Lloyd Wright design and his attempts to sort out his shadowy, small-town past are irresistible obsessions. Driven by a desire to reconstruct his personal history and forge a future for himself, Holden is drawn into a mystery surrounding two pieces of art glass, artifacts with convoluted roots much older and deeper than he knows. Uncanny forces — from the far reaches of the solar system to the Brooklyn Bridge — complicate the quest in ways that defy his imagination, test his resolve, and bend the laws of physics.”

While the book relies on Wright’s designs and character, it does so in a new way the publisher adds, distinguishing it from books like T.C. Boyle’s The Women based in the salacious circumstances of Wright’s personal life. “The book should appeal to those fascinated with Wright and his work, as well as those interested in the occult and the pursuit of sublimity, from architecture to astrophysics.”