A biography about famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright reveals that a house he built especially for his mistress was burned down by a black servant slaughtered her, her two children, and four workers with an ax.

The grisly massacre at Wright’s Taliesin estate in Spring Green, Wisconsin took place in the summer of 1914 while he was in the finishing stages of the construction of Midway Gardens, a huge entertainment complex on Chicago’s South Side.

Five of the nine people who were attacked at the home died that afternoon while two others died soon afterward, according to author Paul Hendrickson.

Hendrickson’s new book, Plagued by Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright, went on sale this week.

A new book details the tragic murder of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright's (left) mistress Mamah Borthwick Cheney (right) in 1914

Mamah Cheney, her two children, and four workers were killed by a black servant who used an ax in the attack and then set the bodies on fire, resulting in the house turning to ash. The house, Taliesin, which was located in Spring Green, Wisconsin, is seen in the file photo above

Its hardcover version was published by Knopf.

Wright died in 1959 at the age of 91. His illustrious career included 1,100 designs and more than 500 projects.

Eight of his buildings were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list as cultural sites - perhaps the most famous among them the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Wright is the subject of a new biography by author Paul Hendrickson titled Plagued By Fire: The Dreams and Furies of Frank Lloyd Wright

More than a third of Wright’s 409 extant structures are included on the National Register of Historic Places or are in a National Historic District, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

But alongside his career accomplishments, Wright was a notorious liar - ‘a fantastic fabricator,’ in the words of his biographer, Hendrickson.

Those who knew Wright from the world of architecture were turned off by his ‘vulgar narcissism and arrogance and bombast and egocentrism and reckless financial - not to say moral - ways,’ according to an excerpt of the book published by The Washington Post.

The tragedy of 1914 took place five years after he left his wife, Kitty Tobin, and their six children for Mamah Borthwick Cheney, who herself was married to one of Wright’s clients.

The affair and the collapse of his marriage were front-page news stories for the press.

In fact, Wright was considered at the time to be one of America’s most scandalous celebrities, having had numerous affairs that were reported on in the press, according to the New York Post.

His tumultuous personal life began to play out in public in 1903, when he was a 36-year-old architect living in a Chicago suburb.

Having several big projects to his name, Wright had settled down with wife Catherine, who was known by her nickname ‘Kitty.’

The couple had just given birth to their youngest child, Robert, when another couple from the same suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, stopped by.

Wright died in 1959 at the age of 91. His illustrious career included 1,100 designs and more than 500 projects. Eight of his buildings were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list as cultural sites - perhaps the most famous among them the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York City

Edwin and Mamah Cheney paid a visit to Wright’s studio and asked him to design a home for them.

From that point on, it was said that Mamah Cheney took an active interest in Wright’s plans for the house.

The relationship between the two appeared to get stronger - so much so that they both left their families.

In September 1909, Mamah Cheney joined Wright as they sailed to Germany, where a reporter for the Chicago Tribune spotted the couple at a hotel in Berlin.

Despite the affair being front page news, Wright was determined to leave his marriage.

He built a home in the woods of his native Wisconsin, where Mamah, who by this time had dissolved her marriage to Edwin Cheney, moved in in 1911.

On the weekend of August 15, 1914, Mamah’s two children, John and Martha, paid a visit to see their mother in her home in Taliesin.

Wright’s mistress and her two children were eating lunch on the patio while six workmen were in a separate dining room.

They were all being served by Julian Carlton, who came from a poor black family in Alabama.

After having moved to Chicago, he got a job at Taliesin.

Alongside his career accomplishments, Wright was a notorious liar - ‘a fantastic fabricator,’ in the words of his biographer, Hendrickson. Wright is seen above in 1947

Though he was on the job for six month, he gave notice that he was about to quit.

His wife, who was a cook on the premises, would comment that he’d been acting paranoid, though the exact reason is unknown.

After serving food to everyone on the patio, Carlton retrieved a hand ax and went back to the patio, where he dug the blade into Mamah’s skull.

Carlton slaughtered both of her children, doused their bodies in gasoline, and set them on fire.

It is believed he set the door to the workers’ dining room on fire in hopes of killing them.

Carlton was arrested by police, though not before he tried to kill himself by swallowing hydrochloric acid.

He would die months later while in police custody, having never revealed why he carried out the mass slaughter.

Wright was so crushed about what happened that he mourned that night by playing Bach on the piano of his sister’s home nearby while shedding tears.

In reporting on the tragedy, a number of newspaper stories suggested that the incident was punishment for the couple's abandonment of their families.

He decided to rebuild Taliesin from the ashes, but the home was once again hit by a fire in 1925.