Mamah Bouton Borthwick (1869-1914) is the main protagonist of Loving Frank, a fictionalized version of the real-life figure based on available resources; up until her death, the novel is told from her perspective. Her real name is Martha, and several characters comment on the unusual nature of her name “Mamah”—which was a nickname from her grandmother. Early in the novel, she is married to Edwin “Ed” Cheney and has two children, John and Martha (named after her friend Mattie rather than herself); she and her living sister, Lizzie, also raise the daughter of their deceased sister, both of whom were named Jessica.

Translator Mamah is initially content in her marriage but views Ed as pleasant company more than a life partner. She feels unchallenged by Ed and her life in Oak Park, Illinois, while with architect Frank Lloyd Wright, “[t]hey talk[] about Ruskin, Thoreau, Emerson, Nietzsche” (16). This intellectual connection is what leads to and sustains their affair, despite personal losses and public scrutiny. Mamah is most distant from Frank when he prioritizes his needs over hers. When he initially resists her going to Leipzig to prepare to translate for philosopher Ellen Key, she asks him, “You said you wanted to square your life with yourself.