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Literary Chicago: A Book Lover's Tour of the Windy City
See Chicago Through the Eyes of its Writers... Discover the Windy City that has attracted and nurtured writers, editors, publishers, and book lovers for more than a century. Trace the steps of literary figures who called Chicago home, incorporated cityscapes into their writing, and put a uniquely Chicago stamp on their work. People like novelists Ernest Hemingway and Richard Wright, poetry pioneers Harriet Monroe and Gwendolyn Brooks, playwrights Charles MacArthur and David Mamet, journalists Ben Hecht and Mike Royko, and documentarians Jane Addams and Studs Terkel. Visit the historic dwellings of writers such as Carl Sandburg, Edna Ferber, and Saul Bellow. Stroll through the neighborhoods of such characters as Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie , James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan , and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski . Glimpse into present-day Chicago through the insights of resident authors like Ana Castillo and Scott Turow. Literary Chicago combines anecdotes and excerpts drawn from the city’s rich literary legacy with walking tours that guide readers to historic sites, settings from Chicago classics, past and present literary hangouts, and current events for readers and writers.
325 pages, Paperback
First published August 13, 2000
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 18, 2020
Part history (particularly “literary history”) and part tour guide, Greg Holden’s Literary Chicago: A Book Lover’s Tour of the Windy City offers an intriguing perspective on three of my favorites: Chicago as a fascinating city, Chicago as a backdrop for fiction, and the lives and inspiration of famous (and not-so-famous) writers.
One of the curiosities to be discovered in Literary Chicago was the fact that Benny Goodman, the icon of big band jazz, studied music at Jane Addams’ Hull House (p. 83). Another curiosity was about a prolific writer named Eugene “Guy” Izzi who death seems almost as controversial as Jeffrey Epstein’s in whether it was suicide or murder (p. 24—with obviously no Epstein reference). Although not specifically literary (unless you count their autobiographies), I hadn’t realized that the house where the Marx Brothers lived in Chicago was still standing (p. 202).
I knew that Chicago was quite important in the history of radio drama, but hadn’t realized that Irna Phillips, a Chicago writer, was responsible for the first soap opera (Painted Dreams) but also for those soaps which translated to television such as Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and The Edge of Night (p. 57 - all of which annoyed me when I was younger because they filled up daytime television so that there was nothing I wanted to watch when I was home ill). I didn’t realize how close I was to the location (if not the building) where Edgar Rice Burroughs was born when I stepped off the Madison bus at the United Center (p. 91). Nor did I realize that a Chicagoan named Samuel Eberly Gross claimed that Rostand stole the idea of Cyrano from his character with a big nose who spoke poetry in The Merchant Prince of Cornville (entirely possible since the play was in the hands of the creative director who first produced Cyrano de Bergerac for quite a while prior to the Rostand production—pp. 162-163).
I have now been challenged to find the works of Eleanor Taylor Bland (p. 260), Michael Raleigh (p. 84), W. R. Burnett (saw the movie Little Caesar but never read the book, much less Good-bye, Chicago--p. 85), Gwendolyn Brooks (p. 203), Edith Freund (p. 105), Henry Blake Fuller (p. 33), Bill Granger (p. 138), Robert Herrick (p. 213), Bette Howland (p. 191), Eugene “Guy” Izzi (p. 24), Meyer Levin (p. 20), James Weber Linn (p. 188),Arthur Meeker (p. 106), Willard Motley (p. 81), J. Robert Nash (p. 140), Michael Ullman (p. 137), and both a book by Irving Wallace I haven’t read called The Golden Room (p. 103) and a Frank Norris book I haven’t read because I only knew the trilogy, The Bomb--p. 127). And, of course, a long overdue acquaintance with the works of Edna Ferber and Willa Cather (multiple mentions) is now on the agenda.
Since it was published in 2001, Literary Chicago doesn’t benefit from the descriptions in Dean Jobb’s 2016 Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated a Nation or Tina Fey’s accounts regarding her Second City days in her Bossypants autobiography (2011). The book is cheated of several of Max Allan Collins’ Nathan Heller novels, especially Ask Not (2014) and Neon Mirage (though many of the Heller novels are set, at least partially, in Chicago), as well as the Chicago sections of James Ellroy’s American Tabloid (published the same year as Literary Chicago). Similarly, the book was published too early to include Michael Harvey’s marvelous The Third Rail, The Governor’s Wife and others. Raymond Benson, who wrote the James Bond novels Zero Minus Ten and Never Dream of Dying, as well as some rock and roll mystery novels like Dark Side of the Morgue would be disappointed at his omission.
Plus, I would have wanted to read a little more about the Ziff-Davis pulp factory in Chicago when they were publishing magazines like Air Adventure, Amazing Stories, Fantastic, Nightmare, Skypilot, and Weird. Now, one might protest that the subtitle, A Book Lover’s Tour of the Windy City, would preclude magazine history, but Holden touches on Hefner and Playboy on more than one occasion. So, even if he didn’t want to cover the pulp era’s Z-D material, one wonders why Johnson Publishing was ignored with its Ebony and Jet magazines.
Literary Chicago does a great job for when it was published and is definitely worthy of an updated edition. Many of the bookstores described in this volume are no longer in business and even department stores with long histories have been acquired by huge companies (Marshall Field by Macy’s) or gone bankrupt (Carson, Pirie, Scott). It’s easy to say what isn’t in a book like this. One wonders why a fantasy writer such as Fritz Lieber, Jr. of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser fame would have been left off the list. But what can I say? Literary Chicago will keep me fascinated for years.
One of the curiosities to be discovered in Literary Chicago was the fact that Benny Goodman, the icon of big band jazz, studied music at Jane Addams’ Hull House (p. 83). Another curiosity was about a prolific writer named Eugene “Guy” Izzi who death seems almost as controversial as Jeffrey Epstein’s in whether it was suicide or murder (p. 24—with obviously no Epstein reference). Although not specifically literary (unless you count their autobiographies), I hadn’t realized that the house where the Marx Brothers lived in Chicago was still standing (p. 202).
I knew that Chicago was quite important in the history of radio drama, but hadn’t realized that Irna Phillips, a Chicago writer, was responsible for the first soap opera (Painted Dreams) but also for those soaps which translated to television such as Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and The Edge of Night (p. 57 - all of which annoyed me when I was younger because they filled up daytime television so that there was nothing I wanted to watch when I was home ill). I didn’t realize how close I was to the location (if not the building) where Edgar Rice Burroughs was born when I stepped off the Madison bus at the United Center (p. 91). Nor did I realize that a Chicagoan named Samuel Eberly Gross claimed that Rostand stole the idea of Cyrano from his character with a big nose who spoke poetry in The Merchant Prince of Cornville (entirely possible since the play was in the hands of the creative director who first produced Cyrano de Bergerac for quite a while prior to the Rostand production—pp. 162-163).
I have now been challenged to find the works of Eleanor Taylor Bland (p. 260), Michael Raleigh (p. 84), W. R. Burnett (saw the movie Little Caesar but never read the book, much less Good-bye, Chicago--p. 85), Gwendolyn Brooks (p. 203), Edith Freund (p. 105), Henry Blake Fuller (p. 33), Bill Granger (p. 138), Robert Herrick (p. 213), Bette Howland (p. 191), Eugene “Guy” Izzi (p. 24), Meyer Levin (p. 20), James Weber Linn (p. 188),Arthur Meeker (p. 106), Willard Motley (p. 81), J. Robert Nash (p. 140), Michael Ullman (p. 137), and both a book by Irving Wallace I haven’t read called The Golden Room (p. 103) and a Frank Norris book I haven’t read because I only knew the trilogy, The Bomb--p. 127). And, of course, a long overdue acquaintance with the works of Edna Ferber and Willa Cather (multiple mentions) is now on the agenda.
Since it was published in 2001, Literary Chicago doesn’t benefit from the descriptions in Dean Jobb’s 2016 Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated a Nation or Tina Fey’s accounts regarding her Second City days in her Bossypants autobiography (2011). The book is cheated of several of Max Allan Collins’ Nathan Heller novels, especially Ask Not (2014) and Neon Mirage (though many of the Heller novels are set, at least partially, in Chicago), as well as the Chicago sections of James Ellroy’s American Tabloid (published the same year as Literary Chicago). Similarly, the book was published too early to include Michael Harvey’s marvelous The Third Rail, The Governor’s Wife and others. Raymond Benson, who wrote the James Bond novels Zero Minus Ten and Never Dream of Dying, as well as some rock and roll mystery novels like Dark Side of the Morgue would be disappointed at his omission.
Plus, I would have wanted to read a little more about the Ziff-Davis pulp factory in Chicago when they were publishing magazines like Air Adventure, Amazing Stories, Fantastic, Nightmare, Skypilot, and Weird. Now, one might protest that the subtitle, A Book Lover’s Tour of the Windy City, would preclude magazine history, but Holden touches on Hefner and Playboy on more than one occasion. So, even if he didn’t want to cover the pulp era’s Z-D material, one wonders why Johnson Publishing was ignored with its Ebony and Jet magazines.
Literary Chicago does a great job for when it was published and is definitely worthy of an updated edition. Many of the bookstores described in this volume are no longer in business and even department stores with long histories have been acquired by huge companies (Marshall Field by Macy’s) or gone bankrupt (Carson, Pirie, Scott). It’s easy to say what isn’t in a book like this. One wonders why a fantasy writer such as Fritz Lieber, Jr. of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser fame would have been left off the list. But what can I say? Literary Chicago will keep me fascinated for years.
June 13, 2016
Greg Holden has a passion for writing and Chicago and you can tell from reading this book. Equal parts quick book review, author mentions, places to see and of course bookshops and famous writing destinations; "Literary Chicago" is broken down by different places in Chicago.
I enjoyed the books and places mentioned. I was a bit saddened to see how many of the bookstores and places have closed but that's what a living breathing city does - stores close and others replace them. I will read this again when I want the nostalgia of those great writers who spent time in Chicago so that I can imagine them as the write the stories we fell in love with.
I enjoyed the books and places mentioned. I was a bit saddened to see how many of the bookstores and places have closed but that's what a living breathing city does - stores close and others replace them. I will read this again when I want the nostalgia of those great writers who spent time in Chicago so that I can imagine them as the write the stories we fell in love with.
June 26, 2012
This book was nice but not what I expected. When it says a "tour" of the Windy City it literaly is a tour. You can bring this book along with you as you go on walking or driving tours of various sections of town. I enjoyed learning about the rich history of literature we have in this city however, the book is a bit out of date and unfortunately, many bookshops are now closed. Boo! Also some festivals have name changes but overall it was a nice read!
Read
July 31, 2010Browsed a copy of this at the library. Nothing special. Seems targeted toward bookish, young adult tourists.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews