Chicago Sketches: Urban Tales, Stories, and Legends from Chicago History

by June Skinner Sawyers

A dozen maps and 49 black-and-white photos accompany this collection of 72 essays on Chicago history. These essays offer a wide-ranging glimpse of the people and events that have shaped Chicago's rich past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

274 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1995

About the author

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, June Skinner Sawyers is the author or editor of more than twenty books, many with a Celtic theme, including Celtic Music; Dreams of Elsewhere: The Selected Travel Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson; Praying with Celtic Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and Poets; The Road North: 300 Years of Classic Scottish Travel Writing; and The Scots of Chicago: Quiet Immigrants and Their New Society.

Her essays, Weeping Willows and Long Black Veils: The Country Roots of Rosanne Cash, from Scotland to Tennessee appeared in Walking the Line: Country Music Lyricists and American Culture and Celtic Music in America in The Encyclopedia of Music and American Culture, respectively. In addition, her work has appeared in Scottish Tradition, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, Sing Out!, Dirty Linen, Booklist and The Common Review. In 2013, she was the recipient of the Flora Macdonald Award from St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina, which is given to a woman of Scots birth or descent who has made an outstanding contribution to the human community.

Reviews

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big city has millions of threads that come together to form it's complete history. This breezy collection of essays, the majority of which were originally published in "The Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine" is full of Chicago threads. From Weeghman's Park to Prairie Avenue, selections feature the various flavors of European, African and Asian that blended into America within the city limits and slightly beyond. Gangsters and politicians contrast with the desire of the working class to own a bungalow and get a good washing at a bath house. The expected insults to the wild midwestern city are logged by Englishman, while religious and reform movements expand the civilization the law abiding desired. A fun, light tour of the city, with informative footnotes that reference additional reading and museum sources. Recommended for the Chicago lover.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice enough collection of vignettes on Chicago history, though the writing's only so-so. Could be useful for teaching about the city's history to middle and high school students. Quite helpful is the list of resources, museums, collections and state historical sites included at the end of each essay.