Despite its rough-and-tumble image, Chicago has long been identified as a city where books take center stage. In fact, a volume by A. J. Liebling gave the Second City its nickname. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle arose from the midwestern capital’s most infamous industry. The great Chicago Fire led to the founding of the Chicago Public Library. The city has fostered writers such as Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Chicago’s literary magazines The Little Review and Poetry introduced the world to Eliot, Hemingway, Joyce, and Pound. The city’s robust commercial printing industry supported a flourishing culture of the book. With this beautifully produced collection, Chicago’s rich literary tradition finally gets its due. Chicago by the Book profiles 101 landmark publications about Chicago from the past 170 years that have helped define the city and its image. Each title—carefully selected by the Caxton Club, a venerable Chicago bibliophilic organization—is the focus of an illustrated essay by a leading scholar, writer, or bibliophile. Arranged chronologically to show the history of both the city and its books, the essays can be read in order from Mrs. John H. Kinzie’s 1844 Narrative of the Massacre of Chicago to Sara Paretsky’s 2015 crime novel Brush Back. Or one can dip in and out, savoring reflections on the arts, sports, crime, race relations, urban planning, politics, and even Mrs. O’Leary’s legendary cow. The selections do not shy from the underside of the city, recognizing that its grit and graft have as much a place in the written imagination as soaring odes and boosterism. As Neil Harris observes in his introduction, “Even when Chicagoans celebrate their hearth and home, they do so while acknowledging deep-seated flaws.” At the same time, this collection heartily reminds us all of what makes Chicago, as Norman Mailer called it, the “great American city.” With essays from, among others, Ira Berkow, Thomas Dyja, Ann Durkin Keating, Alex Kotlowitz, Toni Preckwinkle, Frank Rich, Don Share, Carl Smith, Regina Taylor, Garry Wills, and William Julius Wilson; and featuring works by Saul Bellow, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sandra Cisneros, Clarence Darrow, Erik Larson, David Mamet, Studs Terkel, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many more.

Chicago has been called by many names. Nelson Algren declared it a “City on the Make.” Carl Sandburg dubbed it the “City of Big Shoulders.” Upton Sinclair christened it “The Jungle,” while New Yorkers, naturally, pronounced it “the Second City.” At last there is a book for all of us, whatever we choose to call Chicago. In this magisterial biography, historian Dominic Pacyga traces the storied past of his hometown, from the explorations of Joliet and Marquette in 1673 to the new wave of urban pioneers today. The city’s great industrialists, reformers, and politicians—and, indeed, the many not-so-great and downright notorious—animate this book, from Al Capone and Jane Addams to Mayor Richard J. Daley and President Barack Obama. But what distinguishes this book from the many others on the subject is its author’s uncommon ability to illuminate the lives of Chicago’s ordinary people. Raised on the city’s South Side and employed for a time in the stockyards, Pacyga gives voice to the city’s steelyard workers and kill floor operators, and maps the neighborhoods distinguished not by Louis Sullivan masterworks, but by bungalows and corner taverns. Filled with the city’s one-of-a-kind characters and all of its defining moments, Chicago: A Biography is as big and boisterous as its namesake—and as ambitious as the men and women who built it.

Excerpt from The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago; 1911 The Book of Chicagoans was first published in 1905. During the intervening years it has found a prominent place in thousands of business offices and homes in Chicago and elsewhere and its usefulness as a reference book has become widely recognized. In fact, it has been the only book to which one might turn for trustworthy information about practically all the leading men of the city. At the libraries it has been consulted more frequently than any other local reference book, and in newspaper offices it has been regarded as a positive necessity. A new edition, revised and brought down to date, has been called for and the present volume is presented as the best possible response to that demand. This edition contains many names not listed in the earlier issue - names unavoidably overlooked in a first edition, as well as a large number of others who have come into prominence since the first edition was printed. The work of revision has been painstaking and thorough. Not only have many new names been added but each of the original sketches has been rewritten in order that the best possible arrangement of the data for easy reference purposes might be secured. A casual examination of these pages will disclose not only the presence of many new names but also the absence of a considerable number of sketches which appeared in the earlier issue. The omissions are accounted for by reason of death (The Book or Chicagoans being confined to living men only), removals from the city, impossibility to find present addresses, and a few because they are no longer regarded of sufficient importance. The names of those whose life-sketches appeared in the first edition but who have died or been dropped for various reasons, have been inserted in this volume in their original alphabetical place, with a reference to the volume of 1905 in which the biographical sketch appeared, and, if deceased, the fact has been noted, with the date of death when known. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago The Book of Chicagoans, after a long and patient campaign of research and inquiry, is now presented with confidence that every promise and prediction made for it has been fulfilled. The volume contains a vastly larger collection of personal sketches of Chicago people than has ever before been gathered together, and not only in numbers, but also in the quality of the people whose life-statistics are presented, the book may fairly claim precedence. It is the best showing ever made of biographical data concerning those living men who best represent the reputable efforts and creditable activities of the City of Chicago. The Book of Chicagoans is modeled on the plan of "Who's Who in America," a now world-famous publication, recognized as the highest authority on personal data pertaining to nationally notable living Americans. It is edited and published by the same persons who have placed "Who's Who in America" in the foremost position among American works of reference. It follows the same lines of carefulness and discrimination, but is entirely confined to pertinent data about the living men of Chicago and vicinity who are entitled to be included in a work of this character. Names which should have been included will be missed, but in practically all such cases the omission is not in the least due to the lack of effort on the part of those having the preparation of the book in hand. By mailed request or personal solicitation all who were regarded as eligible were solicited, in a respectful way, to furnish personal data. The great majority of those so requested furnished the data freely and in a courteous manner, and to them thanks are hereby extended. A few gave information with evident reluctance and others showed complete indifference and let the requests for data go unnoticed. Some names which frequently appear in the newspapers are conspicuous by their absence for the reason that the Book of Chicagoans has endeavored only to include men of good standing and reputable vocation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This is a new release of the original 1929 edition.