Past Events

Longtime Tribune Literary Critic Fanny Butcher to Be Inducted into CLHOF

Fanny Butcher: (September 13, 1888 – May 1987), for four decades a writer and critic for the Chicago Tribune, will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on May 11, 2017 at Newberry Library’s Ruggles Hall. Liesl Olson will give the keynote presentation, and John Bokum will accept the award on his aunt’s behalf. Elizabeth Taylor, Linda Bubon, Marianne Wolf-Astrauskas, Toni Nealie, and, Emily Victorson will also give tributes.

Guests are encouraged to arrive an hour before the program start…

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Cyrus Colter's Short Stories Come to the Stage

Director Tim Rhoze and author Sandra Seaton bring to life the frustrations and triumphs of 1960s Black life on Chicago’s South Side, in a powerful adaptation of Cyrus Colter’s prize-winning short stories.

The trilogy begins with A Chance Meeting, a two-person play about an accidental meeting between two African Americans who worked for the same wealthy white Chicago family. Their conflicting reminiscences reveal contrasting attitudes about race, class, sexuality and art. The trilogy continues with The Lookout, a solo play that takes place on a snowy Saturday afternoon on Woodlawn Avenue, where…

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Ron Rapoport, longtime sportswriter and author, will be the honored guest at a special Cliff Dwellers luncheon on May 4. Ron is in town from Los Angeles to give keynote remarks at Ring Lardner’s induction into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame later that evening at Newberry Library, and also to promote his new book, Ring Lardner’s Lost Journalism. A buffet lunch will be served at noon, and around 1 p.m. Ron will deliver a talk about Ring Lardner’s legendary literary and journalistic career. Volumes Bookcafé will be on hand to sell his new book, which the University…

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Ring Lardner (March 6, 1885-Sept. 25, 1933) will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on May 4, 2017 at Newberry Library's Ruggles Hall. Ron Rapoport, veteran sports journalist and editor of a the newly-released The Lost Journalism of Ring Lardner, will give the keynote address, and James Lardner (The Nation) will accept the statue on his grandfather’s behalf. Brian Bernardoni, Don DeGrazia, James Finn Garner, Christina Kahrl and Fred Mitchell will also speak. Guests are encouraged to arrive an hour before the program starts for refreshments and a chance to view the Lardner exhibit (including highlights…

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One hundred years ago, Bohemian author and editor of the radical Masses magazine, Floyd Dell, began a passionate affair with a newcomer to Greenwich Village—the yet to be discovered “girl poet,” Edna St. Vincent Millay. In the years that followed, both Dell and Millay became symbols of early twentieth century feminism, rebellion, and literary freedom.

A century later, while poring over her grandfather Floyd’s papers at Chicago’s Newberry Library, Jerri Dell discovered hundreds of handwritten letters and an unpublished memoir about his love affair with Millay. Finding him as outlandish, entertaining, and insightful as he was when she knew him…

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The fabulous private club, Cliff Dwellers, whose mission for more than a century has been to support Chicago’s cultural life, welcomes Chicago Literary Hall of Fame supporters for The Stories We Tell Ourselves: A Salon with Scott Turow.

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Enrollment is now open for a seminar with Chicago literary expert Jesse Raber. Over the course of five Tuesdays evenings online via Zoom, Raber will explore with students the important authors and books produced during Chicago’s early history. Tuition for the seminar is $250.

By the end of the Civil War, Chicago was transforming from a commercial crossroads to an industrial center,the fortunes of its business leaders rising alongside the numbers of immigrants, unskilled workers, and paupers. The city’s writers wondered how high it could rise (could it ever become a cultural
capital equal to…

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