Past Events

Edna Ferber’s 1912 collection of a dozen short stories amounted to a coming out party for an author who would eventually win a Pulitzer Prize and generally be considered among the greatest and most prolific American authors of the 1920s and 30s. The New York Times, reviewing the collection on June 9, 1912, wrote, “Edna Ferber is the Chicago O. Henry. Her short stories have the crispness of the genius named, the vividness, the nervousness.” The stories feature street-wise working women grinding it out as stenographers, shopkeepers, actresses, and other marginally-rewarded occupations. The stories are brisk, irreverent, fun, and mostly set during the first decade of the 20th Century. Chicago figures prominently in the collection, as Ferber explores rural versus urban life and the merits of the city relative to New York, among other topics. Ferber had moved to Chicago several years before the book’s publication (around late 1909), and regularly returned to the city even after she began spending winters in New York City in late 1912. Julia Goldsmith Gilbert, Ferber’s biographer and niece, wrote, “Like a new bride rushing home to Mamma, whenever Ferber had a new book out, she made her way back to Chicago. This was her literary nest, where she felt safe, appreciated, and loved.” This was Ferber’s second major publication, after the novel Dawn O’Hara the previous year. Ferber also explored Chicago in the novels The Girls and So Big. Great Chicago Books Club will discuss Ferber’s collection at our next meeting, Sunday, March 25, from 6-8 p.m. All are welcome to join, but you must contact Don Evans for more information and the address of the meeting. Free and open to the public. There will be food and drink in a social hour preceding our conversation, and we encourage guests to contribute something in a kind of pot luck spirit. You can read a free digital version by clicking here.

Adam Morgan (publisher, Chicago Review of Books) leads a conversation about the Chicago comic book scene, including its evolution from the early strips to contemporary trends. He'll be joined by cultural anthropologist Stanford W. Carpenter (Rice University, Institute for Comic Studies, Cosmic Underground) and top comic book creators Michael Moreci (Roche Limit, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash) and Ashley A. Woods (Niobe, Lady Castle)  In partnership with Chicago Literarcy Alliance and Chicago Review of Books. Free and open to the public.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame hosts author Alex Kotlowitz in a stunning, 1913 Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Oak Park home. We will discuss Alex’s classic true account of two brothers growing up in the Henry Horner Homes, There Are No Children Here. The book is widely acclaimed as one of the best narrative non-fiction books of the 20^th century, and Alex generally considered among our country’s elite literary writers. A cocktail hour and dinner will precede our conversation with Alex about his 1991 Chicago classic. Extremely limited availability. Reservations required: $200 contact Don Evans with inquiries or to reserve your spot.

The Great Chicago Books Club begins the 2018 schedule with Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift, which won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 1976, the same year the author received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel's narrator, Charles Citrine, a commercially successful writer, explores his relationship with mentor Von Humboldt Fleischer, a poet's poet who died a failure. The novel touches on a wide variety of themes and follows as many intellectural strains. It is set in Chicago, and Bellow penetrates the city with searing analysis and astute observations. He scatters throughout the narrative lines like, "We sat with whiskey, poker chips, and cigars in this South Chicago kitchen penetrated by the dark breathing of the steel mills and refineries, under webs of power lines. I often note odd natural survivals in this heavy-industry district. Carp and catfish still live in the benzine-smelling ponds. Black women angle for them with dough-bait. Woodchucks and rabbits are seen not far from the dumps. Red-winged blackbirds with their shoulder tabs fly like uniformed ushers over the cattails. Certain flowers persist."

All are welcome to join the GCBC discussion. It is free. If you plan to attend the first meeting, please contact Don Evans; he will provide details, including address.

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary:

Thornton Wilder's The Eighth Day

Thornton Wilder (Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Class of 2013) persists as one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century. Our Town is so universally known and revered that it tends to overshadow Wilder's other accomplishments, which were many and varied. The Eighth Day is high on that list of accomplishments. This novel, revolving around a murder in southern Illinois and partially set in Chicago, won the National Book Award in 1968. A new edition is being released, which is occasion enough to discover or rediscover this literary masterpiece.

On Wednesday, Nov. 15, the Newberry Library will host a celebration of The Eighth Day, replete with cake and other goodies, drinks, actors, scholars, and a gorgeous setting. The reception begins and five, with the program starting at six, and it is free and open to the public. You must, however, register to attend.

Participants include:

• Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder’s nephew and literary executor, and Honorary Chairman of the Thornton Wilder Society

• Jeremy McCarter, author of Young Radicals: In the War for American Ideals and co-author with Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton: The Revolution, has written about culture and politics for New York Magazine, Newsweek, and the New York Times.

• Liesl Olson, Director of the Chicago Studies program at the Newberry Library, is author of Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis, Modernism and the Ordinary, and many essays about twentieth-century writers and artists.

• Actors from the Chicago theater community, performing readings from The Eighth Day.

Presented in Cooperation with The Thornton Wilder Family.

Register online here by 3 pm Wednesday, November 15, 2017.

Doors open half an hour before the program begins, with first-come, first-served seating for registered attendees. If seats remain available, non-registered individuals will be permitted to enter about ten minutes before the event’s start. Questions? Contact publicprograms@newberry.org or 312-255-3610.

Richard Reeder, Amy Danzer, Lisa Wagner and Valya Dudycz Lupescu will be among the presenters as the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame inducts Margaret Ayer Barnes into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on Oct. 5 at Volumes Bookcafe. The ceremony starts at 7 p.m. and ends a little after eight. Chicago born and bred, Barnes (April 8, 1886 – October 25, 1967) was a novelist, short story writer and playwright. She began her writing career in earnest after a debilitating car accident at age forty in 1926. Two of her plays, Age of Innocence (adapted from the Edith Wharton novel), and Jenny each played for more than a hundred performances on Broadway. Her first novel, Years of Grace won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931 and was also the best selling book in its year of publication. The novel, set in late nineteenth century Chicago, spans four decades in the life of Jane Ward Carver, daughter of a wealthy family, from child all the way to grandmother, and shows the changing world through her eyes. Barnes followed that up with two more best sellers, Within This Present and Westward Passage, which was adapted to the screen for Ann Harding. Barnes was also an amateur actress, playing roles in productions of the Aldis Players in Lake Forest and the North Shore Theatre in Winnetka. That experience helped her launch a career on the speaking circuit.

Fenton Johnson (May 7, 1888-September 17, 1958) will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Sept. 14 at the Poetry Foundation. The ceremony, which features a lineup including Alexander Jacobs, Richard Guzman, Vida Cross, and Rebirth Poetry Ensemble, begins at seven p.m. Michele Jolivette, Johnson’s great grand niece, will accept the statue.

Johnson began writing as a Chicago public school student, as early as the age of nine, and before his career had ended would establish himself as an important and innovative voice in literature, particularly for his poetry. Johnson was born in Chicago, the son of a railroad porter, and was educated in America’s finest educational institutions—University of Chicago and Northwestern University as an undergraduate, and then Columbia University as a graduate student.

Johnson self-published the first of three poetry volumes in 1913, in which he gave early evidence that he would become a powerful voice in exploring the African-American experience. Before that time, Johnson had already written several plays, and would add a collection of short stories and then essays to his oeuvre. He also founded several literary magazines, The Champion in 1916 and The Favorite Magazine in 1918. All of Johnson’s books and magazine publications were self-financed.

Johnson distinguished himself, though, in the teens and early twenties. He became a trailblazer for Black poets in the new poetry movement, and saw his work published in magazines such as Poetry and Others, alongside the likes of William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and Marianne Moore.

Johnson’s magazines sought to bring about racial harmony and reform in society, but his poems were notable for despair about the conditions for Blacks in America. Johnson used Chicago as the setting for a good portion of his work, such as “Aunt Jane Allen,” which is set on firmly in the Bronzeville neighborhood, on State Street, and “A Negro Peddler’s Song,” which is patterned after a song sung in a Chicago alley. Though Johnson spent the great majority of his life in Chicago, his work is credited as a forbearer to Harlem Renaissance writers like Langston Hughes.

While many scholars consider Johnson a minor, though notable poet, his widespread and continuing inclusion in important literary anthologies suggest his legacy is lasting. In his lifetime, Johnson saw the likes of James Weldon Johnson, Monroe and her colleague Alice Corbin, and Countee Cullen choose his poems for inclusion in their anthologies. After Johnson’s death, he would continue to be widely published in anthologies of Black literature and poetry, with luminaries such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Bontemps selecting his work. Even today, highly accomplished poets like Ron Stillman cite Johnson as an influence on their careers.

Newspaper comics started as a hook to attract readers—a quick laugh on the way to becoming fish or gift wrap, something to catch the coffee grinds. But over the past century, the throw-away funnies have evolved into a major art form. Chicago has been at the center of the movement. When Claire Briggs created A. Piker Clerk for the Chicago American in 1903, Chicago planted its flag as a pioneer in comic arts. Since then, comic artists have created an uninterrupted chain of memorable and important characters, and in so doing transformed comics into a form that deftly explores subjects as nuanced as love, personal tragedy and politics. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Punch Line takes a peek at Chicago’s role in comic book history, including some of the major creators, characters and movements associated with our city. 

This modest exhibit includes comics, artwork, merchandizing any other fun artifacts representing Chicago's comic book history. It covers a range of comics, including Gasoline Alley, Moon Mullins, Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, Brenda Starr, Binky Brown, Sylvia and Jimmy Corrigan. It tells the story of the various movements from the Chicago Tribune's comic empire, to the Underground Comics, to the present-day takes revolution. The Chicago Literacy Alliance is co-sponsoring and hosting the exhibit, as well as an opening and closing reception. CLA is one of Chicago's finest non-profit organizations, a home and enabler of many fine groups working in the literary and literacy communities.  

The opening reception is free and open to the public. More details on special guests will be available soon.

At the Typewriter

Ebert Joins Chicago's Finest Authors

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just THERE. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note. from Life Itself

Beloved film critic Roger Ebert will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on Aug. 19 at the American Writers Museum (180 N. Michigan Ave., second floor). Reception begins at 6 p.m., with the ceremony starting at seven. A score of old colleagues and friends will give tribute to Ebert as part of his induction into the CLHOF’s seventh class, including Pamela Sherrod Anderson, Milos Stehlik, Laura Emerick, Bruce Elliott, Steve James, Rashada Dawan, Kevin Pollack, and Richard Roeper. Rick Kogan will emcee the ceremony, and Ebert’s widow, Chaz, will accept the statue. Advance registration required.

A film critic for the Chicago Sun Times from 1967 until his death, Ebert was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Ebert and Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel helped popularize nationally televised film reviewing when they co-hosted the PBS show Sneak Previews, followed by several variously named At the Movies programs.

But above all else, Ebert was a writer. He wrote more books than any TV personality since Steve Allen — 17 in all. Not only collections of reviews, both good and bad, and critiques of great movies, but humorous glossaries and even a novel, Behind the Phantom’s Mask, that was serialized in the Sun-Times. In 2011, his autobiography, Life Itself, won rave reviews. “This is the best thing Mr. Ebert has ever written,” Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times.

In 2005, Ebert became the first film critic to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Tom Van Riper of Forbes described him as "the most powerful pundit in America,” and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best known film critic in America."

The Aug. 19 induction ceremony will celebrate and reflect upon Ebert as one of our finest ever Chicago writers. Ebert was selected as part of a class that includes Margaret Ayer Barnes, Fanny Butcher, Eugene Field, Fenton Johnson, and Ring Lardner. Inductees are chosen through a rigorous nomination and selection process in which Chicago’s finest historical authors are considered.

Tickets will be issued through the American Writers Museum website, and limited to the first 100 guests.

Co-sponsored by the American Writers Museum and the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Contact Don Evans (dgevans@chicagoliteraryhof.org) for more details.

Eugene Field will be inducted into the seventh class of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on Wednesday, June 21, at the Poetry Foundation (61 W. Superior St., Chicago). The induction ceremony begins at 7 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m. Paul Durica, Laurie Lawlor, Thomas Joyce and June Sawyers will speak about the Field’s contributions to American letters, in particular his significance here in Chicago. Student poets, including Oak Park-River Forest’s Jeanese Shanks and Hands On Stanzas' Ireland Costello and Norah Ludwig (both from Skinner West Elementary), will dramatize some of Field’s better known poems for children. Whitney Field will accept the award on behalf of his great grandfather.

For fifty dollars a week, the Chicago Morning News lured popular newspaper columnist Eugene Field to relocate from Denver. In 1883, Field was already widely known, and his new column, Sharps and Flats, would continue his reputation for humorous essays. Living near the intersection of North Clarendon and West Hutchinson in the Buena Park neighborhood, Field chided current events and people, often in the arts and literature, and made a habit of criticizing his new city’s materialism. He called Chicago, “Porkopolis.” Soon, Field’s production of children’s verse increased, and his audience broadened. Field’s first poetry publication was in 1879, and more than a dozen volumes followed. Though Field’s intended audience appeared to be largely adults, his nostalgic recollections of growing up earned him the nickname “Poet of Childhood.” He also wrote a substantial number of short stories. Field died of a heart attack in Chicago at the age of 45, and is buried at Kenilworth’s Church of the Holy Comforter. The Eugene Field Memorial in the Lincoln Park Zoo features “Dream Lady,” an Edwin Francis McCartan sculpture based on the poem, “The Rock-a-By Lady from Hush-a-By Street.” The granite base depicts scenes from other Field poems, including “The Fly Away Horse” and “Seein Things.” His famous “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” as well as parts of “The Sugar Plum Tree” are carved into the sides. Other local memorials include an Albany Park field house named after the writer; Chicago, Elmhurst, Park Ridge, Wheeling, Rock Island and Normal elementary schools bearing his name; and Field Park in Oak Park.