Margaret Ayer Barnes to Gain Induction to CLHOF

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.