Fanny Butcher

September 13, 1888 - May 1987

Inducted in 2016

Books

Many Lives, One Love (1971)

Much has been written about the great days of Chicago’s literary life around the 1920s, the so-called Chicago Literary Renaissance. As someone who watched it, recorded it, and was part of it, since I knew many of the makers and shakers, I can assure you that nobody ever thought while it was happening that we were making literary history.

Fanny Butcher was a writer and critic for the Chicago Tribune for 40 years. She moved to Chicago as a child and graduated from the University of Chicago. Throughout her career at the Tribune, she worked as a society editor, club editor, crime reporter, and fashion editor. She was also a praised book reviewer, and published her memoir Many Lives, One Love in 1971. A favorite writer and friend of hers was Ernest Hemingway, who was honored by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2012.