Great Chicago Writers to Read During the Lockdown Part 2

It’s a great time to sit outside in your backyard or balcony and open up a book as we all continue to practice social distancing. This week we continue our look at great writers who have either hailed from the Windy City or set their famous works in the City of Big Shoulders. With its amazing architecture, distinct neighborhoods, and one-of-a-kind skyline, Chicago will always be a favorite setting for writers to explore, but of course, we all already know all that. So let’s move on to the next batch of great scribes who embraced everything there is about Chicago to inspire their celebrated prose. 

Nelson Algren: At the age of three, Algren moved with his family from Detroit to Chicago, settling in the South Side, and the city as a whole is richer thanks to the relocation. While Algren’s first few books showed the development of a promising author, it was 1949’s The Man With the Golden Arm that broke his career wide open. Set on the city’s the Near Northwest Side, the book tells the sad tale of a jazz musician/ illicit card dealer struggling with a morphine addiction and the trials and tribulations he endures. The novel won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1950.

Of course, it is Algren’s 1951 release, Chicago, City on the Make that solidified the author as a real Chicago treasure. Summarizing 120 years of the city’s history, Algren shines a light on the sordid underbelly of Chicago’s past but not without proclaiming his ultimate love for it. The city, with all its faults, still has an essence that one can’t escape as Algren wrote regarding Chicago, ” Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real.”

Shel Silverstein: Logan Square’s very own, Silverstein’s books have sold millions of copies all over the globe. The local author got his start drawing cartoons for Look, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy during the 1950s and 60s. It wasn’t until his editor encouraged Silverstein to write children’s poetry that his career really flourished. Combining his unique illustrations with his quirky prose, books like Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up gave generations of children (and their parents and teachers) great joy. In addition to his iconic work in children’s literature, Silverstein was also a prolific songwriter, penning the lyrics to many famous songs, including Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue.

Erik Larson: While not born in Chicago, Larson has given us one of the most recent books that highlight the city’s past in a compelling and page-turning fashion with his 2003 historical non-fiction title The Devil in the White City. Larson weaved a historically accurate tale combining the story of Daniel Burnham and the development and success of the 1893 World’s Fair with that of the first modern serial killer, H.H. Holmes. The meticulous devotion to detail and historical fact mixed with Larson’s fantastic grip on vivid storytelling resulted in a book that enthralled readers. Part excellent crime novel and part illuminating history of Chicago’s emergence as a distinguished city that stood apart from New York thanks to the World’s Fair, The Devil in the White City is a must-read for anyone interested in Chicago’s history.

Next time we will finish up with another list of great writers either from Chicago or whose work wouldn’t be what it is without our great city as the backdrop.

ERIC KAPLAN AND DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO