ILLINOIS AUTHORS: A SAMPLING

The following annotated book list is a sampling of twentieth century fiction penned by those either born in Illinois or who spent a significant part of their career in Illinois. Short story collections are included. Many are set in the state and give the reader a great sense of a particular place and time.

Algren, Nelson
The Man With the Golden Arm
1949. 343 p.
Chicago’s west Division Street is the backdrop for this vivid and intense portrayal of Frankie and his wife Sophie. Frankie is a drug addict who dreams of becoming a jazz drummer. His immense guilt over having caused his dancer wife to be confined to a wheel chair, however, defeats him. Sophie, desperate herself, feeds his guilt. A portrait of alienation, degradation and vulnerability--but through Algren’s compassionate eyes, we see characters as the victims they are.

Anshaw, Carol
Aquamarine
1992. 197 p.
Swimmer Jesse Austin’s life reaches its pinnacle at the 1968 Olympics when she wins the silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle. But haunting her for the rest of her life is the idea that she might have been seduced into surrendering the gold of that meet to her Australian competitor, Marty Finch. But which life is it? Author Anshaw presents three alternative futures for Jesse: happily married to a hometown sweetheart; living in New York and in love with another woman; or unhappily divorced and running a swimming school in Florida. Always, though, Jesse is haunted by the seductive lies of Marty Finch. Carol Anshaw is a resident of Chicago.

Barnes, Margaret Ayer
Years of Grace
1930. 581 p.
Pulitzer Prize novel traces changes in daily life in Chicago from the 1880’s to the 1920’s and reflects upper middle class society in intimate detail, from fashion and architecture to history and social conditions. Society matron Jane Ward’s youth in the 1880’s and 1890’s is contrasted with that of her daughter 20 years later. Although the dilemmas each faces are the same, the decisions they make reveal the ways in which life has changed.

Bellow, Saul
A Theft
1989. 109 p.
In recent years, famed Illinois novelist Bellow has turned his clever pen to shorter works of fiction, and this absorbing novella, published only in paperback, is considered one of his best. Successful businesswoman, Clare Velde, is married to one man but in love with another. A much-prized ring given to Clara by her lover disappears; she desperately seeks to find it. The story explores Clara’s changing relationships with the people close to her and how she herself grows during the course of her intense search. A fascinating character study.

Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
1951. 269 p.
Remember when summer meant catching fireflies, listening to the lawn mower and getting a new pair of sneakers? Douglas Spaulding is twelve in 1928 and he’s ready for a summer packed with adventure. He romps through the fields picking dandelions for homemade wine. He nobly names an elderly neighbor "The Time Machine" for his wonderful stories of frontier life. He experiences real terror walking home at night when a murderer looms within the town. Through these and other loosely linked stories, Bradbury lovingly recreates his childhood spent in Waukegan, Illinois.

Brashler, William
Traders
1989. 306 p.
To find out what it is really like to work at the Chicago Board of Trade, follow the slam bang adventures of smart, ambitious, strikingly beautiful Joanie, who arrives from Florida, hell bent on making it big in the dog-eat-dog world of commodities trading. She comes up against a whole snarling battalion of powerful and unscrupulous men, but proves to be a match for all of them. Both a thriller and hard- edged romance, Traders is written in a vivid, gritty style. By pushing a gorgeous woman into the middle of this authentic setting, the author immediately engages the reader.

Brod, D.C.
Murder in Store
1989. 241 p.
With clever dialogue and brisk pacing, Ms. Brod introduces a tough male protagonist, Quint McMcauley. As chief of security at large Chicago department store, Quint’s job is becoming increasingly complicated. Originally Quint is hired to unmask the individual harassing his employer with threatening letters. But then his employer’s seductive wife is picked up for shop lifting in the store and his boss drops dead right in front of Quint, He had swallowed cyanide--in his vitamins. In the midst of this murderous quagmire Quint’s personal life suddenly begins to unravel. This is the first in a series of hardboiled mysteries by Brod, featuring Quint McCauley.

Cannell, Dorothy
The Widow’s Club
1988. 338 p.
The club is a service organization in the English village of Chitterton Fells whose purpose is assist women who choose widowhood over divorce. Can this be true? Mrs. Hyacinth and Primose Tramwell, an unlikely pair of detectives, are determined to find out. Using Ellie Hadkell as a decoy, the ladies ferret out the guilty parties. Dorothy Cannell, a Londoner by birth resides in Peoria. Her heroine, Ellie Haskell , debuted in Cannells’s first book, The Thin Woman.

Cisneros, Sandra
The House on Mango Street
1991. 110 p.
Esperanza is a little girl growing up in the Hispanic community of Chicago. Her name, she explains, means hope and sadness and waiting. The word "esperanza" itself sums up life in her colorful, sometimes violent world. In a series of short, vibrant vignettes, Esperanza notes the beauty, confusion, laughter and isolation of growing up on Mango Street. Contrasting imagery takes you there: flowers, stolen cars, billowy clouds, cats, junk stores and jump ropes. Although her voice is one of innocence, each piece packs am punch. By the end of the book, Esperanza decides to leave the neighborhood, but vows to write down its stories. By doing so Mango Street will set her free.

Colter, Cyrus
The Rivers of Eros
1972. 219 p.
Clotilda Pilgrim’s life in the Chicago ghetto in the early 70’s is hard, but good. She supports her grandchildren Lester and Addie by running a rooming-house and taking in sewing. Clotilda’s roomers are an eccentric but congenial bunch. They are genteel and educated; Clotida is proud of that. But when teenaged Addie becomes infatuated with a fast-talking, pot smoking married man, Clotida’s life begins to unravel. Addie’s rebellion triggers a shame buried deep in Clotilda’s consciousness. Although the roomers, especially Ambrose Hammer self-made scholar of African-American, history, try to help, they are too late. An escalating inner grief combined with the overwhelming violence and despair of the neighborhood threaten total destruction of the haven Clotilda has worked so hard to create.

Coover, Robert
Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears?
1987. 154 p.
During the depression era, Meyer, a Chicago sculptor and part-time union organizer, befriends Gus, a former Chicago Bear football player. Using a background filled with Union activism, Maxim Gorky quotations, and remuneration’s about socialism, sport and art, the reader sees Gus, former hero, as a misfit but still a remarkable, almost mythical character. In fact Gus is considered to be Richard Nixon in this satirical, sociopolitical novella.

D’Amato, Barbara
Hard Luck
1992. 242 p.
Cat Marsala learns more than she ever wanted to know about the Illinois Lottery when asked by the advertising manger to write an expose. When she arrives for a scheduled interview, her source falls to his death before Cat hears what he had to say. The author is a Chicago resident and bases her Cat Marsala novels in the "Windy City".

Dickinson, Charles
The Widows’ Adventures
1989. 381 p.
When punks threaten to take over a fading Chicago neighborhood, two widowed sisters decide it’s time for a road trip. However, Helene is blind; Ina can’t drive. No problem-they make their way to California very slowly during the wee hours of the day. On the way out, the two women talk and think about their lives; mostly about their children who are coping with various joys and sorrows. The journey is hard and not without danger. The sheer audacity of the scheme invigorates them though, and they finally arrive at the home of Ina’s daughter at the top of Narrow Canyon Road. The book is in turn amusing, thoughtful, realistic and invigorating. Helene and Ida outclass Thelma and Louise by a mile.

Dreiser, Theodore
Sister Carrie
1900. 499 p.
At age 15, Dreiser journeyed to Chicago to find a job. His experiences then, and later as a reporter for the "Chicago Globe," are reflected in this gritty, realistic portrayal of Chicago. The story follows young Carrie Meebar, longing to escape the dreary, ugly existence she sees as the fate of the working lower class, she becomes the mistress of one man, then another.

Dybek, Stuart
The Coast of Chicago
1990. 173 p.
Chicago is the setting for the stories and short vignettes in The Coast of Chicago, but this is a Chicago that will be unfamiliar to most readers. All the tales have a dreamlike quality; it is difficult to tell the real from the imagined. Though the everyday world is richly detailed, could these events really have happened? A dead virgin frozen in a block of ice is rescued. A young ballplayer is buried right on the field by his teammates. Besides strange events, the characters are memorable, as in " The Woman Who Faints." Distinctive writing! 

Farrell, James T.
Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy
1935. 465 p.
The trilogy is set in the Irish-Catholic community on Chicago’s South Side between 1916 and 1931. It’s a portrayal of the physical, moral and spiritual disintegration of a young Irish-American. Studs is a member of the lower middle class, but his doom is not predicted on economic poverty nor is he the young unwitting victim of his environment. Studs is not an evil person, but he is a spiritually and morally weak one who makes choices that lead to his downfall.

Ferber, Edna
So Big
1924. 324 p.
Chicago newspaper reporter Ferber won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for fiction with this novel. Set in Illinois during the early 20^th Century, it is the story of Selina DeJong, daughter of a gambler who installs Selina with a zest for life and an ability to see beauty in all things. After her father’s death, Selina secures an education for herself and takes a teaching position in High Prairie, a Dutch farming community outside Chicago. When her husband Pervus dies, Selina finds the strength to become a successful truck farmer and makes a good living foe herself and son Dirk. Dirk, however, has very different values from his hardworking mother. Where she reveres life and beauty, he reveres success and money. At the novel’s end Dirk finds himself wealthy but lonely and unhappy.

Fink, John
The Leaf Boats
1991. 213 p.
Frank Gillespie’s suburban Chicago home came crashing down in a heavy rainstorm, but he and his family are safe. The next morning in the park across the street, Frank’s sister, Hope, is found dead. She’s been murdered. Her death is not unlike that of Frank’s stepmother seventeen years before. Family secrets, suspicions, love and hate are stirred by the tragedy. Some whirl out of control. A haunting first novel by Chicagoan and former editor of "Chicago Magazine".

Fuller, Jack
Our Fathers’ Shadows
1987. 224 p.
State’s attorney Frank Nolan becomes obsessed with two seemingly disparate quests: solving the murder of a brutally beaten little girl and making sense of his terminally ill father’s genetically transmitted disease with its implications for the Nolan family. Jack Fuller, editorial page director at the "Chicago Tribune", has written an engrossing story which seems to be about murder and the sleazy underbelly of Chicago. His focus shifts, however, from mainstream murder mystery to a serious investigation of the roles that inheritance, environment and chance play in the life of a family and its members. As the book progresses, Frank’s search for answers to seemingly senseless deaths emerges into an affirmation of life.

Gash, Joe (Granger, Bill)
Newspaper Murders
1985. 164 p.
The grittiness of Chicago crime and politics is realistically captured by "Chicago Tribune" columnist Bill Granger. Sergeant Flynn and his partner Karen Kovac are assigned to investigate the murder of Francis X. Sweeny, an over-the-hill reporter. Caught between the pressures of the newspaper owner, who wants the murder solved and the political machine that dominates the city, Flynn and Kovac must walk a fine line to solve this murder. Granger captures the bleakness of the underside of the city.

Heinemann, Larry
Cooler By the Lake
1992. 242 p.
Maximillian Nutmeg, a petty crook by profession, spends his time between jobs dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes. Muriel, his wife, and a collection of rogue relatives share the house he has lived in all his life, on Ravenswood Avenue across from the Chicago and Northwestern tracks. One of his more lucrative schemes unexpectedly changes the course of this household. Max, carrying an empty gas can and pretending to be a flush suburbanite or out-of-tower temporarily out of gas and money, has been collecting contributions in the Loop when he finds a wallet containing $800 and an illicit love letter. He succumbs to the urge to return the wallet and its contents, setting off a surprising chain of events. This winner of the National Book Award for Fiction is a departure from Heinmann’s other acclaimed works which deal with the Vietnam War.

Hemingway, Ernest
The Sun Also Rises
1926. 274 p.
Embittered by a world that has no place for time, a handful of characters drift through Europe in the Twenties living on the edge-spending, drinking and partying too hard. They risk everything for a moment of thrills, even the very friendships between them.Contrasting these shallow existences is the memorable running of the bulls in Pampona. The deceivingly simple style using short, direct sentences and little description made Hemingway (an Oak Park native) famous.

Jones, James
Whistle
1978. 457 p.
Third novel in a World War II trilogy following From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line. Four infantrymen, wounded physically or emotionally, are aboard a hospital ship and among the first returned to the States. During the war, their military units had provided security in spite of the danger. Returning, they face many difficulties: faithless wives, intolerable families, despair and range. Their replies are most often destructive. Born in Robinson, Illinois, Jones returned home from World War 11 to author the National Book Award winning From Here to Eternity.

Just, Ward
A Family Trust
1978. 246 p.
Evocative saga, which captures small-town life in Illinois from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. When patriarch Amos Rising dies, he leaves behind an ironclad trust designed to keep his family-run newspaper in the family and the town, protected from outside encroachments. This is the story of that newspaper, the family who owns it, and how that family, through the newspaper, runs the suburban community. The disposition of the legacy structures this old fashioned novel which explores both timeless values as well as the inevitability of change.

Lardner, Ring
Haircut and Other Stories
1922. 190 p.
Lardner was one of Chicago’s top sportswriters in the 1910’s and 1920’s. His humorous short stories caught the flavor of ordinary American life. It was in his later stories, "Champion," "The Love Nest," "The Golden Honeymoon," and "Haircut," that Lardner got beneath everyday surfaces and revealed the unpleasant truths about people. In "Champion" Lardner is one of the first American writers to expose the hypocrisy of glorifying sports champions. His stories are earthy and written in the illiterate Midwestern speech of his characters.

Levin, Meyer
Compulsion
1956. 495 p.
Classic, best-selling, fictionalized recreation of the Leopold and Loeb, Crime of the Century", kidnapping and murder of Bobby Franks in 1924. In the novel, Levin, a University of Chicago contemporary of murderers and former reporter for the Chicago Daily News, gives Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopad the fictional names of Artie Straus and Judd Steiner. The account of the crime and trial is related by a young reporter named Sid Silver. The plot of the documentary book follows true life events closely. Levin reprinted the kidnap letters and used dialog from the transcript of the actual hearing. Levin also explores the background and minds of the murderers in trying to determine what compulsion made them commit the infamous crime.

Love, William F.
The Chartreuse Clue
1990. 284 p.
When a priest finds himself in the apartment of a dead woman, and the most likely suspect in her murder, he pleads for help. Bishop Francis X. Regan and his special assistant Davey Goldman, a Jewish ex-cop part time private detective, answer the call. Davey’s street smarts and Reagan’s impressive I.Q., soon put together clues the police have overlooked or failed to pursue. These lead them to the probable killer. Here lies the most difficult talk: exposing this villain without ruining the reputation of the innocent priest. Mr. Love is a resident of Hinsdale and has done all of his writing since moving there.

McInerney, Ralph
Getting Away With Murder
1984. 184 p.
Father Roger Doewling has been assigned to St. Hilary’s parish in the rural Fox River Valley because of a bout with alcoholism. The small town environment suits him. His quiet existence is challenged when a parishioner is tried for the murder of his wife and found innocent. As four more killings come to light, Father Dowling uses all his ecclesiastical training to uncover the real murderer. The ambiance of small town Illinois is captured in this intelligent mystery.

McManus, James
Out of the Blue
1984. 246 p.
Suspenseful, frightening, thriller set in the Chicago suburb of Hubbard Woods. When their five-year-old daughter Elizabeth is mistaken for a wealthy student and is kidnapped from her kindergarten playground the effect on her young parents is devastating. Jack and Shelley Exley anxiously wait to learn if the executive father of the intended victim will pay the ransom demanded by the radical group of kidnappers. Well-crafted portrayal of police and FBI agents and methods. The action of this sparsely told first novel is interspersed with descriptions of Chicago media personalities and a Bears football game.

Mark, Grace
The Dream Seekers
1992. 512 p.
It’s Chicago: from the World’s Columbian Exposition to the Pullman Strike of 1894. Grace Mark, in her first novel, tells the dramatic story of immigrants Hannah Chernik and her brother Josef. Hannah and Josef find the life in Chicago’s tenements only marginally better than in the Russia from which they fled. They fight for the good life, but this demands great sacrifices. Rather than merely dropping names, Mark employs Jane Addams, Clarence Darrow, Bertha Palmer, George Pullman and other historical figures as main characters in this entertaining saga.

Martin, David
The Crying Heart Tattoo
1982. 329 p.
In a small Illinois town, at the age of 14, Sonny begins a relationship with Felicity, the worldly 34-year-old who moves in next door. Over the next 36 years Felicity tells Sonny the mythic story of Graveda and her young lover Geniper. Sonny grows older but not necessarily wiser despite Felicity’s attempts to teach him the finer points of life and love through the Graveda stories. A bawdy and darkly humorous story by an Illinois born author.

Nixon, Cornelia
Now You See It
1991. 1986 p.
The tale opens in 1949 as Ed and Ella, his German wife, are traveling cross country to Berkley with their three sons. A contemporary family story told from the perspective of several different characters and over years ranging from the early 1940’s to the Vietnam War. Small blessings, youthful rebellion, affairs and forgiveness intermingle. The story by turns is sad, funny and harrowing--just like real life Beautifully etched characters will linger in the mind. Cornelia Nixon resides in Chicago and teaches at Indiana University.

Paretsky, Sara
Guardian Angel
1992, 370 p.
Hattie Frizell, a neighbor of V.I. Warshawski, has been put under the guardianship of another tenant and her five dogs have been destroyed. Mitch a friend of Warshawski’s landlord disappears. While investigating these two mysteries, V.I. uncovers a scandal linking an old Chicago industrial family to union fraud. Clues taking her to the depths of the steamy sanitary canal, bring her into combative contact with her ex-husband, Dick Yarborough. Using her knowledge of Chicago, Paretsky leads the reader to the smells, sounds and sites of the city.

Peattie, Elia W.
The Precipice
1914. 242 p.
Kate Barrington was a feminist thinker ahead of her time. Returning home after college, she found it difficult to bear her father’s treatment of women. After her mother’s death, Kate sold the jewelry left to her and headed for Chicago. She became an officer of the Children’s Protective Association, working with poor women and children. Most assumed this work was temporary, until she married, but Kate knew otherwise. Anyone she chose to marry would have to accept her as an independent self-supporting person. Precipice is also the story of several of her women friends and how they overcame obstacles to their careers. During the years she was writing, Mrs. Peattie was a Chicago resident and a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
1977. 327 p.
Wealthy former prospector, Robinette ( Bob) Broadhead is living the good life and also visiting a robot analyst on a regular basis. While mining for food in Wyoming, Bob wins the lottery. With the money he buys his way to Gateway, which offers more lucrative prospecting ventures. Unfortunately the risks are great and the outcomes traumatic, even life threatening. Later when his analyst wants Bob to relive his time on Gateway as a way of working through his guilt and grief, Bob resists. He is uncertain that it will bring real peace to his troubled mind. Frederick Pohl lives in a Chicago suburb.

Powers, John R.
The Junk-Drawer Corner Store Front-Porch Blues
1992. 210 p.
Donald Cooper, 45, is at loose ends, awaiting the results of his lung biopsy. His hospitalized mother asks him to get her the cherished " brown box" from his childhood home, a house he has managed to avoid for years. Donald, as he wanders his old neighborhood and home, must face memories of joy, sorrow and loss. Poignant, humorous reminiscences of a Chicago south side childhood.

Raleigh, Michael
Death in Uptown
1991, 247 p.
P.I. Paul Whelan lives and works in Chicago’s Uptown. After asking him for some information on street people, a writer friend is found dead in an alley. City cop Al Bauman is assigned to the case. Although he and Paul have an antagonistic relationship, and each pursues a solution in his own way, they are able to work through their rivalry, join forces and solve the murder. Raleigh grew up near Wrigley Field. He knows his neighborhood and its people, and is able to give the reader a mystery alive with local color.

Segal, Lore
Her First American
1985. 287 p.
In a roadside diner somewhere in the American West, Ilka Weissnix, a young, Jewish immigrant from post-war Europe, meets Carter Bayuaux, a middle-aged black man. Back in New York, Ilka and Carter meet again. Ilka falls in love with Carter’s exciting but alcoholic eccentricities and brilliance. Carter is charmed by Ilka’s careful, faulty English, and her naïve European acceptance of him. Here is a charming and witty view of America seen through the eyes of two outsiders. Segal teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Sinclair, Upton
The Jungle
1906. 346 p.
Few works of literature have actually changed the course of history. The Jungle, however is one of the few that did. Although Sinclair wrote it primarily as an argument for socialism, it was the book’s expose of the meat packing industry that took hold. Its serial publication in 1905 forced the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Using grim realism, Sinclair explored the deplorable conditions in the stockyards and the harrowing experience of impoverished workers through Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant who came to America to make a new life for his family. Turn of the century Chicago with all its warts is vividly revealed in a novel that’s hard to put down.

Smith, Madeline Babcock
The Lemon Jelly Cake
1952. 240 p.
The Bradford family compares life to the layers of a lemon jelly cake. Although it’s pretty to look at and delicious to eat, each layer has its place and it’s always the same. However, things change in this gentle story set outside Springfield at the turn of the century. Stopping in town for a funeral, Mr. Fenton, a bachelor, is charmed by the warmth of this family and begins to visit often, experiencing for himself a bit of family life and allowing them to glimpse at the outside world. Recently reprinted as part of the Prairie State Books program, Lemon Jelly Cake can now be enjoyed by an even wider audience.

Sussman, Susan
Time Off From Good Behavior
1991. 274 p.
Asher and Sarah Rose have reached that enviable time in their marriage when their children are grown and Asher, who has been chained to his business for years, has sold it for an enormous profit. They finally have time to relax and enjoy life together--at least that’s what Asher expects. But Sarah, who has always had too many family responsibilities to pursue her own costume-design career, now has the chance of a lifetime to design costumes for a film. In a humorous role-reversal, it is she who becomes obsessed with her work and is driven by her career. Present-day Chicago and environs provide the backdrop for this warm, entertaining and perceptive look at contemporary marriage and family relationships.

Wright, Richard
Native Son
1940. 392 p.
Native Son is the story of Bigger Thomas and the Chicago that he inhabits. It is as powerful and disturbing today as when it was first published. Bigger hates white people and is swept up by his own actions into accidentally murdering his employer’s daughter. It is frightening to be inside Bigger’s mind as he tries to cover his tracks, becoming more and more desperate. He is not a sympathetic character and the social environment that creates someone like Bigger is given full play at his trial. Once read, race relations in Chicago will never look the same again.

This bibliography was compiled by members of the Adult Reading round Table Steering Committee: Ted Balcolm, Nancy Brown, Darlene Bull, Muzette Diefenthal, Judy Finley, Rita Guttman, Merle Jacob, Sharon Karpiel, Betsey Levins, Nancy Liggin, Vivian Mortesen, Joyce Saricks, Joyce Voss, Debbie Wordinger and Nancy Zander.

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