WBEZ’s Curious City, January 26, 2016 — Explore my interactive story on tourism in 1910 Chicago (with web design by Logan Jaffe). And listen to the podcast and radio story here on Soundcloud.
Category: History
A History of the Society of Midland Authors, Part 2
Society of Midland Authors Books Blog, April 10, 2015 — The authors who gathered at the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago on November 28, 1914, didn’t expect a free dinner. But they were somewhat stunned when the writer who’d invited them, John M. Stahl, picked up the tab for everyone… Read my post at the Society of Midland Authors… Continue reading A History of the Society of Midland Authors, Part 2
A History of the Society of Midland Authors, Part 1
Society of Midland Authors Books Blog, April 2, 2015 — As the Society of Midland Authors celebrates its 100th birthday, we present a history of the organization, starting with this look at its origins. In 1914, Carl Sandburg called Chicago “Hog Butcher for the World.” Edgar Lee Masters, a Chicago lawyer born in Kansas, was giving voice to the common… Continue reading A History of the Society of Midland Authors, Part 1
Book review: ‘Blood Runs Green’
Before the car was king
What if the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 never happened?
WBEZ’s Curious City, October 2014 — A thought experiment conducted by WBEZ’s Curious City, inspired by a question posed by Chicagoan Kevin Borgia. What if one of the most famous events in Chicago history — the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 — never happened? What would the city look like today? Read — and hear… Continue reading What if the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 never happened?
Failed Chicago transit plans
The Chicago developer who sued Cyrano’s author for plagiarism
This article by Robert Loerzel originally appeared in Playbill magazine in 2014. In 1902, Parisians laughed whenever they heard the name “Chicago.” In cafes, they joked about that city in America where some judge had just ruled that the popular French play Cyrano de Bergerac was a work of plagiarism. Incroyable! And even more unbelievable,… Continue reading The Chicago developer who sued Cyrano’s author for plagiarism
In 1890s Chicago, bicycles were all the rage
After Haymarket: Anarchism on trial and a city in search of its soul
WBEZ’s Curious City, April 29, 2014 — No one knows who threw the bomb near Haymarket Square on the night of May 4, 1886. It’s one of Chicago’s most vexing unsolved mysteries. But there’s little question that this violent act had huge repercussions — not only in Chicago but around the world… Read — and hear — my… Continue reading After Haymarket: Anarchism on trial and a city in search of its soul