Making Literature in Chicago Great Again

Chicago is beset by a host of problems.   It now has a global reputation for violence that rivals its reputation of the days of Al Capone.  The city is in a fiscal mess (on top of the near bankrupt state of the State of Illinois).  Its school system is in a fiscal crisis and it had to borrow to finish the school year.  The city continues to lose population and most worrisome, African Americans (especially working class and professional class) are fleeing the city.  Politicians are desperately exploring new forms of taxation. One entrepreneur intimated to me a couple of weeks ago, “You’d have to be crazy to start a business in Chicago.”  It is not an altogether pretty picture.

Yet, amidst some of the gloom, Chicago has asserted itself as a mecca for literature.  In addition to two world class universities (and some other very good ones), Chicago is now home to a trifecta of literature--- The Poetry Foundation, the Newberry Library and the newly opened American Writers Museum.

I waited with anticipation all winter for the museum to open its doors and toured the museum on opening day in May at its North Michigan Avenue location.  It is the only museum of its kind in the country, with a wonderful walk through historical galley of banners of American authors—from Thoreau and Hawthorne to Cather and E.B. White to Frederick Douglas and James Baldwin.   It has several interactive stations with video of scholars speaking on the works of certain authors.  My personal favorite exhibits were the “American Voices” galley and the “Surprise Bookshelf” that displays samples of great American writing.   Chicago is the perfect location for a national museum as it has its own strong literary history—Gwendolyn Brooks, Studs Terkel, Nelson Algren, Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, Ernest Hemmingway and Saul Bellow among others, are rooted in Chicago and provide the backbone of a Chicago literary tradition.

The American Writers Museum adds a third leg to the city’s literary stool.  The Newberry Library also has transformed itself from a sleepy, dusty old research library to a vibrant intellectual center with a wonderful array of programs and celebrations.  I attended one a couple of years ago that marked the 100^th anniversary of Carl Sandburg’s poem Chicago, which, in addition to a dramatic reading of the play had several speakers, including one that talked about Sandburg’s influence on Bob Dylan, who last year won the Nobel Prize in literature.  And next year, The Newberry Library is undergoing a major renovation that will certainly enhance its standing as an intellectual center.   The American Writer’s Museum together with the Poetry Foundation,  and the rejuvenated Newberry Library makes Chicago a true literary center.   It will be marvelous if the leadership of each of these institutions can find ways to jointly work on some events and programs to magnify their presence in the city’s cultural life.

Coming on the heels of the grand opening of the American Writers Museum is one of the finest summer literary festivals in the country.  The Printers Row Lit Fest, held in early June, is an extravaganza of booksellers, authors, and writer’s that converge in the South Loop for two days.  This year, I had the opportunity to listen to, and chat with, Mary Dearborn, author of the new biography of Ernest Hemmingway and Laura Dassow Walls, author of a new biography of Henry David Thoreau, due out on Thoreau’s 200^th birthday in July.   If you have never been to the Printer’s Row Lit Fest, you are missing a wonderful day (if you are a book lover).

Yes, Chicago has its struggles and challenges.  It is easy to get a bit morose about its prospects, but institutions like the American Writers Museum, remind us that Chicago still has a rich vibrant intellectual and literary foundation, and I applaud the founders for making this museum a reality.