Category Archives: Chicago Writing
Finley Peter Dunne: “Is th’ race dyin’ out?”
Finley Peter Dunne was born on the West Side of Chicago in 1867 and graduated at the bottom of his high school class. That’s a funny and appropriate fact given the shape of his career. At 17 he began working … Continue reading
A.K. Ramanujan: A Country You Can’t Reach
Born in Mysore, India, Attippat Krishnaswami Ramanujan (1929-1994) is considered by many to be India’s finest modern poet writing in English, though he went far beyond English, his other writings as poet, scholar, playwright, philologist, folklorist, and translator ranging over … Continue reading
Neil Tesser: Out of Season
With everything on hold this year, including baseball, I’m re-reading Neil Tesser’s piece “Out of Season” with greater than average nostalgia. David Starkey and I put this piece in our 1999 book Smokestacks and Skyscrapers: An Anthology of Chicago Writing. … Continue reading