Literary Landmarks

[Ben]

So I read a book a few months back called Literary Landmarks of Chicago and I was pretty disappointed. It made me wonder if the author had ever been to Chicago. The editing was poor and it relied too heavily on Hemingway. There was nothing contemporary, no references to Langer, Meno, or Niffenegger. So what are your favorite Literary Landmarks in Chicago? Let's start our own list.

[David]

Well, how about Dreiser to start with?

[Dan]

How about what's left of the World's Fair? I went down and looked around the south side a little bit after reading "Devil in the White City".

[Jen]

I haven't read/perused Literary Landmarks of Chicago. Beyond Hemingway, could you cite some of the other places it mentioned?

[Danny]

What about Nelson Algren's old place in Wicker Park (Evergreen and Hoyne I think).

[Beverly]

The Nelson Algren Fountain at Ashland-Division-Milwaukee, and
all the bars he frequented in the
Wicker Park neighborhood.

[Ben]

Well Upton Sinclair researched the Jungle at the slaughterhouses in Bridgeport. Sherwood Anderson finished Winesburg, Ohio while living near the Gold Coast. Richard Wright researched Native Son at the Newberry Library. Carl Sandburg lived on the north side. Nelson Algren went to a party at the Playboy Mansion when it was still in Chicago. He was asked to leave when he got drunk and started talking to a suit of armor to which he argued that noone else there was worth talking to.