Chaos, Creativity, and Culture: An Anthology of Chicago in the Twentieth Century [Hardcover]

Kenan Heise (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

In this groundbreaking anthology, award-winning author Kenan Heise profiles the remarkable contributions of the many creative people, born out of 20th-century Chicago's chaos. Among those profiled are Frank Lloyd Wright, Upton Sinclair, Edna Ferber, Studs Terkel, Louis Armstrong, Lorraine Hansberry, Carl Sandburg, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. 100 photos .

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Some critics of Chicago culture might suggest "Neglect, Fragmentation, and Improvisation" as an alternative to Heise's more positive approach, but his upbeat and informative decade-by-decade overview of Chicago's feisty, multifaceted, and unquenchable culture is so rich in detail and character sketches and so enthusiastic it proves to be irresistible. Heise's strong suit by far is literature, and the inclusion of the jackets of many first editions adds graphic elegance to the proceedings as Heise deftly chronicles the work of Chicago writers as diverse as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sherwood Anderson, Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, Saul Bellow, Ana Castillo, Sara Paretsky, David Mamet, Leon Forrest, and Li-Young Lee. The city's musical heritage, from the blues to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is well celebrated, as is the city's renowned architecture and theater, but the visual arts are given short shrift. Nonetheless, Heise does provide an engaging introduction to Chicago that will reveal something new even to natives. Donna Seaman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith Publishers; 1st edition (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879050543
• ISBN-13: 978-0879050542
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,883,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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