Defining and Personifying the City: Sandburg and Algren

Chicago grew from a frontier outpost to a world metropolis in a mere 60 years.  Between its 1833 incorporation and the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Chicago was transformed from a village of a few hundred on the edge of wilderness to home of the railroad, the skyscraper, the modern factory, home to a million people.  Chicago writers have worked to define this unprecedented place ever since, and this seminar will discuss two of the defining texts of Chicago literature: Carl Sandburg’s /Chicago Poems /and Nelson Algren’s /Chicago: City on the Make/.

Semianr led by Bill Savage, Northwestern University