The book provides an inclusive, engaging, innovative, and interdisciplinary overview of the often overlooked literary history of Chicago.

Introduction: The Literary History of Chicago Frederik Byrn Køhlert; Part I. The Rise of Chicago and the Literary West: 1. From Prairie to Metropolis: Chicago as the American 'Shock City' Christophe Den Tandt; 2. Birth, Fire, and Rebirth: Edward Payson Roe's Barriers Burned Away and the Invention of Chicago Literature Charles Byler; 3. 'This Broad, free inland America of Ours': Hamlin Garland, Chicago, and the Literary West Christine Holbo; 4. White City: The World's Columbian Exposition in Literature Rebecca S. Graff; 5. New Realities, New Realisms: Chicago Literature against the Genteel Tradition Robert Birdwell; Part II. Business Unusual: A New Urban American Literature: 6. Among the Skyscrapers: Henry B. Fuller's Chicago Novels Joseph A. Dimuro; 7. The Price of Success: Robert Herrick's the Memoirs of an American Citizen and the American Business Novel Jose Fernandez; 8. 'A Story of Chicago': The Future of Place in Frank Norris's The Pit Jason Puskar; 9. Amid Forces: Theodore Dreiser's Chicago T. Austin Graham; 10. Eugene Field, Finley Peter Dunne, and George Ade: A New Urban Vernacular John Wharton Lowe; Part III. Radicalism, Modernism, and the Chicago Renaissance: 11. Progressive Chicago: Upton Sinclair, Jane Addams, and Social Reform Literature Rachel Elin Nolan; 12. From the Prairie to the City: Willa Cather's 'City of Feeling' Mark A. Robison; 13. Poetry, the Little Review, and Chicago Modernism Bartholomew Brinkman; 14. A Spirit of Two Ages: The Romantic Modernism of Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems John Marsh; 15. Building a Movement: Mary Reynolds Aldis and Little Theatre in Chicago Megan E. Geigner; 16. Father to Son: Floyd Dell, Sherwood Anderson, and the Chicago Renaissance Timothy B. Spears; Part IV. A City of Neighborhoods: The Great Depression, Sociology, and the Black Chicago Renaissance: 17. Chicago Ecology and James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan Moacir P. de Sá Pereira; 18. Chicago gets the Blues: Migration, Depression, and the Black Renaissance Richard A. Courage; 19. Black Chicago: Richard Wright's South Side William R. Nash; 20. Life in Bronzeville: Humanism and Community in the Work of Gwendolyn Brooks Courtney Pierre Joseph; 21. Hustlers, Junkies, and Prostitutes: Nelson Algren's White Slums Ian Peddie; 22. From Emptyland to Uncanny City: Saul Bellow's Jewish Chicago Alan Bilton; Part V. Traditions and Futures: Contemporary Chicago Literatures: 23. Division Street America: The Nine Chicago Literary Lives of Studs Terkel Tony Macaluso; 24. Sexual and Other Perversities: David Mamet and Vontemporary Chicago Theater Ira Nadel; 25. Chicago Crime, Blue Collar and White: Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski Novels Charlotte Beyer; 26. Drawing Chicago: Chris Ware's Graphic City Frederik Byrn Køhlert; 27. Across Neighborhood and National Boundaries: Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and Mexican Chicago Olga L. Herrera; 28. Stuart Dybek and the New Chicago's Literature of Neighborhood Carlo Rotella; 29. Chicago Now: Aleksandar Hemon, Dmitry Samarov, Erika L. Sánchez and the Contemporary City of Immigrants Sonia Weiner; 30. Afterword: What Will Become of Us? The Future of Chicago Literatures Bill Savage.