Chicago
Chicago grew from a swampy port to the second city of the United States within two generations, and its literature is preoccupied with what that growth cost. Dreiser's Sister Carrie and The Titan follow people who arrive with nothing and learn how credit works; Sinclair's The Jungle turns the stockyards into a machine for destroying a family.
The Newberry Library is an independent research library with strong holdings in American history, literature and the history of printing. Its collections on the Midwest and on Native American history are particularly useful for readers who want to know what the city was before the railroads.
A library to check
- Newberry Library — catalogues and digital collections, open to readers online
Books connected to Chicago
- Sister Carrie — Theodore Dreiser, 1900. The first great American novel about a woman and money, written without moralising.
- The Jungle — Upton Sinclair, 1906. A muckraking novel whose images are still the reason people distrust industrial food.
- The Titan — Theodore Dreiser, 1914. The best American novel about financial power, and a portrait of Chicago being built by men on the make.
A note on accuracy
We describe literary connections and public collections, not street addresses, opening hours or ticket prices. Those change and we cannot verify them for every reader. Follow the institution's own site for current visiting information.