Finley Peter Dunne

In the persona of Mr. Martin Dooley, a fictional Bridgeport barkeeper, no writer better chronicled the day to day trials and tribulations of Chicago’s immigrant and first-generation Irish community than Finley Peter Dunne. As a newspaper writer for the Chicago Evening Post, Dunne, born in Chicago in 1867 to Irish immigrant parents, wrote more than three hundred Mr. Dooley monologue vignettes fraught with an urban sagacity in the context of a colorful patois blending County Roscommon with Bridgeport. In a review of Mike Royko’s book Boss for the New York Times, Studs Terkel wrote that Royko “was Chicago’s most incisive and impertinent journalist since Finley Peter Dunne.”

Since today is Chicago’s mayoral election, where a woman will be now be elected mayor for a second time, I share with you a popular Dunne quote written in 1895 from the mellifluous voice of  Martin Dooley: “Sure, politics ain’t bean-bag. ‘Tis a man’s game, an women, childer, cripples an’ prohybitionists ‘d do well to keep out iv it.”

Dunne eventually moved to New York and joined Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell at American Magazine, and made a reputation for himself as an outstanding journalist on national and international issues. Yet we remember him best today for being the voice of the pioneer generations of Chicago Irish whose hard work and political savvy shaped the urban landscape of the Windy City.

The Wizard of Humboldt Park

Lyman Frank Baum lived in Chicago from 1891-1910. Baum wrote more than sixty books in his lifetime, the most famous of which was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written in 1899 when he lived at 1677 North Humboldt Boulevard. Most of his books were children-oriented, including the dozen or so Oz books, Father Goose, American Fairy Tales and Dot of Merriment. Baum’s stories of fantasy and whimsy continue to delight readers of all ages. He highly deserves to claim his rightful place among the most creative writers that have called Chicago their home.