If you had to make a Lincoln from scratch, what would you toss in?You got your Basic Honesty, the Law and Politics, the Great Emancipator Business, Fighter of the War, and so forth. You would likely a]]> Please allow me to introduce Mr. Moist von Lipwig, hero of Going Postal, Terry Pratchett's latest novel in his Discworld series. But before we go any further, a confession: I am a Pratchett lat]]> As the 19th century prepared to turn into the 20th, a cataclysmic confrontation between labor and management occurred in the steelmaking town of Homestead, Pa., pitting the wealthy Carnegie Steel Co. ]]> Stan Musial: An American Life, by George Vecsey. Ballantine Books, 2011. 397 pages. $26.If you are disturbed by multimillion-dollar athletes who seem less than grateful for their status, listen to thi]]> Untitled Document William Russell Arrington — best known as Russ — was a familiar face and factor in the Illinois General Assembly from 1945 to 1973. Moreover, he was]]> I thought I knew the story of Wenguang Huang, who will be the commencement speaker at the University of Illinois Springfield May 12. After all, I’ve known Wen for 21 years, first as my student a]]> Who among us would have thought of the little east central Illinois town of Paris as a major location for drug dealing and criminal activity? It is hard to believe Paris, Ill., is the site of the na]]> A friend laughed when I said I was reading a book about OK. “I can see a paragraph,” he said, “but a whole book?”Well, yes, that is exactly what Allan Metcalf, professor of Eng]]> The title of this book, Illinois Politics: A Citizen’s Guide, is less than inviting when compared to many political items on bookstore shelves today. But the story between the covers tells a gri]]> Mary Todd Lincoln knew a lot of grief. Her mother died when she was 6. She lost three of her four children and was sitting beside her husband the night he was assassinated. When I picture he]]> Abraham Lincoln said goodbye to Springfield in a succinct, emotion-filled speech on Feb. 11, 1861. “To this place, and the kindness of these people,” Lincoln said, “I owe every thing]]> For several weeks in September 1944, people in the town of Mattoon, Illinois, showed the symptoms of exposure to poison gas--nausea, vomiting, weakness leading to near paralysis, light headedness, eve]]> In his most recent book, Communities of Frank Lloyd Wright: Taliesin and Beyond, historian Myron Marty strives to define the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin Fellowship in the context of other groups Wright worked with and other “intentional communities.” Together with his earlier book, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship (Truman State University Press, 1999), co-authored with his wife, Shirley, Marty presents a comprehensive picture of the unique community organized to create, promote and preserve the values and goals of one man — Frank Lloyd Wright.]]> The late Pat Smith was a former Springfield resident, one of the three founders of Brainchild, a women’s writing collective that lasted more than 30 years and published a number of books. Now Pa]]> Everybody knows of the exploits of outlaws Frank and Jesse James, but who remembers Ed and Lon Maxwell, two Illinoisans who captured the nation's attention in the early 1880s? The broth]]> Untitled Document You don’t expect a story that begins: “The brassiere is off, Louella” to gently break your heart, and that’s precisely what makes Spring]]> Nearly 10 years ago Rosemary Thornton drove to Springfield from Alton to give a talk at Lincoln Library about Sears homes. As the library’s program director, I remember her coming early in the d]]> Untitled Document Central Illinois has many writers’ groups — I can easily name six in Springfield. Some have died: Women Writes waxed awhile, and so did the Snotty L]]> Untitled Document Andrew Ferguson's personal saga tracing the Lincoln industry and influence began when he was a kid, visiting New Salem and other Lincoln shrines (thus called until r]]>