When my husband and I moved from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Springfield in 2001, we were relieved to see that, although it is a smaller city, Springfield had a number of bookstores. There was Barnes & Noble, of course, but also B. Dalton, Waldenbooks and Chapter One, a small independent shop in Fairhills Mall. In addition, […]
Books
Posted inArts & Culture
A winning touchdown in writing
Many book readers are familiar with a question often asked during an interview of an author. “You are organizing a dinner party, who would you invite to attend?” I am not an author at all, but if asked that question, author Joe Posnanski would be at the very top of my invitation list. Posnanski is […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Parable of the Peacock
Brent Bohlen of Springfield has done it again. His third political satire has been released and is receiving glowing reviews. The blurb on the back cover reads, “The Parable of the Peacock Redux provides a satirical review of the past four years in the life of a sore loser…so many behavioral outrages that readers may […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Buried treasures from the ’60s
If you had 300 cubic foot boxes of documents, diaries and other materials, mostly from the 1960s, in your basement and garage, what would you do? When Doris Kearns Goodwin and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin, assessed their situation in 2012, they did not panic or call a junk hauler. Instead, they decided to examine […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A collection from a legendary baseball writer
Carved on the fourth-floor frieze of the Illinois State Library are the names of 35 Illinois authors selected by a committee to recognize the contributions of writers associated with Illinois. Some names, Hemingway, Bellow and Lincoln, are easily recognizable. Others require slightly more thought. Ringgold Wilmer Lardner came to Chicago by way of Niles, Michigan. […]
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Doris Kearns Goodwin returns to Springfield June 11
Doris Kearns Goodwin, the renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is returning to Springfield June 11 to share insights about her recent book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s. The Lincoln Presidential Foundation is hosting the event at 7 p.m. at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. The format will […]
Posted inArts & Culture
How Lincoln dealt with differences
There are many reasons why Steve Inskeep was poised to write a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Inskeep grew up in Indiana and attended college in Kentucky, both states where Lincoln lived. In his career as a journalist for National Public Radio, he has mastered the art of interviewing people with opposing viewpoints, just as Lincoln […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A writer as big as Texas
Why, you might ask, am I writing a review of a biography of Texas author Larry McMurtry in the Arts and Culture section of Illinois Times? It is a good question because the 473-page biography, Larry McMurtry: a Life, by Tracy Daugherty, has little connection to Illinois. The only link to our state that I […]
Posted inArts & Culture
After the fire, Chicago’s politics of disaster
In October 1871 many residents of the youthful city of Chicago were experiencing a drought of catastrophic proportion. The last measurable rain had occurred in early July and for 13 weeks not a drop of rain had fallen in the city. In the first week of October, Chicago’s 193 firemen had fought 28 fires. Across […]
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Presidential hopefuls
Ten years ago, I mentioned the name Chuck Percy in a college classroom only to receive, rather than nods of recognition, perplexed gazes. Another sign of a new generation gap and the ruthlessness of time. More and more, the political giants who dominated the baby boomers’ years – Paul Douglas, Everett Dirksen, James Thompson, and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
It’s OK to read this book, Jerry Reinsdorf
I am certain that Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is not a regular reader of Illinois Times. But there are some residents of Springfield who may, on occasion, speak with him. If you do, please make certain you tell Jerry that, despite what he told author Joe Posnanski, he should read Why We Love […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lincoln’s faith in context
Ever since Abraham Lincoln ran for Congress in 1846 and his opponent, the fiery Methodist minister Peter Cartwright, accused him of being an “infidel,” at least a certain segment of the population has been interested in the facts about Lincoln’s religious faith. As it turns out, those facts are not necessarily easy to determine. Biographers […]
