Jerry Peterson's Blog (46)

Nelson Algren in Chicago's Literary Hall of Fame

Talk to Chicago writers my age or a little younger – I have silver hair – and most will tell you they have been influenced by Nelson Algren.



Algren was 41 when he won the very first National Book Award for his novel The Man with the Golden Arm. That was in 1950. It’s a novel of drug addiction, gambling, and life and death among the people of Chicago’s Polish Downtown district. Algren lived there. He knew well the drunks, pimps, prostitutes,… Continue

Added by Jerry Peterson on June 9, 2010 at 1:31am — 1 Comment

Chicago's Literary Hall of Fame

A gaggle of Chicago writers were sitting around a table – maybe at the Billy Goat Tavern with a beer in hand – wondering how they could honor the best of their numbers. And someone said, “Hey, we need a hall of fame. They got ’em for football players, race car drivers, and Greyhound dogs [the National Greyhound Hall of Fame is in Kansas]. Surely we can have one for writers.”



And thus the Chicago Writers Association created the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame a year and a month ago. The… Continue

Added by Jerry Peterson on June 8, 2010 at 2:35am — No Comments

A week of newspaper humorists -- today me!

I once was the resident humor columnist for the Douglas County News-Press. You’ve heard of it, right? We were a tri-weekly newspaper. We tried to come out three times a week, Monday and Thursday in Castle Rock, Colorado, and Wednesday in our sister city of Parker.



Editor Jeanie Adkins hired me in 1978 to be a news reporter and photographer. After I was there a couple months, I wrote what I thought was… Continue

Added by Jerry Peterson on June 5, 2010 at 7:43am — 2 Comments

A week of newspaper humorists -- today Bill Stokes

Bill Stokes launched this week’s series of posts. Marge and I were over visiting with friends, and there on their coffee table laid Stokes’ book, “Hi-Ho Silver, Anyway”.



Well, I picked it up and paged into it while we talked.



Jackie, taking note of my interest, said, “You can take that home and read it if you want. I just finished it.”



Said I, “Anyone who starts his book with a load of manure, that’s a I book I have to… Continue

Added by Jerry Peterson on June 4, 2010 at 12:16am — No Comments

A week of newspaper humorists -- today Sam Venable

Sam Venable, a funny guy and as nice as they come, was the Knoxville (Tennessee) News Sentinel’s outdoors editor for 15 years before the front office bumped him over to humor columnist in 1985. That’s two years after the Miami Herald hired Dave Barry as its humor columnist.



Twenty-four years later, Sam is still at it. Not Barry. He shuttered his humor column six years ago.



As you may recall from yesterday’s post, Barry has a second… Continue

Added by Jerry Peterson on June 3, 2010 at 2:29am — No Comments

A week of newspaper humorists -- today Mike Royko

Most of us in the Midwest remember Mike Royko from his years with the Chicago Tribune. He was a newspaper columnist who wrote about serious issues – many of them Chicago issues . . . he was always after city hall, the common council, and the mayor – and he often used satire to make his points. He made us laugh.



Royko created the character of Slats Grobnick whom we frequently saw sitting on a bar stool in a Chicago tavern, talking with Royko… Continue

Added by Jerry Peterson on June 1, 2010 at 12:52am — No Comments

CrimeSpace Google Search

© 2024   Created by Daniel Hatadi.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service