Chicago by Day and Night

The Pleasure Seeker's Guide to the Paris of America

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Chicago Book Expo

Join co-editors Paul Durica and Bill Savage Sunday, November 24 sometime between 11 and 5 at Chicago Book Expo 2013.  Held at the historic Essanay Studios site (now St. Augustine College), the program featuring many small and independent publishers, great local poets and writers like Kathleen Rooney, Dmitry Samarov and Jessica Crispen (apologies for not listing everyone . . . )  Their website is constantly being updated with scheduling and new events.  This is the sort of event that makes Chicago a great writer's and reader's city.  Be there.

http://chicagobookexpo.com/

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As the Field Museum celebrates Chicago's 1893 World's Fair, WBEZ's Curious City enlisted Chicago by Day and Night editors Paul Durica and Bill Savage to help answer the question: What was it like to be a visitor at the 1893 World's Fair?

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Join us at Open House Chicago and the Blackstone Public Library

Join co-editors Durica and Savage at two upcoming events.  First, this Sunday, October 20, as part of Open House Chicago, re-enact a scene from Frank Norris's The Pit.  Think you have the chops to corner the Wheat Market?  So did Curtis Jadwin.  3-4 pm, LaSalle Street between Jackson and Van Buren.  View the Board of Trade as part of Open House Chicago as well!

Then Wednesday, October 23, 6 pm at the Blackstone Branch of the Chicago Public Library, Durica and Savage will be reading from and discussing Chicago By Day and NIght.  Come in costume if you're feeling adventurous! 

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Food Republic: Partying Like It's 1893 In Chicago

"Paul Durica and historian Bill Savage, annotators and editors of the highly entertaining republication of 1892’s Chicago By Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America, hosted the festivities, offering fascinating (and funny) insight into Chicago at the turn of the century."

-- Adam Miller

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Upcoming events

Sunday, Oct. 20

Co-editor Paul Durica's Pocket Guide to Hell presents The PIT, a free and fun historical reenactment at the Chicago Board of Trade as part of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Open House Chicago.

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The Fair is Everywhere

So, today I went to the Field Museum to check out the Lascaux exhibit (as a Cubs fan, I have an affinity for subterranean/cellar-dweller art), but at the insistence of one of the dedicatees of CBDN, I also checked out the "Fashion and the Field Museum" exhibition.  This featured work by Maria Pinto, a fashion designer who delved into the Field's collections of clothes, from fur short-shorts to ceremonial head-dresses to Ghost Dance shirts, and designed her own clothes inspired by these artifacts.

The connection to CBDN: many of the artifacts she used were donated to the Museum via the Fair.

This exhibit closes August 18; check it out before then (it's included with basic admission, no extra fee).  And coming soon at the Field, an exhibition about the Fair itself.  Watch for more news on that!

Bill Savage 7/26/2013

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Editors Interviewed by Urbanologist

The great Karl Grinnell of Urbanologist has posted his interview with co-editors Paul Durica and Bill Savage. Dig it. And watch for new post re: advertising for Chicago by Day and Night back in 1892/93. His great headline: "The Only Guidebook to Chicago in the 1890s You'll Ever Need."

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Chicago by Day and Night on WGN

Co-editor Bill Savage appeared with ringer Dmitry Samarov on Nick Digilio's over-night talk show on June 23 to discuss Chapter XV, "Hackmen and their ways" with Hack author Samarov.

Listen to the show Part 1 | Part 2

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The Fair in Popular Fiction

One important aspect of the most popular genre of fiction--the romance novel--is historical accuracy.  While some intellectuals look down their noses at this genre, its writers and readers value the rich description of historical context that makes a given romance more than just the machinery of plot derived from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (as Janice Radway argued so well in Reading the Romance). 

Naturally, the World's Fair of 1893 is one such historical moment, and Deeanne Gist's It Happened at the Fair is one such novel.  I'll admit I haven't read it--time is short, summer school is looming--but enthusiasts for romances and/or the Fair should check it out.  It's the beginning of a series, and perhaps its readers will also want to delve into Chicago by Day and Night.

Post by Bill Savage, 6/18/13

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Showcasing the first Ferris wheel, dazzling and unprece­dented electrification, and exhibits from around the world, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was Chicago’s chance to demonstrate that it had risen from the ashes of the Great Fire and was about to take its place as one of the world’s great cities. Millions would flock to the fair, and many of them were looking for a good time before and after their visits to the Midway and the White City. But what was the bedazzled visitor to do in Chicago?

Chicago by Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America, a very unofficial guide to the world be­yond the fair, slaked the thirst of such curious folk. The plea­sures it details range from the respectable (theater, architec­ture, parks, churches and synagogues) to the illicit—drink, gambling, and sex. With a wink and a nod, the book decries vice while offering precise directions for the indulgence of any desire. In this newly annotated edition, Chicagoans Paul Durica and Bill Savage—who, if born earlier, might have written chapters in the original—provide colorful context and an informative introduction to a wildly entertaining journey through the Chicago of 120 years ago.

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Listen as Paul Durica and Bill Savage present Chicago by Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker's Guide to the Paris of America at the Newberry Library. This event was co-sponsored by the A.C. McClurg Bookstore, a branch of the Seminary Co-op Bookstore. Recorded live Saturday, June 1, 2013.

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Dan Savage’s Totally Unbiased Review of Bill Savage and Paul Durica's New Book

Related: Bill Savage's Totally Unbiased Review of Dan Savage's New Book

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New Notes

At Chicagobydayandnight.com, we hope to continue a scholarly and popular conversation about this intriguing text from one of the great eras of Chicago history.

The editors will offer new notes as we learn more about this book and the people, places, things and events mentioned therein (we have new information, for instance, on putative author(s), advertising for the first edition, and later pirated editions … notes to follow soon).

We also hope to foster a conversation about the Fair and the culture of the city in which it took place, as well as modeling one key fact: Scholarship and research never end. There’s always something more to learn.

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So, we finally scored a copy of the first edition of Chicago by Day and Night. Like all we've seen in libraries, the cover is gone (all the library ones we've seen were re-bound) but it does have some evidence about its provenance. Someone named James Gardnar or Gardner from Dallas City, Illinois penciled his name on the back end-page.

Dallas City is 90 or so miles due south of the Quad Cities, on the Mississippi, or about 260 miles southwest from Chicago. This evidence suggests that the book was widely sold to potential Fair-goers far from Chicago--or that Jim bought it at the Fair and brought it home to Dallas City? Speculation. . . Dallas City currently has a population of 915.  Will look into its 1893 history when time allows. . .