Chicago

Many Chicagoans rose in protest over A. J. Lieblings tongue-in-cheek tour of their fair city in 1952. Liebling found much to admire in the Windy Citys people and cultureits colorful language, its political sophistication, its sense of its own history and specialness, but Liebling offended that citys image of itself when he discussed its entertainments, its built landscapes, and its mental isolation from the worlds affairs. Liebling, a writer and editor for the New Yorker, lived in Chicago for nearly a year. While he found a home among its colorful inhabitants, he couldnt help comparing Chicago with some other cities he had seen and loved, notably Paris, London, and especially New York. His magazine columns brought down on him a storm of protests and denials from Chicagos defenders, and he gently and humorously answers their charges and acknowledges his errors in a foreword written especially for the book edition. Liebling describes the restaurants, saloons, and striptease joints; the newspapers, cocktail parties, and political wards; the university; and the defining event in Chicagos mythic past, the Saint Valentines Day Massacre. Illustrated by Steinberg, Chicago is a loving, if chiding, portrait of a great American metropolis.