It is Karmic Ground Zero for classic Chicago literature. Read Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago Poems,” Ben Hecht’s “1001 Afternoons in Chicago” and “The Front Page,” Nelson Algren’s “Chicago: City on the Make,” or Studs Terkel’s “Division Street: America” while sitting on a bench there across the street from both the Newberry Library and the site of the late lamented Dil Pickle Club. Today, you’ll see the same dynamic these writers explored between the hustlers and the squares, between the homeless camping out and the privileged walking their lapdogs, and between the clueless and the in-the-know. The spirits of Harriet Monroe’s Poetry and Margaret Anderson’s Little Review haunt this space as well, and keep your eye peeled for Sherwood Anderson.
