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Most of us know
Richard Peck’s award-winning children’s books are based
in the Decatur area. But did you know Dick Tracy, Tarzan, V.I. Warshawski
and the lion, scarecrow, and tin man all were born in Illinois? Did
you know James Jones, a Robinson native, wrote From Here to Eternity?
In 1970, Dee Brown of Champaign wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
and changed the way we think about the history of Native Americans.
The exterior of the Illinois State Library features a limestone frieze
etched with the names of Illinois' distinguished authors. These wordsmiths
either were born or spent a significant portion of their careers in Illinois.
The writers reflect a rich diversity of Illinois literature, from Edna
Ferber to Ernest Hemingway to Studs Terkel and Gwendolyn Brooks. Add
Jane Addams, George Ade, Nelson Algren, Sherwood Anderson, Paul Angle,
L. Frank Baum, Saul Bellow, Black Hawk, Ray Bradbury, Cyrus Colter, Theodore
Dreiser, Finley Peter Dunne, Eliza Farnham, James T. Farrell, Henry Blake
Fuller, Hamlin Garland, Lorraine Hansberry, Ben Hecht, Robert Herrick,
James Jones, Ring Lardner, Abraham Lincoln, Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee
Masters, William Maxwell, Frank Norris, Donald Peattie, Elia Peattie,
Carl Sandburg, Upton Sinclair, and Richard Wright.
Let's not forget Edgar Rice Burroughs, Langston Hughes, Margaret Walker,
Eugene Field, and Susan Sontag.
And a new crop of Illinois writers currently are writing their legacies.
Among them: Michael Crichton, Sue Miller, Sara Paretsky, and Scott Turow.
This
is a supplement to an article which originally appeared in the August/September
2003 issue of Decatur Magazine.
It may not be reproduced or redistributed in whole or in part without
the publisher's consent.
© Copyright
2003 Decatur Magazine - First String Productions. All rights reserved.
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