2019 brought several additions to the World’s Columbian Exposition bookshelf. (Note: We provide this announcement of new titles without any compensation from authors of publishers. We encourage shopping through independent local book dealers.)
NONFICTION
Unfair Labor? American Indians and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago by David R. M. Beck. University of Nebraska Press, 2019. 330 pages. Hardcover, $65.00. ISBN: 9781496206831.
In the first book to explore the economic impact of Native Americans who participated in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Prof. Beck creates a meticulous census of the Indians from tribes across the United States who participated in the Fair and their diverse roles in the exhibits and concessions.
Practicing Citizenship: Women’s Rhetoric at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair by Kristy Maddux. Penn State University Press, 2019. 256 pages. Hardcover, $99.95. ISBN: 9780271083506.
By 1893, the Supreme Court had officially declared women to be citizens, but most did not have the legal right to vote. In Practicing Citizenship, Kristy Maddux provides a glimpse at an unprecedented alternative act of citizenship by women of the time: their deliberative participation in the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.
1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition: Arts and Culture on the Doorstep of the 20th Century by Michael Finney. Independently published, 2019. 114 pages, Paperback, $18.93. ISBN: 9781082413582.
Combining vintage photographs from The Dream City (N. D. Thompson, 1893) and modern images from the author, this book catalog the living remnants in art and architecture around the city as a legacy to the 1893 World’s Fair. An audiobook, video (preview here), and revised print edition are in the works for 2020.
The Grandest Madison Square Garden: Art, Scandal, and Architecture in Gilded Age New York by Suzanne Hinman. Syracuse University Press, 2019. 468 pages. Hardcover $39.95. ISBN 9780815611103.
Hinman tells the remarkable story of America’s tallest tower: Stanford White’s fabulous 1890 Madison Square Garden in New York. A substantial part of the book traces the fascinating path taken by Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ beautiful Diana as she rose and quickly fell from the Manhattan skyline, moved to the 1893 World’s Fair, and then mysteriously disappeared forever.
Amazons in America- Matriarchs, Utopians, and Wonder Women in U.S. Popular Culture by Keira V. Williams. LSU Press, 2019. 368 pages. Hardcover, $55.00. ISBN: 9780807170472.
Williams uncovers the rich tradition of matriarchal popular culture in the United States. In Chapter 3 the author explores the ethnological exhibits and concessions of the Fair and juxtaposes the White City and the Midway Plaisance by investigating the imperialist feminism of May French Sheldon (“The White Queen”) and the women of the Dahomey Village (“African Amazons”).
The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America by Jack Kelly. St. Martin’s Press, 2019. 320 pages. Hardcover, $28.99. ISBN: 9781250128867.
This study of the social unrest during the summer of 1894 that led to the violent Pullman strikes begins with President Grover Cleveland’s opening of the Fair on May 1, 1893, and returns to the fairgrounds during the fire that preceded the riots.
American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago by Dominic A. Pacyga. University of Chicago Press, 2019. 296 pages. Hardcover, $27.00. ISBN: 9780226406619.
Chapter 1 (“Meet Me at the Fair”) of this chronicle of Polish migration to Chicago explores its roots in the World’s Columbian Exposition. Setting the stage is an opening a quote from Mayor Carter Harrison on Polish Day (October 7, 1893): “I was introduced to you as an American, but today I am a Pole, and I am more a Pole than I ever was before. I grew up an admirer of Poland, and some of my earliest lessons were those read of its dark and tragic history. I learned as a boy to love it.”
Enid Yandell: Kentucky’s Pioneer Sculptor by Juilee Decker. University Press of Kentucky, 2019. 360 pages. Hardcover, $40.00. ISBN: 9780813178639.
In honor of the 150th anniversary of her birth is this biography of Enid Yandell, who was one of a select group of women sculptors, known as the “White Rabbits,” who worked on numerous statues and architectural embellishments for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
FICTION
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz. Tor Books, 2019. 272 Pages. Hardcover, $14.99. ISBN: 9780765392107.
This novel with timelines “constantly in flux” has portions set in the 1893 World’s Fair and the Midway Plaisance to encounter manager Sol Bloom, dancer “Little Egypt,” and moral crusader Anthony Comstock.
The White City by Grace Hitchcock. Barbour Books, 2019. 256 pages. Paperback, $12.99. ISBN: 9781683228684.
While attending the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Winnifred Wylde believes she witnessed a woman being kidnapped. Will she be able to expose H. H. Holmes’s illicit activity, or will Winnifred become his next victim?
Fatality at the Fair by Mathilda R Thompson. Independently published, 2019. 191 pages. Paperback, $14.99.
This new addition to a large sub-genre of World’s Fair murder mysteries features Sergeants Weber and Rafferty, who work to solve the crime on the extensive stage of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds.