2021 brought some interesting and notable new titles to the World’s Columbian Exposition bookshelf. Nonfiction works allow readers to explore several stops along the Midway Plaisance while fictional novels offer another round of time-travel and murder-mystery adventures. We also include one late addition from 2020.
Note: We provide this announcement of new titles without any compensation from authors or publishers. We encourage shopping through independent local book dealers and online platforms that support them, such as IndieBound and Bookshop.org.
NONFICTION
Cairo in Chicago: Cairo Street at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 by Istvan Ormos. French Institute of Oriental Archeology, 2021. 472 pages. Hardcover, $120.00. ISBN 978-2724707663.
This thoroughly researched monograph provides a detailed analysis of one of the most popular attractions at the 1893 World’s Fair. The Street in Cairo on the Midway Plaisance offered authentic architectural elements with entertainment consumable for an American audience. Historical and social interpretation is accompanied by 167 illustrations.
The Prince of Wheelwrights: George Ferris and his Great Wheel by Jack Klasey. Independently published, 2021. 409 pages. Paperback, $18.95. ISBN 979-8734195413.
The Wonder Wheel of the World’s Fair and its eminent inventor have been the subject of only a few major studies. Drawing on decades of research, Jack Klasey offers this rich history of the Ferris Wheel over its thirteen-year lifespan, beginning with its important role as the centerpiece of the 1893 World’s Fair and ending as an ignoble pile of scrap metal.
Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance Edited by Megan E. Geigner, Stuart J. Hecht and Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud. Northwestern University Press, 2021. 344 pages. Paperback, $35.95. ISBN 978-0810143814.
This collection of Chicago theater histories opens with a chapter by Rosemarie K. Bank (“Entertaining People: The 1893 Columbian Exposition Midway Plaisance”), which explores the entertainers occupying the international villages of the Midway, “a story of the margins and the popular, a tale of class and of a space of escape from the hyper-ordered White City of the fair itself and its temporal determinism.”
Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern by Adam Rogers. Mariner Books, 2021. 336 pages. Hardcover, $28.00. ISBN 978-1328518903.
Wired editor Adam Rogers offers this collection of stories about color and human society. Chapter 5 (“World’s Fair”) explores the influence and impact of the colors, and lack thereof, used in the 1893 World’s Fair. Focusing mostly on the tensions between the White City of the Court of Honor and Sullivan’s polychromatic Transportation Building, the chapter concludes with insight into the novel electrical illumination.
The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age by Amy Sohn. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. 400 pages. Hardcover, $30.00. ISBN 978-1250174819.
This study of the man who waged war to control the bodies of nineteenth-century women opens on the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World’s Fair, where so-called “belly dancing” became the target of an attack by U.S. post office inspector and moral scold Anthony Comstock. One of Smithsonian Magazine’s “10 Best History Books of 2021.”
From Wounded Knee to the Gallows: The Life and Trials of Lakota Chief Two Sticks by Philip S. Hall and Mary Solon Lewis. University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. 294 pages. Paperback, $14.97. ISBN 978-0806164915.
This study of the miscarriage of justice that took the life of Two Sticks, known among his Lakota people as Can Nopa Uhah, intersects with many of the larger issues of Indian genocide in the late 1800s. Chapter 18 explores South Dakota’s role in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and some of the representations of indigenous people in the exhibitions, Buffalo Bill’s adjacent Wild West Show, and the horse race from Chadron, Nebraska, to the Chicago fair.
The Birch Bark Books of Simon Pokagon by Simon Pokagon. Mint Editions, 2021. 74 pages. Paperback, $5.99. ISBN 978-1513211978.
This reprint of six articles and legends from and about the Potawatomi tribe, each originally published on the bark of the white birch tree, includes “The Red Man’s Rebuke,” based on the speech Pokagon delivered on Chicago Day at the 1893 World’s Fair.
FICTION
The Progress of Our People by Anne E. Johnson. North Star Editions, 2021. 160 pages. Paperback, $8.99. ISBN 978-1631635397.
This young adult novel follows the story of Lorraine Williams, who can’t wait to attend the World’s Fair in Chicago and to see her idol, the Black opera singer Sissieretta Jones. Through historical fiction, readers learn about the little-known performance of Jones and her group the Black Patti Troubadors at the Columbian Exposition.
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros. Inkyard Press, 2021. 480 pages. Hardcover, $15.99. ISBN 978-1335402509.
This young adult historical novel follows Alter Rosen, a gay Romanian Jew whose friend Yakov is the victim of murder in Chicago at the time of the 1893 World’s Fair.
Shadows of the White City by Jocelyn Green. Bethany House, 2021. 400 pages. Paperback, $15.99. ISBN 978-0764233319.
Sylvie Townsend’s life unravels when her ward, seventeen-year-old Polish immigrant Rose Dabrowski, goes missing at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This historical romance set against the backdrop of the 1893 World’s Fair is the second title in Green’s “The Windy City Saga” series.
The Perfect Place to Die by Bryce Moore. Sourcebooks Fire, 2021. 320 pages. Paperback, $9.99. ISBN 978-1728229119.
In this historical thriller set during the 1893 World’s Fair, Zuretta sets out from Utah to find her sister Ruby, who has gone missing in Chicago. There, she takes a job at the familiar Murder Castle of H. H. Holmes.
Out of Place, Out of Time by Amy Willer and Anton Galang. A+ Media, 2021. 176 pages. Hardcover, $14.00. ISBN 978-1736565223.
This young-adult historical suspense novel introduces two teenagers living in Chicago 126 years apart, until Alex travels in time back to 1893 to meet Patrick, who is employed at the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds.
Muse by Brittany Cavallaro. Katherine Tegen Books, 2021. 352 pages. Hardcover, $17.99. ISBN: 978-0062840257.
This first title in a duology takes place in 1893 during a World’s Fair being held in … the province of St. Cloud. New York Times best-selling author Brittany Cavallaro has invented an alternate version of the United States populated by real-world historical characters alongside fictional ones. Her fast-paced story, intended for readers ages 14–17 years old, explores an 1893 Fair that never was.