Famous Authors Who Call Chicago Home

In a city the size of Chicago, there is a lot of activity from which one can draw inspiration, but these five writers are doing it better than any other.

Chicago, a Home You Love

“There is nothing to writing. You just sit down at a typewriter and bleed,” so says Ernest Hemingway and most writers subscribe to this philosophy. A writer pours their heart and soul into their work and for this reason, they often draw a great deal of inspiration from the world around them. Some authors use their own life experiences to fuel their passion, while others write based off of dreams they’ve had or what the characters who live inside them tell them to do.

Here are the five authors who call Chicago home.

The Write Stuff from Chicago

Shel Silverstein

Remember his books from when you were a kid? If you can’t clearly recall sitting in the back of a classroom shuffling through Where the Sidewalk Ends, have you really lived? Though the writer passed away in 1999 in Key West, Florida, his spirit lives on in his work.

Scott Turow

For fans of the mystery genre, this name is going to be quite familiar as Turow has become famous for his hard-hitting legal thrillers. A lawyer by trade, he once served as the District Attorney for the city in the 70s and 80s and has continued to write about the field he loves; the law.

Ernest Hemingway

The voice of the drifter and the misanthrope, Hemingway has famously penned several hard-hitting pieces of American literary history. Although he is more commonly associated with tropical climates, he grew up in Oak Park in Chicago and that is where he was bitten by the writing bug.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Known best as the creator of Tarzan, very few people realize this author made his bones in The Windy City. He penned the first of many stories beginning in 1912 and continued to be a lover of adventure until he passed away in California in 1950. In his life, he received high praise from fellow writers and spawned the creation of several films based on his famous character.

Jen Lancaster

Though fairly new to the fiction scene, Lancaster made waves with her first book entitled Bitter is the New Black. In this humorous memoir, she regales readers with stories of being unemployed in the early millennium. In her book, you watch the writer go from being a haughty yuppie to learning what really matters in the world. She and her husband live in the suburbs of Chicago, but her dedication to her city is evident in her writing.

Whether you’re into brusque legal thrillers or stories about an Englishman raised by apes, pick up one of these authors’ books today!