Excerpt from Old Illinois Houses As almost all Of us know, half Of the population Of Illinois lives in Chicago. To this half belongs John Drury. It took considerable foreign and domestic travel in his earlier years, however, to make him realize that his native heath is just as good a place to write about as any other spot on earth. As a romantic-minded young man, he lived in New York's Greenwich Village, worked as a cub reporter in los Angeles, served on merchant ships to South America and London, traveled in Canada, and cruised the Spanish Main aboard a luxury liner. In time, though, John Drury felt the call of his native Midwest and here, after returning to it, he began his writing career. In addition to his Chicago residence, he now maintains a summer home at Chesterton, Indiana. It was just after the University Of Chicago Press published his Old Chicago Houses in 1941 that John Drury began work on the articles which form the contents Of this book. One day in the early spring Of 1941, when snow floated down between gloomy Loop buildings and hissed on the cold surface of the Chicago River, he loaded into his car his Wife, his dog, and his typewriter, and began the first Of three circular motor tours through southern, central, and northern Illinois, totaling some miles. His quest was historic Illinois houses. The results Of his journeys appear in this book Where they are reproduced from a series Of weekly articles published in the Daily News. Having covered thehistoric-house field in his native city and native state, Mr. Drury, quite naturally, expanded his horizon again, and thus there appeared, in 1947, his Historic Midwest Houses. This volume involved a -mile tour Of the Midwest which was made possible by a Regional Writing Fellow ship awarded him by the University Of Minnesota. Readers of Old Illinois Houses will find this book a rather complete, though informal, history Of our state. Here are described houses that represent the French period. Other chapters deal with dwellings used during the English occupaiion, and here, too, are residences Of the American aristocrats appointed in Washington to administer the frontier government. How can anyone understand the enterprising bankers who came early to Illinois, without seeing the house Of John Marshall at Shawneetown? On Rock Island stands the mansion Of George Daven port, fur trader, and this expresses his affluence better than can be done in a thousand words. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In this magically evocative novel, William Maxwell explores the enigmatic gravity of the past, which compels us to keep explaining it even as it makes liars out of us every time we try. On a winter morning in the 1920s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois. A man named Lloyd Wilson has been killed. And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers—one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy—has been shattered. Fifty years later, one of those boys—now a grown man—tries to reconstruct the events that led up to the murder. In doing so, he is inevitably drawn back to his lost friend Cletus, who has the misfortune of being the son of Wilson's killer and who in the months before witnessed things that Maxwell's narrator can only guess at. Out of memory and imagination, the surmises of children and the destructive passions of their parents, Maxwell creates a luminous American classic of youth and loss.

From 1908 to 1940, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold nearly seventy-five thousand homes through its mail-order Modern Homes program. Families across the nation set about assembling the kits, using the thick instruction manual to puzzle out how twelve thousand pieces of house might fit together. The resulting dwellings were as durable as they were enchanting, swiftly becoming icons of the American landscape. Follow leading expert Rosemary Thornton through a lavishly illustrated history of the homes many Illinoisans dont know they are living in. Recognize your own front porch on a page in the Neo-Tudor section of the style gallery and tell your plumber hes helping to preserve a Barrington.

Old-House Journal is the original magazine devoted to restoring and preserving old houses. For more than 35 years, our mission has been to help old-house owners repair, restore, update, and decorate buildings of every age and architectural style. Each issue explores hands-on restoration techniques, practical architectural guidelines, historical overviews, and homeowner stories--all in a trusted, authoritative voice.

Old-House Journal is the original magazine devoted to restoring and preserving old houses. For more than 35 years, our mission has been to help old-house owners repair, restore, update, and decorate buildings of every age and architectural style. Each issue explores hands-on restoration techniques, practical architectural guidelines, historical overviews, and homeowner stories--all in a trusted, authoritative voice.