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Great Chicago Writers: Gwendolyn Brooks

It’s always a pleasure to talk about literary giants with Chicago roots who have had profound impacts on both local history and the broader literary world. It goes without saying that no conversation about Chicago greats could happen without exploring the life and work of the legendary Gwendolyn Brooks.

Born in Topeka in 1917, Brooks relocated to Chicago while still an infant. The city’s pulsating cultural heartbeat and intricate socio-political fabric soon formed the canvas for her poetic masterpieces. Behind her ambition stood her parents: her father, a janitor with dreams of becoming a doctor, and her mother, a schoolteacher and a classically trained pianist. Both supported Gwendolyn’s passion for reading and writing.

By the age of 13, Brooks had already marked her literary beginnings, publishing her first poem, “Eventide,” in American Childhood. Her poetic prowess grew from there, and by 17, she became a regular contributor to the Chicago Defender. After her time at junior college and a stint working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Brooks further refined her craft in various poetry workshops and alongside Chicago literary peers, Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. This diligent nurturing of her talent culminated in her first poetic collection, A Street in Bronzeville, in 1945.

Gwendolyn Brooks: The Oracle of Bronzeville Monument found in Brooks Park

Brooks’s identity as an influential African American poet, author, and educator is underscored by her portrayal of the day-to-day challenges faced by African Americans. Her poetry and prose traversed a spectrum of themes – from intimate personal experiences to the African American quest for justice and recognition.

Gwendolyn’s vast literary repository boasts significant works. A Street in Bronzeville (1945) offers insights into urban Black life in Chicago. Annie Allen (1949) is a poignant exploration of a young Black girl’s journey to womanhood, and it also made Brooks the first Black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. Maud Martha (1953), her only novel, depicts the complexities of prejudice from both white people and lighter-skinned African Americans. In 1960, she wrote The Bean Eaters, showcasing her evolving poetic style and featuring the renowned We Real Cool. Over the course of her career, Gwendolyn Brooks authored over 20 poetry collections.

A Street in Bronzeville, Gwendolyn Brooks, 1945

She also garnered numerous honors, including the establishment of the Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center at Western Illinois University in 1970 and her appointment as Illinois’s poet laureate in 1976. Several schools have been named in her honor, reflecting her enduring impact on education. In 1985, she was appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. The centenary of her birth in 2017 was celebrated with special events, reinforcing her lasting literary influence.

Interested in delving deeper into Gwendolyn Brooks’ literary world? Explore her expansive collections available on the Poetry Foundation.

Great Chicago Writers: Jane Addams

It’s such a pleasure spotlighting legendary Chicagoans who have left a lasting impression on our local history and beyond, including the twentieth-century icon, Jane Addams.

Born in 1860 in Cedarville, IL into a prosperous family, Because Addams’ family allowed her to benefit from education from an early age, she was able to graduate from the Rockford Female Seminary. Later, Addams traveled to Europe, where she was introduced to London’s Toynbee Hall, a trailblazing settlement house that worked to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the city’s East End. Her visit to Toynbee Hall left a lasting impression, paving the way for her co-founding Hull House in Chicago in 1889 — one of the earliest settlement houses in the U.S. that has become the Jane Addams-Hull-House Museum at the University of Illinois-Chicago campus.

Hull House offered educational and social services to immigrants and Chicago’s underserved communities, positioning Addams as a leader of the Progressive Era. Her advocacy spanned a multitude of diverse causes: women’s rights, peace, public health, and broad-spectrum social reform. In recognition of her contributions, Addams was honored as the first American woman to receive the Nobel peace prize in 1931.

Jane Addams-Hull-House Museum. Photo: Sean Marshall

Her experiences at Hull House — and with the Progressive movement more broadly — set Addams on her trajectory as a gifted writer. Her writing career was already in full throttle in 1909 with the release of The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, which shared Addams’ keen understanding of the unique needs of urban youth. She used the book to advocate for enhanced recreational spaces and deeper engagement for Chicago’s underserved young people, while illuminating the dire consequences of growing up in an environment where poverty and lack of access to a better quality of living prevail.

Having found an audience for her explorations of daily life in Chicago, Addams published Twenty Years at Hull-House in 1910, giving readers a look at life inside the settlement house and its impact on the community. 

Inside the Hull House. Photo: At Home in Chicago

The Long Road of Woman’s Memory, which Addams’ completed in 1916, is another exceptional factual account of her expansive impact on women’s rights in America. In it, she gracefully navigates the terrain of personal and collective memories to demonstrate their influence on women’s lived experiences and the larger tapestry of history.

Over the course of her career, Jane Addams authored 11 books and hundreds of essays, editorials, and columns. And more than a century later, the resonance of Addams’s literary contributions remains undeniably profound, echoing through time into our modern world. 

Keen on exploring Addams’ legacy further? Then enjoy a visit to the Jane Addams-Hull-House Museum. The hours of operation are 10:00am to 4:50pm, Tuesday to Friday, and on Sundays from 12:00 to 4:50pm. A suggested donation for admission is $5 per person (University of Illinois Chicago faculty, staff, and students are granted complimentary entry).

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