From Side Streets and Boulevards; A Collection of Chicago Stories, by Preserved Wheeler, [pseud.] Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, Printers, 1893. 352p.

Morality tales of the type often written during the early and middle 1800s, the three stories contained in this volume are sentimental and didactic. Drunkenness, misdirected love, greed, and a choice selection of lesser evils incessantly assail the virtuous heroines of the stories, often seeming more real than the women themselves. Only through her descriptions of Chicago and its pioneer settlers does Mrs. McDougall rise above the ordinary. In this area she manages to capture some of the enthusiasm and determination that force the city to rise and grow weed-like out of the marshes, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Locales outside Chicago are vague and poorly drawn.

CONTENTS: A Vagabond for a Year.--All on a Christmas Eve.--A Piece of Land.--Grandma.--The Frost Upon the Pane.--Coming Home.--Returned.--For One Day.--Rose Hill.--Forget Me Not.

The Totem of Black Hawk; A Tale of Pioneer Days in Northwestern Illinois and the Black Hawk War, by Everett McNeil. Author of "The Boy Forty-Niners," "In Texas with Davy Crockett," "With Kit Carson in the Rockies," Etc. Illustrated by Henry S. Watson. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1914. 369p.

Tom and Martha Clay and their three children are among the first homesteaders to move into the Rock River Valley of northwestern Illinois in the early 1830s. Life is not easy for them as they build a shelter in which to live, meet the day-to-day problems of finding food, prepare to plant their first crop, fend off predatory animals, and live in constant fear of Indian attack, but they brave all obstacles. When the homestead is attacked by Indians during the Black Hawk War, the family is spared because of a talisman--a small hawk carved of black stone--that Ruth Clay wears around her neck. The plot is contrived and romanticized, but entertaining to the reader who does not demand historical accuracy.

Book Review Digest, 1914, p. 356.

Blue Hurricane. [by] F. van Wyck Mason, Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, [1954.] 307p.

In 1862, when America is being ravaged by internal strife, Matt Hovey abandons his home in Maine to become first a blockade runner working out of St. Louis, then a lieutenant in the Union Navy. Blue Hurricane is set in the western Civil War theater, with the action centering in Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee. Special attention is given to the construction of the Eads ironclads which prove instrumental in winning and holding the central bottom lands of the nation for the Union, and the battles at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson which are major factors in the outcome of the war.

Book Review Digest, 1954, p. 601-2.

The Nuptial Flight, [by] Edgar Lee Masters. New York: Boni and Liveright, Publishers, [1923.] 376p.

Three generations of Houghtons labor through this saga of family life on the central Illinois prairie. Set near Whitehall, Illinois, the story begins with the migration of the Houghton and Creighton families from Louisville, Kentucky, in 1849. The marriage of William Houghton to Nancy, granddaughter of Elizabeth Creighton, joins the two families and founds the Houghton dynasty in Illinois. Nancy and William's life together is marked by love, hard work, productivity, and growth. Not so with their children, whose fates and aspirations lead them away from the pleasant home life they have known. Walter Scott, first-born son of Nancy and William, is the central figure in the second generation of Houghtons. Hopelessly mismated, he is changed from a loving son to a bungling, unhappy husband and father. His headstrong progeny likewise meet heartbreak and disaster until they discover the contentment that has been Nancy and William's throughout most of their life together. Definitely not Masters' best novel, The Nuptial Flight displays neither the historical perspective of Children of the Market Place nor the well-defined culture of the small prairie town evident in Mitch Miller. However, for a pleasant evening of reading, it ranks far above many novels of a similar genre.

Book Review Digest, 1923, p. 345.

The Tide of Time, by Edgar Lee Masters. New York [and] Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, Incorporated, [1937.] 682p.

Set in the Spoon River area made famous by Masters' earlier Spoon River Anthology, The Tide of Time chronicles the activities in and around Ferrisburg, Illinois, from 1822 to 1930. Masters builds his story around Leonard Westerfield Atterberry, who is born in Ferrisburg; experiences the Civil War but is too young to fight; serves his state as lawyer and judge and his country as Congressman; marries; begets and loses a child; fights staunchly for his ideals; and dies with a sense of having failed. But The Tide of Time is far more than the commonplace story of a hard-working but average man, for Masters works into the background so many details of local, state, and national concern that the reader must continually bear in mind that he is reading fiction rather than a memoir or popular history.

Book Review Digest, 1937, p. 669.

Raconter; Four Romantic Stories Relating to Pioneer Life, Scenes in Foreign Countries, Religious Fanaticism, Love, Murder, &c., All of Which are Founded on Facts. With Full Page Illustrations. By N. Matson. Author of Beyond the Atlantic, Reminiscences of Bureau County, French and Indians of Illinois River, Memories of Shaubena, Pioneers of Illinois, &c. Chicago: Geo[rge] K. Hazlitt & Co., Printers; 172 and 174 Clark St[reet,] 1882. 219p.

Two of the four stories constituting this collection of fictionalized accounts of factual occurrences concern Illinois inhabitants. ''Maud Singleton'' is set in the Ottawa area; ''The False Step" is set near Chicago.

CONTENTS: Maud Singleton.--Maria and Sophia's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem.--Wonders of Vesuvius.--The False Step.

The Prairie Pirates. by Earl Chapin May. Illustrated by Bob Dean. New York City: Duffield & Green, [1932.] 360p.

Love and adventure lure Andrew Fowler from his Maryland home in the 1830s, and he finds both in the young state of Illinois. Soon after his arrival in Springfield, Andrew encounters Abraham Lincoln, who enlists him in the Illinois Militia and leads him off to fight Black Hawk. When the war is ended, Andrew becomes a leader of the Regulators and works untiringly to bring peace to the lawless land. Only when he has accomplished his mission in Illinois does Andrew, with his new wife, again face west in search of adventure. Readers looking for nothing more than an adventure story will find The Prairie Pirates quite satisfying. Historians will find it to be a highly romanticized and glorified rendering of the activities of a group who relied on fear and vigilante tactics to attain their goals.

Book Review Digest, 1932, p. 645.

By Secret Railway, [by] Enid LaMonte Meadowcroft. Illustrated by Henry C. Pitz. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, [1948.] 275p.

In 1860, the world was made aware of the extent of political strife in the United States when Abraham Lincoln was nominated at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, against the bitter protests of the southern delegates. Young David Morgan, the son of a staunch Lincoln supporter and avid Abolitionist, knows about slavery, the political issues surrounding it, and the underground railroad which exists to help the runaway slave to freedom; but the issue is brought painfully close to home when a young friend and former slave is kidnapped and sold again into bondage. Set in Illinois and Missouri, the novel is rich with local color and state and national history.

Book Review Digest, 1948, p. 570.

Swift Rivers, by Cornelia Meigs. With Illustrations by Forrest W. Orr. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1932. 234p.

When a family quarrel and the responsibility of an aging grandfather cause Chris Dahlberg to recognize the need for ready money, he decides to clear a portion of his grandfather's Minnesota timberland and float the logs down the Mississippi River for sale in St. Louis. A major portion of the novel concerns the long, grueling journey down the river, which is made adventuresome by rivalry among the logging crew and an occasional encounter with Indians, as well as such natural obstacles as storms, floods, the rapids at Rock River, the confluence of the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers, and the dangers of running aground on Lone Tree Bar. Swift Rivers is an authentic picture of the great northern wilderness which became Minnesota and of the upper Mississippi River around 1835.

Book Review Digest, 1932, p. 650.

Pilot on the River, by Lewis S. Miner. Author of Mightier Than the Sword. Pictured by Christine Chisholm. Chicago, Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company, 1940. 255p.

As a youth, Bill Wingate leaves his Quincy, Illinois, home to become apprentice to a river pilot on the steamer Magnolia. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Bill attempts to remain neutral, but eventually becomes a pilot on a Union carrier transporting troops to the battlefields of the south. Pilot on the River is set on the Mississippi River and her tributaries, with most of the action taking place between Cairo and New Orleans.

Book Review Digest, 1940, p. 645.

Dorinda, by Elizabeth Howard. Illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. [New York:] Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., [1944.] 303p.

Chicago in 1843 is a booming community of 2,000 people, where far-sighted settlers, land-sharks, farmers, traders, speculators, immigrants, and tradesmen have congregated to establish the metropolis of the west. When Dorinda Duffield is transported from her farm home in Indiana to Chicago to live with her Aunt Adeline and attend Miss Elliot's school, she finds the town as exhilarating as a more sophisticated easterner might find the cultural centers of Europe. Dorinda is a study in contrasts, with an exclusive finishing school for girls flourishing in a wilderness setting, and a naive country girl budding forth in a bustling, lawless boomtown. Mrs. Howard knows her history and her characters well, and presents them in a credible and logical sequence of events which most casual readers will enjoy.

Book Review Digest, 1944, p. 361.

The Lincoln Stories of Honore Morrow; Containing Dearer Than All, Benefits Forgot and The Lost Speech of Abraham Lincoln, with a portrait by Harve Stein and illustrations by Charles E. Cartwright. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1934. 36, 80, 57p.

Three stories first published as individual novellas make up this small, attractive volume of Lincolniana. Only the third story, The Lost Speech of Abraham Lincoln, is set in Illinois before Lincoln's election to the presidency.

Book Review Digest, 1934, p. 660.

The Lost Speech of Abraham Lincoln, A Story by Honore Willsie Morrow. Author of "Benefits Forgot," "Still Jim," "The Devonshers," "The Enchanted Canyon," etc. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, MCMXXV. 57p.

In May of 1856, a convention of Illinois' leading citizens convenes in Bloomington to express concern for the current state of the nation and to seek a plan of action to minimize slavery while avoiding impending war between north and south. From this diverse group of Whig, Democrat, Free Soiler, Know-Nothing, and Abolitionist is born, that day, the modern Republican Party in Illinois. However, from all appearances, it is destined to be a stillbirth, for each man knows in his mind what he must do, but each rebels in his heart against the action. Then Rose Franklin, whose father has organized the convention, calls for an address by Abraham Lincoln. It is this speech, unplanned and unwritten, which gives the spark of life to the infant group. Pouring all of his soul into the speech, Lincoln so fires the audience with the passion of the moment that all forget to record, and when it is completed, none can reconstruct his words in their entirety.

Book Review Digest, 1925, p. 494.

This Is Freedom, by Rhoda Nelson. Illustrated by Mary Elizabeth and Rhoda Nelson. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1940. 302p.

Thad Hart an orphan and a Gentile, befriends a Mormon youth in Nauvoo two years before the death of Joseph Smith, then accompanies a Mormon group on the migration to Utah. A minimal amount of Mormon history and social custom is included in this run-of-the-mill adventure story.

Book Review Digest, 1940, p. 675.

Guns of Chickamauga. by Richard O'Connor. Garden City, N[ew] Y[ork:] Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955. 288p.

Matthew Wayne, a Chicago newspaperman with a dishonorable discharge from the Union Army, is sent by his editor to be a war correspondent during the battle of Chickamauga. With a knack for finding trouble, Matt becomes involved with a group of war profiteers selling contraband Confederate money for valuable United State currency. The battle at Chickamauga is vividly drawn, the major participants, particularly General George H. Thomas, meticulously portrayed, and the underground trade between North and South is adequately detailed.

Book Review Digest, 1955, p. 686.

A Military Belle; "The Eagle Soars to the Sun," by Henry Clinton Parkhurst (Sixteenth Iowa Infantry). London [and] New York: F. Tennyson Neely, Publisher. [1898.] 303p.

A love story is skillfully interwoven with historical fact to form an interesting novel of war and the American wilderness during the days of Black Hawk. Geraldine Sinclair, young and pampered niece of a wealthy New York businessman, becomes enamored of an older man, Colonel Alston of the United States Army, and marries him against family wishes. When Alston is placed in command of Fort Armstrong at the mouth of the Rock River, Geraldine accompanies him to the Illinois frontier where she is quickly indoctrinated into the uncertainties of life in the wilderness, the frustration of army men isolated from wives and lovers, and the savagery of Indian and white man engaged in deadly combat. A Military Belle is a detailed description of America in 1831 and 1832, which helps, perhaps more than any other novel, to place the Black Hawk War in its proper historical perspective.

The Devil's Own, A Romance of the Black Hawk War, by Randall Parrish. Author of ''Contraband." "Shea of the Irish Brigade,'' "When Wilderness was King," Etc. Illustrations by The Kinneys. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1917. 356p.

During the spring of 1832, Lieutenant Stephen Knox is at Fort Armstrong, on the Rock River, anxiously awaiting the outbreak of the Black Hawk War, which he and his fellow offices are convinced will come. As tension mounts, Lieutenant Knox is surprised and somewhat relieved when he is ordered to St. Louis bearing messages for Governor Clark and General Atkinson concerning the situation in northern Illinois. But the Lieutenant's journey down the Rock and Mississippi rivers is far from peaceful, for curiosity embroils him in a plot to defraud a Missouri family of home and fortune, and chivalry dictates that he intercede in their behalf. The result is a fast-paced adventure pitting Lieutenant Knox against the unscrupulous river gambler Joe Kirby, in an attempt to rescue one of the Beaucaires, who, by a legal technicality, is considered a slave. There is much talk about black abolitionism and Illinois' underground railroad, but a minimum of information about them in this novel which seems to begin as an historical rendition of the Black Hawk War, but shifts, midstream, to an adventure story which often sacrifices credibility for suspense.

Book Review Digest, 1917, p. 366.

Charles Vernon; or, The Adventures of a Poor Student, by Frank Pemberton. Chester, Illinois: Hanna & Phillips, Publishers and Printers, 1854. 112p.

Charles Vernon is a rambling romance with a few messages scattered here and there concerning the virtues of temperance and the importance of honor at all times. Charles Vernon is an orphan who travels from the east into the south, working as an itinerant teacher when the opportunity arises. One episode describes a trip through Illinois, mentions a school where he teaches for about three months in rural St. Clair County, and describes further stops for reasons of health or pocketbook, in Belleville, Waterloo, and Chicago. In his prefatory remarks, the author states that this work is an attempt to help correct the "great many errors in our social organization and in the habits, manners and customs of the country." He continues: "Our country is flooded--almost literally inundated with the scum and dregs of French and English literature--wishy-washy productions of foreign scribblers, who write such works as will pander to, increase and gratify the worst passions of man, in order to make their effusions SELL, without a thought of the vitiating and demoralizing effects they may produce. To lend my efforts towards driving out this vile trash...was another motive I had in view in writing this story."

Leaves from My Memorandum; or, Scenes and Characters from Backwoods Life, by Paul Persimmon, [pseud.] Chester, Illinois: Hanna & Phillips, Publishers and Printers, 1854. 75p.

Paul Persimmon relates the story of his youth up to the time of his marriage when he and his bride leave Illinois for their new home in the south. Most of these years are spent between Shawneetown and Kaskaskia where Paul keeps school. In a manner quite earnest and convincing, he describes how he sets out to seek his fortune in frontier country, how he escapes from an evil and unscrupulous step-mother, and how he wins his bride. Murder and vengeance play a part, too, in this artlessly sketched chronicle from an often neglected period. Leaves from My Memorandum was originally published in serial form in the ChesterHerald.

Little Susan; or, True Benevolence Rewarded, by Frank Pemberton. [Chester, Illinois: Hanna & Phillips, 1854.] 16p.

James England, a well-to-do merchant of Millsburgh, Illinois, is on a buying trip to New York when he discovers Little Susan, an orphan begging in the streets. Adopting the child, England takes Susan home with him, and he and his wife rear her as their own, along with their only son, James. When Susan has grown to young womanhood, the depression of 1849 causes the England's store to fail, and Susan and James are given a chance to prove their mettle. To earn their ways Susan founds a school for children in the community, while James goes to California in search of his fortune in the gold fields. But hardly have they undertaken their new ventures when the expedient discovery of Susan by a kindly, old, and extremely wealthy uncle rescues her and her adoptive family forever from their financial plight, and speeds the day when Susan and James can be married. Scarcity and rare imprint give this short novel historical significance, but in literary value it is found lacking, for its standard plot, stereotyped characters, and lack of distinctive setting categorize it with hundreds of other nineteenth century stories of like genre.

From Timber to Town; Down in Egypt, by An Early Settler. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1891. 287p.

Pioneering in early southern Illinois is made vividly real in this humor-filled novel of the Dean family, as related by Jack Dean himself. Moving from Kentucky to an area near the Little Muddy River in southern Illinois during the 1820s, the Deans find miles of woodland and prairie, sparsely populated by an occasional God-fearing family and an abundance of horse thieves. But they like the area, and with the help and encouragement of the Widow Griggs, a neighbor of the God-fearing variety, decide to settle. The first years of their life in Illinois are concerned with selecting a homesite, clearing the land, building a cabin, and surviving in the wilds. As time passes and more settlers move in and decide to stay, the families begin to feel the need for social and spiritual communication. Group devotions lead to prayer meetings conducted by any exhorter or professor available. A camp meeting with the first true minister to enter the area is an occasion which draws participants from miles around, and leads to the building of the first church in the territory, and eventually to the beginnings of a town. From Timber to Town emphasizes the importance of the church to the early settlers and the influence of the Methodist Church in the settlement and development of southern Illinois. But the tale is told with such a diversity of sub-plots and such a light and entertaining style that the reader is more than willing to overlook the author's few attempts at moralizing for the sheer delight of the novel.

Independent, 8/27/1891, p. 1283.

Claude Melnotte as a Detective, And Other Stories by Alan Pinkerton. Author of "The Expressman and the Detective,'' Etc. Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co.; 113 and 115 State Street, 1875. 282p.

Four slightly fictionalized stories of cases handled by Allen Pinkerton and his crew of detectives indicate the diversity of the agency and the expertise and versatility of the Pinkerton men in doing their jobs. One of the four stories, "Claude Melnotte as a Detective," is set in Chicago, with the action centering around the fashionable Clifton House residential hotel during the 1850s.

CONTENTS: Claude Melnotte as a Detective.--L'Envoi; Sequel.--The Two Sisters; or, The Avenger.--The Frenchmen and the Bills of Exchange.

Literary World, 7/1/1875, p. 18. Saturday Review (London), 10/30/1875, p. 567-8.

Criminal Reminiscences and Detective Sketches, by Allan Pinkerton. Author of "The Expressman and the Detective," "The Model Town and the Detectives,'' "The Spiritualists and the Detectives," "The Mollie Maguires and the Detectives," "Strikers, Communists, Tramps and Detectives." New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers; London: S. Low, Son & Co., MDCCCLXXIX. 324p.

Twenty-two factual sketches told in fictional style give an overview of the professional activities of Alan Pinkerton and his detectives during the middle 1800s. Those stories concerning Illinois are: "How I Became a Detective," "The Ghost of the Old Catholic Cemetery," ''Sheridan, the Forger," ''Mr. Bluffer and the Monte-Men," "A Bogus Baronet and His Victims,'' "An Insurance Conspiracy Foiled," "A Bit of Detective Office Romance," and "Extraordinary Self-Robbery.''

CONTENTS: How I Became a Detective.--Jack Canter.--The Ghost of the Old Catholic Cemetery.--Burglars' Tricks Upon Burglars.--Sheridan, the Forger.--A Gigantic Conspiracy Defeated.--Max Shinburn.--Mr. Bluffer and the Monte-Men.--Trapping a Detective.--Piper, the Forger.--A Bogus Baronet and His Victims.--Canada Bill.--Remarkable Prison Escapes.--An Insurance Conspiracy Foiled.--Quick Work.--The Cost of Business Arrogance.--A Curious Case of Circumstantial Evidence.--A Private Assurance Company and a Public Insurance Company.--A Bit of Detective Office Romance.--Bogus Detectives and Would-Be Detectives.--Extraordinary Self-Robbery.--A Brilliant Confidence Swindle in High Life.

The Detective and the Somnambulist [and] The Murderer and the Fortune Teller, by Allan Pinkerton. Author of "The Expressman and the Detective," "Claude Melnotte," Etc., Etc., Etc. Chicago: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co.; 113 and 115 State Street, 1875. 241p.

Two slightly fictionalized stories of Pinkerton Detective Agency cases, set partially in Chicago, point up methods of criminal investigation prior to the introduction of science into the field of detection.

The Model Town and the Detectives [and] Byron as a Detective. by Allan Pinkerton. Author of "The Expressman and the Detective," "Claude Melnotte as a Detective," ''The Detective and the Somnambulist,'' Etc., Etc. New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers; London: S. Low & Co., MDCCCLXXVI. 288p.

Cases which intrigue are the ones to which Allan Pinkerton frequently devotes his time, as in the case of the Model Town, in which Pinkerton sets out to prove his point that outlaws seldom work in groups. In the bargain, he catches a crafty thief and relieves a prosperous Illinois town of fear. Two other stories, "Byron as a Detective," set partially in Illinois, and "The Hard Life of the Detective," comprise this entertaining threesome.

And Never Yield, [by] Elinor Pryor. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1942. 520p.

In 1838, twenty-year-old Linsey Allen accompanies her family on their cross-country trek from Ohio to Missouri in search of the new Zion promised by the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. Although determined to marry a Gentile and save herself from the violent persecution that the Mormons are experiencing, Linsey falls victim to cruel circumstance and marries Nathan Wells, one of Joseph Smith's most loyal followers. Thus, And Never Yield becomes a picture of everyday life in the Mormon colony. Linsey witnesses her parents' brutal deaths at Haun's Mill; she endures the siege of the Mormons at Far West; she rejoices at the invitation of the citizens of Quincy to settle in western Illinois; she adjusts to the Mormon doctrine of plural marriages; she grieves with her husband over the death of Joseph Smith; and she resigns herself to a future filled with uncertainty. Through it all, Linsey loses her perspective only briefly. Battling constantly for survival, her bold, straightforward manner sees her through crisis after crisis generated by the church and the locale. The character of Joseph Smith is never introduced directly into the story, and Brigham Young appears only briefly, yet they move in mysterious ways to mold and create the history on which this fascinating novel is based.

Book Review Digest, 1942, p. 618.