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Forgotten Fate of the Place Where Lincoln Won His Party's Nomination

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This month marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln winning the Republican nomination for president here in Chicago. That momentous event occurred on May 18, 1860, inside a large, two-story, pine-plank convention hall at what is today the southeast corner of Lake Street and Wacker Drive. Like other political gathering places in its day, the hastily built hall was known as the Wigwam. Everybody knows what became of Lincoln (who wasn’t in Chicago for the convention), but what happened to the Wigwam?…

By Our Writers: 'Now Hiring: White House Dog' by Gina Bazer

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While the blogosphere buzzed about the value of our nation’s top dog ($1,600, according to the Obamas’ financial disclosure form, released this past Monday), Chicago magazine staffer Gina Bazer recalled another time when Bo’s worth was under consideration. Not long after the president’s election-day declaration that he would be delivering on his promise of a dog for his daughters, Bazer co-wrote a children’s book loosely based on the first family’s search for the perfect pup…

Books We Like: 'The Promise' by Jonathan Alter

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Having grown up six blocks from Wrigley Field, Jonathan Alter, a senior editor and columnist at Newsweek in New York, still considers himself a Chicagoan. “So when a Chicagoan was elected president, I felt the same surge of local pride as somebody who lives there permanently,” Alter told Chicago in a recent phone interview. His new book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One (Simon & Schuster; $18), is out today…

Best Thing To Do Today: Comics Panel at Northwestern

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Stacy Oliver, the assistant director at Northwestern University’s Center for the Writing Arts, says she was kicking around ideas with Reginald Gibbons, her boss, when inspiration hit. Today in culture, Oliver recalls saying, “there seems to be this wonderful partnership with the picture and the word.” And, blam, a panel discussion about the rise of the graphic story was born…