The Chicago Literary Club

>,'yrf- •^ .f"^ LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN IN MEMORY OF STEWART S. HOWE JOURNALISM CLASS OF 1928 STEWART S. HOWE FOUNDATION 367 C432g I.H.S. ..v^'-'f \) THE CHICAGO LITERARY CLUB REVEREND ROBERT COLLYER THE m CHICAGO LITERARY ll CLUB ^^ H I Sr0 1{l' OF ITS FI-\ST FIFTT rE^-T{S M i^ By Frederick William Gookix ^ ^ CHICAGO PRINTED FOR THE CLUB 1926 COPYRIGHTED I926 BY THE CHICAGO LITERARY CLUB FOR li WORD large measure this history of The Chicago Literary INClub has been made up from the recollections of the writer^ augmented by those of several of the early members ivhose narrations have been built into it. No excuses^ therefore^for the somewhatfrequent use of the personal pro- 7WU71 in the recital^ need be offered. The account of the later years should^ perhaps^ be more full; but conspicuous hap- penings in these years have been comparatively few. They have been years marked chiefly by sustained interest on the part of the members^ by the excellence of the literaryfeast pro- vided at the meetings^ by the steady maintenance of the spirit offellowship between the members^ and by the atmosphere that this has created and which has been a distinguishing feature of the clubfrom its earliest days to the present time. As the roll of members^ past and present^ shows that resignations were sent in by no less than three hundred and thirty -five of the eight hundredand seventy-seven whose names appear upon the list., it may here be stated by way of expla- nation^ that in a great majority of the cases the reason for resigning was^for one cause or another^ inability to attend the meetings. This prevented many from ever becomiyjg in any real sense identified with the club: some of them did not come to even a single yneeting., and it is not surprising that., after being enrolledfor a year or two, or in some instances, for ?nany years, they dropped out. In cojitrast to this show- ing, the devotion of those who did become actively identified with the club has been so constant that during the entire fifty I V J vi Foreword years the attendance of members at meetings held once a week save in the suminer months^ has always averaged more than twenty-five per cent, oj the number of those on the resident list. 'This is a record that must be regarded as extraordinary when thefacts are taken into consideration that withfew ex- ceptions the members were {or are) busy men having many demands upon their time, and that the homes of most of them were {or are) distant several miles from the club rooms. Of the members who joined the club in its first year, the only one now living is Franklin MacVeagh; and Alfred Bishop Mason is the sole survivor ofthose elected in the second its year. Two who came into the club in third year^ Joseph Adams and Robert T. Lincoln., are still with us^ and John J. Schobinger who resigned in 1 904 when he beca?ne a resident of Morgan Park., is also living and regrets that he is not now in thefold. Of thefourth year members only Clarence A. Burley and the present writer remain; and of the fifth year contingent one alone survives, Charles Norman Fay who made the mistake of resigning in 1903. The personnel of the club is of course constantly changing little from natural causes , yet the club itself has changed if any as the years have slipped by. The distinctive character that was given it in the beginning has always been main- taiyjed. New members take the places of the old but the club remains the same., and it is to be hoped that it will so con- tinue for many years to come. Frederick W. Gookin Winnetka, November i, 1925. CONTENTS CHAPTER PACE I. Founding and early days i II. The first and second seasons 15 III. The third season. Rooms of the club in the American Express Company's Building on Monroe Street occupied 32 IV. Events of the fourth season 45 V. Other seasons in the first club rooms. 60 VI. Removal to rooms in Portland Block. The Matthew Arnold hoax and other memorable incidents 76 VII. Removal from Portland Block rooms. Meet- ings held at Kinsley's Restaurant. Head's paper on "Shakespeare's Insomnia" ... 97 VIII. Removal to rooms in the Art Institute Build- ing and events of the first year there . .115 IX. Events of the next two years. Memorials of three well-beloved members 129 X. The last two years of the club's tenancy of the rooms in the Art Institute Building. More memorials 140 [ vii ] VIU Contents XI. The years when the club's home was in the University Club Building in Dearborn Street 153 XII. The years when the club was domiciled in the Orchestra Building and then in the Fine Arts Building 176 APPENDICES A. List of the rooms occupied by the club, and other places where its meetings have been held, with dates 203 B. List of the club's officers, 1874 to 1924 . 205 C. Roll of members, past and present, arranged alphabetically 211 D. Lists of papers read before the club, and other contributions to the literary exercises, with dates, tabulated under the names of the several contributors . 235 L I S r OF 1 L L U S T R A T I O N S Reverend Robert CoUyer, first president . i-rontispiea From a photograph by Brisbois, about 1888. FACING PAGE William Frederick Poole, sixth president ... 12 From a photograph by Brisbois, about 1885, Edward Gay Mason, first secretary and fifth president 16 Frofn a photograph by Max P/atz, about 1888. James Sager Norton, twelfth president .... 40 F}-o/)i a photograph taken in Rome ifi 1893. Major Henry Alonzo Huntington, tenth president 84 Fro??i a photograph taken about 1885, Dr. James Nevins Hyde, sixteenth president . 88 From a photograph by Steffens 1909. General Alexander Caldwell McClurg, thirteenth president 100 From a photograph by Max Platz, about 1898. Franklin Harvey Head, seventeenth president . .112 From a photograph by W. J. Root, about 1905. Reading Room of the club in the former building of The Art Institute (now the home of the Chicago Club), Michigan Avenue and \^anBuren Streets 1 16 From a photograph taken in 1888, 1 ix 1 X List of Illustrations FACING PAGE Assembly room of the club in the Art Institute Building, 1888 120 Reverend David Swing 124 From a photograph taken about 1892. John Crerar 136 From a photograph taken in New York by W. Kurtz^ about 1885. Reverend Clinton Locke, eighteenth president . 140 From a photograph by C. D. Mosher, about 1900. Reading Room of the club, tenth floor, Fine Arts Builidng 176 Fro7n a photograph taken in 19 12. Assembly Room of the club, tenth floor. Fine Arts Building, 1912. Its day-time aspect when used jointly by the Literary Club and the Caxton Club ; the chairs used for the Literary Club meetings removed and the president's table placed at the side of the room instead of the north end . 180 Edward Osgood Brown, thirty-sixth president . .188 From a photograph taken in 1904. Frederick William Gookin, third secretary and treasurer and forty-eighth president . .192 From a photograph by Matzene, about 191 5. THE CHICAGO LITERARY CLUB Chapter I THE story of the founding of the Chicago Literary Club turnishes in some sort an historic parallel to the nursery rhyme of "Little Dickey Dilver and his bow of silver," of whom it will be remembered that "He bent his bow to shoot a crow And hit a cat in the window." Under the able leadership of Mr. Francis Fisher Browne, "The Lakeside Monthly" in 1873 had attained an honorable position in the field of literature, and was struggling to maintain a high standard in spite of inade- quate pecuniary recognition on the part of the public. Of the articles that appeared in its pages many of the best were written by Chicago men. With a view to stimulat- ing further literary eflfort in our city, and at the same time to furnish a supply of desirable papers for his magazine, Mr. Browne conceived the idea of forming a Club some- what similar to the Century Club of New York, which I [ 1 The Chicago Literary Club should accomplish this result. This is the story as told in his own words: Chicago, June 3, 1892. My Dear Mr. Gookin: Since our brief chat about the formation of the Literary Club I have refreshed my memory a little in the case, though the most of what I can recall was given you in outline. The idea—originally was to make it a sort of "Lakeside Contribu- tors' Club," "The Lakeside Monthly"(ofwhich I waseditor) being at that time about five years old, and having succeeded in gaining signal recognition in foreign quarters, was beginning to attract notice among the more slowly appreciative but literary-aspiring people nearer home. Hence some of its friends thought it would be a good thing to organize a club from among its contributors and other literary people, to extend its influence and advance the claims of literature generally in the city. That was the inception. During the winter of 1873-4, several informal meetings were held in my office in the Lakeside Building, at which the project was discussed; those present being Rev. Dr. J. C. Burroughs, Hon. J. M.

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