One of the newest books written about Chicago is “A History Lover’s Guide to Chicago” (History Press) and it is one of the best, a thoughtful and entertaining 200-some pages.
This is an ever-fascinating place, filled with vivid characters, interesting places and buildings, and dramatic, funny or often bloody events that have and continue to provide enough material for hundreds of novels, nonfiction works and guidebooks.
It is the work of Greg Borzo, a name familiar to any of you who read or buy books about the place we live. He once told me that he believes much of our city’s history “hides in plain sight,” and he has spent most of his career proving it.A native of the Northwest Side, he earned a degree in cultural anthropology from Grinnell College in Iowa and later a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University.
“I agreed to do this book in part because I was given the freedom to choose the subjects, what to include and not include,” Borzo says, noting that he also took almost all the fine photos in the book. “That was a great opportunity and still there were many places that wound up on the cutting room floor, so to speak.”
The “Cemeteries” chapter might have raised a History Press editor’s eyebrow until they read about the many glories at Graceland, Oak Woods, Rosehill and reads that “many of Chicago’s cemeteries and their tombstones are crumbling … the final resting places of Chicago’s saints and scalawags.”