Literary Landmarks of Chicago Author:Alan Brown Literary Landmarks of Chicago is a literary tour guide for the city that H. L. Mencken believed produced more important literature than any other city in the nation: "There is no American literature worth mentioning that did not come out of Chicago." Mencken was probably referring to the stories, novels, and poetry that came out of the Chica... more »go Renaissance (1912-1927), a fertile literary period when writers like Carl Sandburg, Ben Hecht, and Ernest Hemingway were interpreting the significance of Chicago to their readers. However, important literary sites that dot the Chicago landscape testify to the fact that writers have flocked to the Windy City ever since it rebuilt itself from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. In large part, the image Chicago presents to the outside world today is the creation of the writers who have lived and worked there.« less