David's excellent biography of John Mellencamp is not your average rock star bio! Expect to hear insightful commentary on how Mellencamp deals with life and death issues and transforms them into song. The new paperback version of Mellencamp: American Troubadour, retailing for $27.95 on Amazon, will be available for purchase for $20, and the author will be happy to autograph your copy.

Bill Savage is the co-editor of the 50th anniversary critical edition of Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm, and provided annotations for the 60th anniversary edition of Chicago: City on the Make. Savage teaches Chicago literature, history, and culture at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library of Chicago.

Meet Richard Bales,

the preeminent

scholar on Algren's

"Lost" works. Bales is

the author of newly

published The Short

Writings of Nelson Algren:

A Study of His

Stories, Essays, Articles, Reviews, Poems

and Other Literature.