Fair enough

The Illinois State Fair: A 150 Year History
by Edward J. Russo, Linda Garvert, and Curtis Mann
2002, G. Bradley Publishing, St. Louis
64 pages, hardbound, $20
and
The World's Columbian Exposition:
The Chicago World's Fair of 1893
By Norman Bolotin and Christine Laing
2002 (1992), University of Illinois Press, Urbana
166 pages. First paperback edition, $21.95

September, not August, was traditionally the start of the Illinois State Fair, and livestock, not the Beastie Boys, drew the crowds. Times change.

What hasn't changed is the excitement, corralled but not quite harnessed in a new book titled Illinois Suite hair: A 150 Year History. To comiemorate the fair's sesquicentennial year, Si. Louis publisher G. Bradley recruited Springfield historians Edward J. Russo, Melinda Garvert, and Curtis Mann (Lincoln Library's pangamon Valley Collection staffers) to collect the photographic evidence and compile a 64-page coffee-table book. The results are predictable but fun. In four short chapters the authors serve up enough facts, figures and local color to stir up the sawdust, and readers will be ready—perhaps eager—for a good whiff of the cattle barn before the acknowledgments. Forbearance is advised. Illinois State Fair comes without horseflies and sell: for only twenty dollars. And the marriage of historic and contemporary photographs in this book presents the fair in the best light possible with no corndog aftertaste. Tracking down a copy might be a chore, however; for now your best bet is to visit the publisher's website at www.gbradleypub-lishing.com and order a copy online.

The fairer book is The World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World's Fair of 1893, a paperback reprint of a 1992 title commemorating the centennial of the fair and the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing on the shores of San Salvador. Authors Bolotin and Laing sifted through hundreds of documents and artifacts to write their history of the Exposition, yet their research admittedly only scratched the surface of their subject. Nevertheless, the size, scope, and shear grandiosity of the Exposition invite readers to imagine the rest. The description of the international cuisine served at the Fair, where everything from Cajun possum stew to boiled Swedish dumplings was on the menu, adds much spice. Likewise, the use of unpublished diaries, contemporary newspaper and magazine articles, and "official" documents offers fresh perspectives on the cosmopolitan carnival atmosphere at the Chicago Worlds Fair—still the fairest of them all.

—William Furry

Illinois HERITAGE 19