author
Fanny Butcher
1888–1987
A sharp-eyed Chicago literary critic, she spent decades introducing newspaper readers to major writers and new books. Her long career at the Chicago Tribune made her a familiar figure in American literary life.
1 Audiobook
Christmas in Chicago
by Fanny Butcher
About the author
Born in Fredonia, Kansas, in 1888, she moved to Chicago as a child and later studied at the University of Chicago. She joined the Chicago Tribune in 1913 and went on to hold a wide range of newsroom roles before becoming known above all as the paper’s literary editor and critic.
For roughly four decades at the Tribune, she helped shape how Chicago readers encountered books and authors. She was known not just for reviewing literature, but for being deeply connected to the literary world around her, and she also ran a bookstore for a period in the 1920s.
She retired from the Tribune in 1963 and lived until 1987. Her long life bridged an extraordinary stretch of American literary history, and her memoir Many Lives—One Love reflects the reach of her friendships and work.