America’s Greatest Writers Move to Chicago

By: Samantha LaBue | July 14, 2011 | Literature

In a nation with over 17,500 museums where we can visit exhibits for everything from Jell-O to those little Christmas village figurines, it is perplexing to realize there is no single American museum dedicated to literature and writers. Retired engineer, Dr Malcolm O’Hagan is committed to establishing a large-scale museum that will celebrate the historical and cultural contribution of our nations most influential writers.

In O’Hagan’s quest to create our country’s next notable museum he has established an American Writers Museum team and council, an organization he presides over. The official website insists the future of the museum is not a matter of if, but of where, when, and how, and now the team has chosen where. After considering many cities in New England the group has set their sites on Chicago. America’s third largest metropolis and reportedly the up and coming nexus of American literature boasts past residents such as Ernest Hemingway and Saul Bellow, making it an appropriate home for the museum’s archive of American authors.

Some of the museum foundation’s preliminary plans have been revealed with excited reception, and they’re going to need it with a starting cost of $20 to $30 million dollars. A Writer’s Hall of Honor, galleries where guests can walk into their favorite book scenes, and a children center dedicated to fairytales and classic children’s books only list a few of the American Writers Museum’s plans. Book-makers, playwrights, and poets will have a place within the museum walls alongside novelists such as Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson, but to fill the walls the museum needs a home and large donation to purchase it.

To donate or learn more visit www.americanwritersmuseum.org.

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