#TheEmeraldCity in #thewizardofoz was inspired by #TheWhiteCity of #chicagoworldsfair1893

Many wonders #lfrankbaum witnessed in his day went into #thewonderfulwizardofoz

In the late-’90s, I wrote to Tom @Skilling while writing my first novel, #TheWhiteCity. Needed to know the weather for a certain stretch of days in 1893. Dude wrote back with a detailed, encyclopedic narrative—blew my mind. The man. The legend.

Book 32 is "The White City" by Simon Morden.

#currentlyreading #bookstodon #simonmorden #down #thewhitecity

RIP to Donald Barliant, a Chicago iconoclast who bought Barbara’s Bookstore amid 1968’s eruptions and grew it into one of America’s singular independent bookstores. A literary funhouse where I first saw DFW in the flesh, home to the most exuberant #TheWhiteCity reading.