The famous, the infamous, and the unjustly forgotten—all receive their due in this biographical dictionary of the people who have made Chicago one of the world’s great cities. Here are the life stories—provided in short, entertaining capsules—of Chicago’s cultural giants as well as the industrialists, architects, and politicians who literally gave shape to the city. Jane Addams, Al Capone, Willie Dixon, Harriet Monroe, Louis Sullivan, Bill Veeck, Harold Washington, and new additions Saul Bellow, Harry Caray, Del Close, Ann Landers, Walter Payton, Koko Taylor, and Studs Terkel—Chicago Portraits tells you why their names are inseparable from the city they called home.

June Skinner Sawyers, a writer and editor, is the author of Bob Dylan: New York (2011), Tougher Than The Rest: The 100 Best Bruce Springsteen Songs (2006) and Celtic Music: A Complete Guide (2001). Sawyers is the editor of several literary anthologies, including The Greenwich Village Reader (2001) and Dreams of Elsewhere: The Selected Travel Writings of Robert Louis Stevenson (2003) and several music anthologies: The Best in Rock Fiction (2005), Racing in the Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader (2004) and Read the Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter (2006).