The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
Eckhartz in the News
Happy birthday Eckhartz Press
=WGN and the Chicago Tribune made note of Eckhartz Press' 15th anniversary. A podcast interview with Eckhartz Press publisher Rick Kaempfer was posted today. Later this week, an article (complete with Rick Kaempfer and David Stern photos) will appear in the Chicago Tribune. Thanks to Rick Kogan for his kind words.
=Eckhartz Press author Maria Pappas won re-election to the office of Cook County Treasurer. Congratulations Maria! She was already the longest serving treasurer in Cook County history.
=One of the biggest stars in Loop history, Garry Meier, visited the Loop exhibit at the Museum of Broadcast Communications this week. He even held up a copy of The Loop Files! Thanks Garry!
=Frank Mathie is beginning to make the rounds promoting his brand new Eckhartz Press book, The Feature Creature. It's available for pre-order now. Frank's first interview will be out this week!
=The memoir of former Chicago Symphony Orchestra CEO Henry Fogel is now also available for pre-sale at the Symphony store. Very grateful for everyone at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for their support. We have been blown away by the interest in Henry's book.
=Jeff Reiter's November column in the Daily Herald came out last week. Notice the nice plug for the book and Eckhartz Press at the end.
=The boys released a new promotional video this weekend.
=Vicki Atkinson was kind enough to provide another free excerpt from her novel Slivers on her blog. You can read it here. She also tells the story behind the story.
6 opportunities to meet Eckhartz Press authors this week…
*Monday, November 9
=Richard Reeder is doing a book talk and signing at
the Mather Senior Community in Evanston (425 Davis Street) at 2pm. His novel Sarasota
will be the topic of discussion.
*Wednesday, November 11
=Nick Digilio (40
Years, 40 Horror Films) will be screening the film One
False Move at the Lake Theater in Oak Park (1022 Lake Street). Show starts at 7pm. He will
also be signing and selling copies of his books.
*Friday, November 13
=Nick Digilio (40 Years, 40 Horror Films) will be interviewed on stage at the Music Box Theater (3733 N. Southport) before a late night (11:45 PM) screening of Evil Dead II. More info here.
*Saturday, November 14
=Russ Fahrner is hosting a book launch party for Face Your Monster. It will be at Salerno's Pizza (1201 W. Grand Avenue in Chicago) from 1-3 PM. Russ will do a brief presentation before signing and selling his book. Pizza and snacks will be available there.
*Sunday, November 15
=Maria Pappas and her co-author Mark Eleveld will be at the Green Mill Jazz Lounge, 4802 N Broadway, Chicago from 3:00PM – 5:30 PM.
*Sunday, November 15
=If you are in New York, check out this Lauren LoGiudice (Inside Melania) comedy show…
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Four more opportunities next week...
*Wednesday, November 18 and Thursday, November 19
=A tribute to Tony Fitzpatrick (The Sun at the End of the Road) hosted by Rick Kogan and Jon Langford will be at Constellation Chicago (3111 N. Western Avenue) for two consecutive nights.
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*Thursday, November 19
=Maria Pappas will be at The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, doing a reading and signing, at 7PM.
Friday, November 20
=Roger Badesch (The Unplanned Life) makes his directorial premiere for the Riverside Township Radio Players. He'll be directing an episode of The Thin Man as well as an episode of Fibber McGee and Molly (Riverside Townhall Auditorium, 27 Riverside Road, 2nd Floor, in Riverside) at 7:30pm.
In case you missed it...
=A few photos from Maria Pappas' big party this past weekend at the Gman in Wrigleyville...
=Jim Elsener stopped by the Prairie Creek Public Library in Dwight, Illinois, last Monday...
Eckhartz-related birthdays
*Sargent Shriver (November 9, 1915)
=Before he married a Kennedy, Sargent Shriver worked at City News Bureau in Chicago. His short stint there is described in our book, Sirens in the Loop.
*Greg Lake (November 10, 1947)
=One of the many rock stars featured in Bobby Skafish's We Have Company is the great guitarist Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake & Palmer). This photo of Greg and Bobby was taken in the early 90s at Bill Wyman's restaurant in London. Lake passed away in 2016.
*Rabbit Maranville (November 11, 1891)
=This is the Cubs Hall of Famer's entry in our book EveryCubEver.
Rabbit Maranville 1891–1954 (Cubs 1925)
His real name was Walter. Nicknamed for his speed and rabbit-like leaps, Rabbit Maranville was always a great fielder, but he was even better known for his partying. When he was with the Pirates he was known for playing with a flask in his pocket. One time (with the Cubs in spring training 1925) he was goofing around on the golf course with Charlie Grimm, who laid on his back and put a tee in his mouth with a ball on it, as a joke. Maranville hit the ball with a driver, scaring the hell out of Grimm. The first night after he became Cubs manager, he barged into the players’ Pullman cars and threw cold water on their faces, saying “there will be no sleeping under Maranville management.” That same night he got into a fight with a cab driver in New York after the Cubs arrived there over the cabbie grumbling about his tip. He had to be separated from the cabbie by the cops. After they separated him, he went after the cops and was arrested along with two of his players. He had no set rules for the team except that they couldn’t go to bed before him. Another time he held the Cubs traveling secretary out of a hotel window by his feet. Yet another time, and as it turns out, the final incident, he ran through the train throwing the contents of a spittoon at his players. With Rabbit as manager, the Cubs finished in last place for the first time in franchise history. He was fired after eight weeks. Rabbit played for another ten years (with Brooklyn, St. Louis, and Boston), and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954. That was just a few months after he died. Rabbit still holds the record for most hits of any MLB player born in Massachusetts.
Historical note: On the day the Scopes Monkey Trial ended, Rabbit and his buddy Charlie Grimm knocked in seven of the 15 runs in a Cubs victory.
*Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922)
=The famed novelist appears in two different Eckhartz Press books. As one of the most famous City News Bureau alumni of all time, he naturally appears in the book Sirens in the Loop. Not only did Vonnegut work at City News Bureau, he famously wrote about it in arguably his best novel, Slaughterhouse Five. He also appears in Bill Paige's book Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars. Paige wrote Vonnegut a fan letter, and Vonnegut wrote him back! That letter is in the book.
*Joe Mantegna (November 13)
=Joe spilled his Cubs-guts to authors Randy Richardson and Becky Sarwate in Cubsessions. Here he is in his natural environment.
*Jimmy Kimmel (November 13)
=Jimmy appears in the book Records Truly Is My Middle Name because John Landecker attended the Emmys hosted by Jimmy. That was the year everyone got a sandwich and a note from Jimmy's mom.
=Jimmy also appears in the upcoming documentary about The Loop, discussing the importance of the radio station chronicled in The Loop Files.
*Dag Juhlin (November 14)
=The guitarist from Poi Dog Pondering is a long-time member of the Steve Dahl show, which means he has interviewed a bunch of Eckhartz Press authors. Here's one with Your Dime My Dance Floor author Chet Coppock. (L-R: Steve Dahl, Chet Coppock, Rick Kaempfer, Dag Juhlin, Brendan Greeley)
*Jack Sikma (November 14)
=Former NBA great Jack Sikma actually plays a big role in Chuck Swirsky's life, and is therefore featured in the book Always a Pleasure.
*Daniel Barenboim (November 15, 1942)
=The famous conductor is featured prominently in Henry Fogel's memoir, The CEO's Symphony. (L-R: Henry Fogel, Martha Gilmer, Daniel Barenboim, and Zarin Mehta in 1997)
Notable Eckhartz anniversaries...
=This week last year Jeff Reiter appeared on one of the biggest bird podcasts in America. Here's the link. He's on the Talkin Birds show for about eight minutes, starting at the ten minute mark. It's a great segment. Can you go wrong with a podcast that has tags listed for brown jay, blue jay, green jay, hooded warbler, bird baths, great gray owl, and worm-eating warbler? No. No you can't.
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=This week in 2025, Robert Conlon was a magazine cover boy...
=November 13, 2023, Rick Kaempfer was making the rounds promoting his book The Loop Files. One of his first stops was the WGN Radio morning show. On this particular day, it was hosted by fellow Looper, Wendy Snyder (shown here in her Loop days). You can listen to the interview here.
=This week in 2022 (November 15), Eckhartz Press released Leaving Glory for Greatness by Lou Macaluso, a biography of football star turned civil rights hero LaMarr Thomas. It became our biggest selling book of the year, and is now taught in school at Thomas' alma mater, Thornton Township High School. When the book came out we did a Q&A with the author, Lou Macaluso.
=November 16, 2021, Grammar Moses author Jim Baumann appeared on WGN Radio talking about his book. You can still listen to that interview here.
=This week in 2018 (November 11), Eckhartz Press released Death of the Angels by long-time television reporter/producer Alex Burkholder. It was about the tragic 1958 fire at the Our Lady of the Angels school. We interviewed Alex about it the week of the book's release. Unfortunately Alex passed away in 2024.
=November 12, 2018, we lost one of the all-time greats, Stan Lee. The man who created Spiderman did endorse one of our books. There he is with Life Behind the Camera author Chuck Quinzio.
=This week in 2017 (November 11), the Eckhartz Press brass flew down to Atlanta, Georgia, to support author Mark Gelinas, who was marching in the Purple Stride march to raise money for pancreatic cancer research. Mark gave a speech that day, and during the speech, revealed to all of us that his prognosis was dire. His doctors gave him a year.
=A few weeks later, Mark passed away. His book is still available at Eckhartz Press. Despite the unhappy outcome, it's an inspiring tale of a man who tackled the ultimate challenge of his life head-on.
=November 16, 2016, Pat Colander's book Hugh Hefner's First Funeral was named Book of the Year in the non-fiction category by the Chicago Writers Association.
=This week in 2016, four Green White Soccer greats were inducted into the Illinois Soccer Hall of Fame. All are featured in our book, Grun Weiss Vor! (L-R...Mike Duffy, Adam Kaempf, Stefan Laxgang, and Rudi Mayer. )
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