The latest news from Eckhartz Press, and a chance to peek into some of the great previous offerings from our humble little publishing company.
COMING SOON: The CEO's Symphony
=Henry Fogel spent over half a century in the administration of orchestras and their musicians. He has held leadership positions with the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the League of American Orchestras. In that role, he met and worked with every giant in the classical music world. If you have any interest at all in the subject, you will find this memoir a delight. George Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim, and even this gentleman (photo below with Henry), Yo-Yo Ma (celebrating a birthday on October 7), make appearances in the book. It will be available for pre-order in a few weeks.
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=After Nick's appearance at the museum, head south to the Archer Heights library (5055 S. Archer in Chicago) to see Gloria Golec. She will be appearing at the Archer Heights Library on the same day, October 10, at 2pm. This is a huge deal for her, because that was the neighborhood she grew up in, and it's the neighborhood lovingly captured in Gloria's book. It's part of Chicago Public Library's Polish American Heritage Month celebration.
=Here's a little more info about Gloria Golec and her book. We conducted the following Q&A which will give you a better idea of what to expect.
Eckhartz Press in the news...
Maria the Pappas
=Thanks to The National Herald for writing this nice piece about Maria Pappas and her memoir.
=Maria was at the unveiling of the Stephen Colbert exhibit at the Museum of Broadcast Communications. Here she is chatting with Axios writer Justin Kaufmann.
=Don't forget, the Maria publicity tour is in full swing. The next major book signing is coming up soon. A week from Sunday, there's a particularly classy one...Sun, Oct 18, Green Mill Jazz Lounge, 4802 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640 – 3 – 5:30 PM. We will be there too.
=It's appropriate the signing is in a music joint. Maria clearly has a favorite song. If you know that she's originally from West Virginia, you can probably guess what it is. We've got two recent examples of her singing it. The first one is at Lincoln Square Oktoberfest.
=Then here she is again at her 60th high school reunion.
The Sun at the End of the Road
=Rick Kogan wrote a wonderful piece in the Chicago Tribune in honor of his old friend Tony Fitzpatrick last week. He interviewed Tony's son Max about his father.
Highly recommend this one…. https://t.co/ner467TVSt
— Rick Kaempfer (@RickKaempfer) September 28, 2026
=This week last year Tony Fitzpatrick was just beginning his publicity tour for The Sun at the End the Road. The same Rick Kogan wrote about the book in the Chicago Tribune. Unfortunately, as you can tell by reading the story, additional news was revealed. This was the day Tony revealed to the world that he was experiencing some serious health issues.
=Tony managed to attend his book launch via Zoom, and was greeted with this wonderful video from his friends and supporters...
=The last week of his life he was still making people happy with the book, including his health care workers...
=Eckhartz Press author Chuck Swirsky is back at his day job this week. Looking forward to another great season of Chuck broadcasting Bulls basketball.
=It's also, of course, Bears season in Chicago. The author of the definitive Bears book, Dan McNeil, has been spending most of the past year in Arizona tending to his brother, who sadly passed away. It was good to hear Dan back in town, and back dishing the Bears dirt. In this case, on a podcast with Mark Grote.
=One of the evergreen parts of Dan McNeil's excellent book about the Chicago Bears is his chapter eulogizing the Bears greats who have passed away in recent years. This week in 2023 (October 5), we lost Dick Butkus. Dan wrote a wonderful tribute to the immortal Bears linebacker.
Records Truly Is My Middle Name
=Happy birthday to John Landecker's son-in-law, Bradley Whitford (October 10). He makes an appearance in the Hall of Fame edition of John's book. This is a photo of the Landecker family the night in 2017 that John (center) was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. That's Bradley standing right next to John.
=Yet another Eckhartz Press author had some job news this week. Kipper McGee, the broadcasting guru behind the book Brandwidth, has created a new company, America's Morning News. Here's the announcement he made...
Richard Reeder
=Last week we told you about Eckhartz Press author Richard Reeder (Sarasota & 1001 Train Rides in Chicago) being signed to host a new Chicago-based podcast at Cliff Dwellers. The first episode has been posted on Spotify.
=Speaking of podcasts, Eckhartz Press author Brent Petersen (Truffle Hunt) hosts a popular one called Destination Eat Drink. This week's episode is all about Chicago...
=What a lovely review author and poet Nigel Byng posted last week about Vicki Atkinson's memoir Surviving Sue. You can read the entire review here, but this is a little taste of it...
One of the
things I admired most about this book is Dr. Vicki’s prose. It is direct,
vulnerable, and written with an educator’s clarity. There was a natural
transition between her raw memories and her therapeutic insight. At times, it
felt like I was listening to a very gifted public speaker rather than simply
reading a memoir. She has a keen eye for the subtleties of female intuition and
meticulously dissected the patterns of generational dysfunction. More
importantly, she came across as being undaunted by the prospect of telling the
truth about her past. That honesty is part of what made this book so refreshing
to me.
Eckhartz Press birthdays....
=Two Eckhartz Press authors are celebrating birthdays this week. Happy birthday to Chili Dog MVP co-author John Owens (October 7) and To Nudge the World author Jim Slusher (October 10). Both of them work in the media. Owens was the senior producer at the Chicago Tribune, WCIU, and ABC-7 for years, and Slusher is the Managing Editor at the Daily Herald.
=One of the interviewees for Becky Sarwate and Randy Richardson's book about celebrity Cub fans is celebrating a birthday this week. Happy birthday to journalist and author Jonathan Alter (October 6). He rates his own chapter in the book Cubsessions.
=Two football legends are celebrating birthdays this week, and both of them are featured in Randy Merkin's Behind the Glass book: Tony Dungy (October 6) and former Bears great (and Hall of Famer) Mike Singletary (October 9). Each get a chapter in Behind the Glass. That's Tony with Randy below.
=Doug E. Jones wrote a great novel that takes place in 1970s Chicago. One of the characters involved in the plot is former Cub, the late great Joe Pepitone. If he was still with us, he'd be celebrating his 86th birthday this week (October 9).
=We found this gem on YouTube of Pepitone being interviewed in 1972.
=Last year's October issue of Illinois Entertainer included a profile of our freshly inducted Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Mitch Michaels. You can read that here.
=This week in 2023, the publicity machine was just getting rolling for The Loop Files. It wasn't even officially released yet. Rick was on the Matt Kissane podcast talking about the book on October 9th, and the RAMP Newsletter featured the book in their popular radio publication on October 11.
Grace and Friends Fire Activity Book
=This week in 2020 (October 7), co-author of Grace and Friends Fire Activity Safety Book Paul Possenti was called a COVID hero. Read this to find out more.
=This week in 2019 (October 11), two of our books were named finalists for the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year. The Scar Dance by William Mansfield (in the fiction category), and EveryCubEver by Rick Kaempfer (in the non-fiction category).
Doin' the Cruise and Safe Inside
=This week in 2018 (October 9), Christine Sneed interviewed author Donald G. Evans about his excellent collection of short stories.
=October 5, 2017, TV producer Tom Weinberg got the first copy of his book Chasing the Lost City. Chasing the Lost City became a television show on WTTW.
=October 7, 2016, Bobby Skafish visited the WLS studios to talk about his book with his old colleague at the Loop, Steve Dahl. It just happened to be the same day that Trump's Access Hollywood tape came out. (Also in the photo--Brendan Greeley left and Dag Juhlin right)
=This week in 2015 (October 6), the reviews came in for Pat Colander's award-winning book Hugh Hefner's First Funeral. Here are a few of them...
As Paul Simon bookended…”Time it was, and what a time it was….A time of innocence. A time of confidences.” Chicago in the ’70’s was surreal, scary and freaking hilarious. My Second City kith and kin may have found brighter lights in N.Y. and L.A. — but we were spawned and fermented at North and Wells. Good thing Pat Colander thought to take notes and chronicle everything.
Pat Colander toiled with me in the belly of the Chicago journalism beast in the 1970s and 1980s. When major stories were reported, she asked questions. When the questions were poorly answered or evaded, she asked even more questions of even more people. Then in a clear, true voice, she wrote it all down. She found the real stories behind the stories and this collection of her work is just great. She ought to be long-listed for the Man Booker prize, If I can figure out how to do it I will.
=It's playoff time, Cub fans. It obviously didn't go exactly as we planned. Kind of like 2008.
=This week in 2008 (October 5), EveryCubEver author Rick Kaempfer was interviewed by CBS-2 TV just as the Cubs were ending their playoff run. It would be another ten years before EveryCubEver was completed. The seventh edition is out now. Perfect gift for your Cub fan friends. If you have a previous version, it's time to upgrade. This one also has hundreds of vintage photographs.
=October 7, 2009 was a momentous day in Chicago birding history. It was week of the infamous spotting of Kirtland’s Warbler, a songbird rarely seen in these parts. Jeff Reiter wrote about the hub-bub in his book The Best of Words on Birds.
The CEO's Symphony and Sirens in the Loop
=Two huge centennial galas graced Chicago on the very same day, October 6, 1990.
=It was the night of the CSO centennial celebration. A description of that night, and photos like the one below will be in the upcoming Eckhartz Press book The CEO's Symphony.
Celtic Knot and Face Your Monster
=And finally, this week is the 155th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire (October 8, 1871).
=Robert Conlon's Celtic Knot actually begins around the time of the fire. He takes the readers back to a time when martial law was declared on the streets of Chicago in the aftermath of the fire. The book also contains this picture of the Chicago Water Tower, one of the few structures still standing after the fire.
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