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News Fri Sep 04 2009
Neil Steinberg in Granta
Gearing up for their all-Chicago issue, Granta directs us to a 2005 essay by Neil Steinberg, published in issue 89, titled "Fancy Lamps":
From the street, the factory housing the Frederick Cooper Lamp Company is not as ugly as most. The building was originally a ladies undergarment plant, built around 1900; it has a courtyard and windows, luxuries that would later be dispensed with in most factories. The four-storey brick building, with a square tower double that height, is a reminder that a factory was once the centrepiece of a neighbourhood, second only to the local church. The tower, like a steeple, catches the eye; it advertises the product with a sign informing the 260,000 cars that pass every day along the Kennedy Expressway leading out of Chicago that Cooper produces LAMPS OF ELEGANCE.
Steinberg is a contributer to Granta's upcoming issue 108. And, if you're interested in reading some more of his work, you can also check out his review of Dave Eggers's Zeitoun in Wednesday's Sun-Times.
