The Gilded Cage: A Novel of Chicago

The Gilded Cage: A Novel of Chicago

Born to society and a life of privilege, Bertha HonorÃ© married Potter Palmer, a wealthy entrepreneur who called her Cissy. Neither dreamed the direction the otherâ€™s life would take. He built the Palmer House Hotel, still famed today, and became one of the major robber barons of the city, giving generously to causes of which he approved. She put philanthropy into words, going into shanty neighborhoods, inviting factory girls to her home, working at Jane Addamsâ€™ settlement Hull House, supporting womenâ€™s causes.
It was a time of tremendous change and conflict in Chicago as the city struggled to put its swamp-water beginnings behind it and become a leading urban center. A time of the Great Fire of 1871, the Haymarket Riots, and the triumph of the Columbian Exposition. Potter and Cissy handled these events in diverse ways. Fascinating characters people these pages along with Potter and Cissyâ€”Carter Harrison, frequent mayor of the city; Harry Collins, determined to be a loser; Henry HonorÃ©, torn between loyalties to the South and North; Daniel Burnham, architect of the new Chicagoâ€”and many others.
The Gilded Cage is a fictional exploration of the lives of these people and of the Gilded Age in Chicago history.

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