Leaders as readers

Illinois Issues wrote to 54 Illinois leaders and asked them three questions about their reading — past, present and future. Twenty-four responded (but not to every question), and their answers are reported here. We agree with Comptroller Roland W. Burris's added note on his questionnaire: "If your survey encourages anyone young or old to read an extra book this summer, then your work will be a success. " Also, we hope some of the answers will give you some insights into these leaders.

Michael J. Bakalis
dean, school of education,
Loyola University of Chicago

1. "Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essays dealt with the most fundamental questions that affect mankind: friendship, love, character, politics. I was greatly influenced by his emphasis on self-reliance and maintaining faith in one's inner self. His ability to use language with precision and to capture important thoughts with an economy of words also influenced me."
2. "Cecil M. Bowra's The Greek Experience, in preparation for a trip to Greece and Italy."
3. "The definitive life of Richard J. Daley. I would like to read it because I knew and admired him. But I do not think a good scholarly biography has been or is likely to be written, since there is slim evidence that documentary evidence is available, and few seem willing at this time to contribute to a true oral history."

Allan Bloom
professor of social thought,
University of Chicago

1. "Plato's Republic"
2. "Flaubert's Sentimental Education."

Stuart Brent
founder and owner of Stuart Brent Books, Chicago

1. "Martin Eden by Jack London made me realize that to become a writer one must be willing to take a serious risk. There are real ethical rewards in doing what you want to do, even if in the end things don't generally turn out right."
2. "Herzog by Saul Bellow, the greatest writer since Tolstoy. He beguiles me with his originality, his genius."
3. "A new and original approach to understanding the 20th century, because it is something awful."

Gwendolyn Brooks
Illinois' poet laureate since 1968

1. " The Life and Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, a Black poet."
2. "Biographies. I love reading about people."
3. "My next book of poetry; it will be about Winnie Mandela."

Roland W. Burris
state comptroller

1. "Although I don't know that any single book had a profound influence on me as a youth, I still remember reading Machiavelli's The Prince. Did I always want to be a politician?"
2. "Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987 by Bob Woodward. The role of the CIA in our democracy is startling."
3. "The Making of the President 1988: How the Democrats Won the White House. We must change this country's course and thinking about a victory in November comforts me."

Lee A. Daniels
minority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives

1. "Biographies of Eisenhower. I am a long-time admirer of President Eisenhower and have tremendous respect for his legacy."
2. "Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind outlines the problems the country is experiencing in higher education. Since Illinois faces revenue problems which adversely affect higher education, it is a timely book."
3. "A new autobiography of Ronald Reagan. I am a strong supporter of President Reagan and want to read his own account of his life as governor and president."

Cullom Davis
chairman of the board, Illinois Humanities Council

1. "I recall at least three stages of reading taste as a young person. My favorite picture-book was Ferdinand the Bull, for reasons I can't remember. As an adolescent, and in violation of parental injunction, I eagerly read the then bestseller, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Probably the most formative reading of my college years was the proletarian trilogy, U.S.A., by John Dos Passos. The America he described was vastly different from textbook accounts."

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2. "Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 raises sobering issues for Americans in a presidential election year."

Roger Ebert
film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times

1. "Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn was the first 'real' book I read, and it opened up the world of literature for me."
2. "I read so many books that I do not 'plan' my summer reading. Recent books I've read include: The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch, The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone."
3. "John Fowles's next novel. Because of his previous ones."

Jim Edgar
secretary of state and state librarian

1. "The work I consider most influential during my youth was not a single book but a series of books called the Landmark Series. They covered topics in American and world history such as Lee and Grant at Appomattox, Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans and The Lewis and Clark Expedition. My classmates and I argued over who would first read each new Landmark book as it arrived at the school library. The books helped give me an interest in politics and history. By the time I was in college, I was majoring in history and seriously considering a career in government and politics."
2. "Robert Ludlum's latest, The Icarus Agenda, because I enjoy reading spy novels."
3. "A biography of Alvaro Obregon, who became president of Mexico in 1920, after that country's bloody 10-year revolutionary war. I greatly admire Obregon's achievements as a leader who saw his country out of a time of turmoil, administered a new constitution, built some 1,000 schools and restored stability to that nation's government."

Dave Etter

poet from Elburn

1. "Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel. Wolfe was a poet who wrote in prose, and his poetic passages so excited my imagination that I made up my mind to be a writer myself someday. Wolfe was the super American novelist of his time, a big man who wrote big books about a big country. He led me to my own search for 'a stone, a leaf, an unfound door.' "
2. "This summer, when the weather turns hot and the beer is cold, you will find me sitting out in the side yard re-reading (for about the tenth time) Dylan Thomas's Collected Poems. The reason I continue to go over his poetry is because he is one of the verse masters of this century, and there is always something new to learn from his superbly crafted work, which he 'exercised in the still night when only the moon rages and the lovers lie abed with all their griefs in their arms.'"
3. "The one book I am still waiting to see published is a biography of the great jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, whose highly individualistic playing of his own musical compositions has greatly influenced my poetry. Monk taught me a lot about rhythm, how to break the line, how to make simplicity effective. I have read a dozen or so articles on the man. Now I would like to read his complete life story."

Marshall Field V
chairman, Field Corporation

1. "Upton Sinclair's The Jungle."
2. "Any Ludlum."

James M. Furman
executive vice president, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

1. "The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber gave me a sense of my Midwestern (Ohio) heritage. I loved his sense of humor, and he introduced me to the wonders of the New Yorker magazine."
2. "Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000. I'm a military history junkie."
3. "The Reform of the U.S. Presidential Primary System: A Sure Fire Formula for Success because the waste and excessive costs of the present system are driving me crazy."

Sister Candida Lund
chancellor, Rosary College

1. "I steer clear of the superlative for it intimidates me; I find it too restrictive. To say what book influenced me — not most, but greatly — when I was seven or so, I would venture Robin Hood. And I did not want to be Maid Marian. I wanted to be Robin Hood. I wanted to help the poor, and at the same time have fun. I wanted to protect women. I wanted to lead a band of merry men. I wanted to live in the forest, and do a little poaching (shades perhaps of St. Augustine and the pears)."
2. "Those plays of Eugene O'Neill which I have not yet read. I want to do this not only because he is one of our finest playwrights and his plays have anticipated the problems of today, but also because he carried on a correspondence for some time with one of my fellow Dominican sisters, Sister Leo Tierney. I am doing an analysis of this correspondence. The reading of his plays is complementary to this task."
3. "The autobiography of Martin Marty. If one were to adapt what Ruskin once said great nations do, namely write their autobiographies in the book of their deeds and their words, then Marty has already done so. That, however, is not the only kind of autobiography I wish to see from him. Historian, theologian, ecumenist, wise and witty commentator on the American scene, he helps us to understand ourselves and to be proud of who we are. Time has observed that 'Marty, a Lutheran clergyman, is generally acknowledged to be the most influential interpreter of religion in the United States.' His multi-faceted personality helps him to operate effectively on different fronts: church, university, community, nation. His autobiography would be that of the 20th century man of faith."

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Shirley R. Madigan
chair, Illinois Arts Council

1. "Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I admired the strength of the characters placed in a historic context and struggling to survive in a changing world."
2. "Beloved by Toni Morrison. She is a strong advocate for public arts support."
3. "The autobiography of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, particularly her views on the contrast between politics and the arts."

Jim Maloof
mayor of Peoria

1. "My prayer book. God's words and lessons."
2. "Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference by Thomas Peters and Nancy Austin. I dislike mediocrity. Good enough is never good enough!"
3. "More books on personal motivation and achievement, on how to inspire and rally people into doing more good for their community."

Martin E. Marty
Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor,
University of Chicago Divinity School

1. "My elementary school geography. It opened up the world and its many worlds to a prairie drought-and-Depression kid who liked where he was but also enjoyed imagining being elsewhere. I was never more than 90 miles from my flatland birthplace until I was 14, and have been catching up ever since."
2. "Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This is the bicentennial year of its publication, I've not read it for some years, I want all my history students to read it, it's probably the greatest single book of historical writing, and it's a pleasure to read for its style, scope and challenge to me as a Christian humanist."
3. "There's still no good book on women through American religious history. More than half of the nation's believers-practicers have been women, and they have been slighted. More important: Their story will shift the agenda. We've begun to move from writing about which bishop succeeded which bishop or who revised a prayer book when. Now people are interested in histories of the passages of life, sexuality, familiality, oppression and liberation. Many of these are moved by the soundings we've taken into women's roles and status and themes."

Jerome Mirza
president, Illinois State Bar Association

1. "Clarence Harrow's autobiography, The Story of My Life."
"Ludlum's latest. Summer or next fall, whenever I get a break."
2. "Ludlum's next."

Jim Nowlan
professor of public policy, Knox College

1. "Cimarron by Edna Ferber was the first book I read that wasn't written for the young person's market. I was captivated by the vivid colors she used in drawing the larger-than-life characters who took on the romantic challenges of opening the Oklahoma Territory. She gave me an understanding of the powerful imagery that can be developed by gifted wordsmiths."
2. "Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities. I'm told that Wolfe is a sharp observer of the American Scene, but I've not yet read any of his books, even though each of the earlier titles has fascinated me."
3. "Asia and US by James Fallows, who has been doing an impressive job of reporting on Japan and the Pacific Rim nations for the Atlantic Monthly. I would benefit from a comprehensive set of observations, with recommendations, about how we Americans ought to transform our thinking and our actions vis-a-vis this region."

Robert E. Page
publisher, Chicago Sun-Times

1. "Elmer Davis's But We Were Born Free! My 12th grade English teacher at Springfield High School told me to read it if I was going into journalism!"
2. "The End of the Street by Linda Melven. It's a compelling story about the changes in the newspaper business in the United Kingdom."
3. "My memoirs will be great reading."

Philip J. Rock
president, Illinois Senate

1. "Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain outlined a perspective through the story of his conversion."
2. "William Safire's Freedom, a novel about Lincoln. I enjoy Safire's use of the English language."
3. "A biography on the life of the Honorable Roger Kiley, appointed by President Kennedy to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. He was also elected alderman and ward committeeman of the 37th Ward and was an All-American with George Gipp at the University of Notre Dame."

Phyllis Schlafly
Alton lawyer and author

1. "Rudolf Flesch's Why Johnny Can't Read and What You Can Do About It showed me why the schools are so bad and encouraged me to teach my six children to read at home."
2. "Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities."
3. "Why ERA Was Defeated."

Paul Simon
U.S. senator from Illinois

1. "My father was a Lutheran minister, and our early family life in many ways centered around the Bible. I reflect that inadequately, but it has had an impact in ways I can never gauge. The book that really moved me when I was 12 years old was Black Boy by Richard Wright. My parents had been active in civil rights matters, but not until I read that book did the awesomeness of racial prejudice hit me."

Gene Siskel
film critic, Chicago Tribune

1. "The Little Engine That Could taught me to try hard to achieve what I wanted as well as to use that same energy to help others."
2. "Scott Turow, Presumed Innocent."
3. "One by me about the movie industry."

James R. Thompson
governor

1. "Richard Halliburton's The Occident and the Orient opened up the mysteries of the globe to a young kid from the west side of Chicago."
2. "Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 because it's relevant to what we're trying to do in economic development."
3. "The second volume of Edmund Morris's biography of Theodore Roosevelt, volume one of which won the Pulitzer Prize and is the outstanding biography of one of my heroes." □

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