Gayle Soucek: 6 books

Discover the history of this Wisconsin county known for shipwrecks—and spirits . . . photos included!   Because Door County received its name from “Death’s Door,” the perilous strait with more freshwater shipwrecks than anywhere else in the world, it should be no surprise that the idyllic...

In early 1909, a new retail emporium readied for business on the "wrong end of Oxford Street" in London. The man behind it was an odd little American with a waxed mustache and frenetic nature. Harry Gordon Selfridge had spent the previous twenty-five years in Chicago honing his skills at the venerable...

Carson Pirie Scott and Company always enjoyed a sterling reputation in Chicago, even among the merchant princes of State Street. For more than one hundred years, in architect Louis Sullivan's stunning commercial masterpiece, Carson's stood shoulder to shoulder with retail icon Marshall Field's, establishing...

Anyone who has waited in a Christmas line for the Walnut Room's Great Tree can attest that Chicago's loyalty to Marshall Field's is fierce. Dayton-Hudson even had to take out advertising around town to apologize for changing the Field's hallowed green bags. And with good reason--the store and those who...

Befitting its role as Wisconsin's thumb, Door County has its own unique pulse. It is the idyllic paradise "north of the tension line," that sends many unsuspecting tourists spiraling into an addiction that lands them in a summer home. It is also the "Door of the Dead," which some historians blame for...

Fire and flood, train wreck and tornado—a look at the many disasters Chicago has endured over the years, with photos and illustrations. The story of Chicago is often likened to that of a phoenix rising out of the ashes of the Great Fire. Yet that infamous event was only part of the destruction...