Like many of their counterparts elsewhere, Chicago-area universities have established publishing companies to advance knowledge by disseminating works of scholarship and works of regional and general interest. The oldest university press in metropolitan Chicago is the University of Chicago Press, which was established in 1891 by William Rainey Harper as one of three divisions of the new University of Chicago and has grown to be the largest of American university presses. Loyola University, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois, and Southern Illinois University also established their own presses, joining the University of Chicago in active programs of book and journal publication. Since the city of Chicago has long provided a rich subject of study for scholarly authors, university presses in Illinois and elsewhere have published many books about the history, geography, sociology, architecture, music, and natural history of the city as well as fiction, poetry, and essays by Chicagoans.

Penny Kaiserlian