Fifth Star Press is an independent, not-for-profit publishing house devoted to Chicago’s publishing past, present, and future. In an era of unprecedented change in the publishing world, Fifth Star Press at once declares its commitment to that which is timeless and enduring about book publishing while pursuing those innovations that will allow us to serve our readers as an enduring and sensible concern.
Each of its six-pointed stars of the Chicago flag represents a milestone of the history of the city. The first commemorates the massacre at Fort Dearborn, the second indicates the great Chicago fire, the third marks the Columbian exposition of 1893, which was held to celebrate the 401 anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of an island in the Caribbean. The fourth was the Century of Progress fair of 1936. A fort, a fire, and two fairs. In the time since then, many have proposed a fifth star for the flag though none has been adopted. We imagine the fifth star to be that artistic or cultural of the breakthrough that seems within the grasp of the dynamic population of the city but remains unrealized, a quintessence, whose possibility is frequently foretold but remains elusive.
Twentieth-century Chicago is our signature series at Fifth Star press, featuring overlooked or forgotten classics from Chicago’s literary past. The first title in this series will be Diversey by Pulitzer-prize winner MacKinlay Kantor. The second will be a Henry Blake Fuller reader, featuring the writing, including some not previously published, by one of the most important Chicago writers of a century ago, edited by local historian Paul Durica.