The Pit

The Chicago Board of Trade: a man corners the wheat market, and the market — the Pit — takes its time about him. Norris planned a trilogy tracing wheat from the California ranches to the world's tables and died at thirty-two with two volumes done; this second one is about the men who never see the grain, and the trading floor is written like weather. Fifty-eight plates of city snow, crowded crossings and women in bright dresses by Childe Hassam and George Bellows catch the same Chicago clamor of streets and weather that drives the novel.