"In 1893, in addition to everything else, the following events occur: on May 1 the American President Grover Cleveland opens in Chicago The World's Columbian Exposition; on June 20 the Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov starts for Chicago. The exposition is opened in front of a large crowd, with much noise and glamour. Newspapers all over the world write about it. Aleko Konstantinov was seen off at Sofia Railway Station by a couple of excited friends and one Bulgarian newspaper wrote about it. The two events seem incommensurable in importance. But there is one fact that can compare them and bring them closer. Konstantinov's travel gives birth to magnificent travel notes called ""To Chicago and Back."" This book is the English translation. This book turned his travel into a big event for Bulgarian culture."