Irish-American author James T. Farrell, best known for the Studs Lonigan trilogy, is being with honored with his own day in the City of Chicago.

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Farrell was the prolific writer of 50 works of fiction, criticism and memoirs that captured the spirit of the city's Irish neighborhoods early in the 19th century. Mayor Richard M. Daley proclaimed Dec. 18, 2004 as James T. Farrell Day. He was born Feb. 27, 1904.

Literary critics say Farrell's chronicles of life and love in Chicago's South Side Irish community were considered near scandalous when they were first published in the 1930s, but would seem tame by today's standards.

"There have been other novels set in Chicago, but none to my mind that deals with the city so vividly," social historian Ellen Skerrett, a member of the James T. Farrell Centenary Committee, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Chicago, for Farrell, starts right outside his door."

The committee is lobbying for a statue of Farrell in Washington Park.