said that in 1880, Aaron Montgomery Ward initially wrote all catalog copy. When the business grew and department heads wrote merchandise descriptions, he still went over every line of copy to be certain that it was accurate. The following year, both of Ward's partners left him, but he hung on. Later, George Robinson Thorne, his future brother-in-law, joined him in his business. This was the turning point for the young company, which grew and prospered. Soon the catalog, frequently reviled and even burned publicly by rural retailers, became known fondly as the "Wish Book." It was a favorite in households all across America. Ward's catalog soon was copied by other enterprising merchants, most notably Richard Warren Sears, who mailed his first general catalog in 1896. Others entered the field, and by 1971 catalog sales of major U.S. firms exceeded $250 million in postal revenue. Although the Sears Tower in Chicago is famous for once being the United States' tallest building, Montgomery Ward's headquarters once held that distinction. The Montgomery Ward Tower, on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street in Chicago, reigned as a major tourist attraction in the early-1900s. Public life: the fight for Grant Park In civic life in Chicago, Ward fought for the poor people's access to Chicago's lakefront. In 1906 he campaigned to preserve Grant Park as a public park. Grant Park has been protected since 1836 by "forever open, clear and free" legislation that has been affirmed by four Illinois Supreme Court rulings. Ward twice sued the city of Chicago to force it to remove buildings and structures from Grant Park and to keep it from building new ones. Ward is known by some as the "watch dog of the lake front" for his preservationist efforts. As a result, the city has what are termed the Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park. However, Crown Fountain and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion were exempt from the height restriction because they were classified as works of art and not buildings or structures. Daniel Burnham's famous 1909 Burnham Plan eventually preserved Grant Park and the entire Chicago lakefront. Legacy Montgomery Ward died in 1913, aged 70. His wife Elizabeth bequeathed a large portion of the estate to Northwestern University and other educational institutions. The Montgomery Ward catalog's place in history was acknowledged when the Grolier Club, a society of bibliophiles in New York,