Edward Gay Mason was a member of The Chicago Literary Club from 1874, the year in which the Club was founded, until his death in 1898. He was one five sons of Roswell B. Mason (Mayor of Chicago at the time of the Great Fire of 1871) four of whom were members of the Club. Edward was editor of the Yale Quarterly before he graduated from Yale in 1860 and later became a member of the Yale Corporation. A lawyer practicing in Chicago, he was in England on business when the Fire consumed his office and its contents. Edward was President of the Chicago Historical Society and was instrumental in that organization's erecting its large stone building on Dearborn Street. He published articles on Illinois history and was working on a book on the subject when he died. He left enough material for an eight-volume work which was published in 1901 by Herbert S. Stone & Company, Chicago, 1901, as Chapters from Illinois History. Edward was the President of the Club for the 1878-79 season. He delivered ten papers, three of which dealt with the history of Illinois: "Old Fort Chartres," "The March of the Spaniards across Illinois," and "A Chapter from a History of Illinois."

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