Title: Sweepings
Description: Sweepings, a family saga about a Chicago department store founder and his disappointing children, was a best-seller, and was twice made into movies (Sweepings, 1933, and Three Sons, 1939.) 

Its author became a Hollywood screenwriter in the process.  (The 1933 film starred Lionel Barrymore, playing the entrepreneur from his twenties to old age.)
Subjects: families, business
Places: Chicago