- Original name:
- Nelson Ahlgren Abraham
- Born:
- March 28, 1909, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
- Died:
- May 9, 1981, Sag Harbor, New York (aged 72)
- Awards And Honors:
- National Book Award (1950)
Nelson Algren
-
Who was Nelson Algren?
Nelson Algren, born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1909, was an American writer known for his novels portraying the poor with pride, humor, and yearning. Growing up in Chicago, he worked his way through the University of Illinois and later adopted a simplified version of his Swedish grandfather's name.
Algren's works often captured the atmosphere of the city's underbelly. His notable works include Somebody in Boots, Never Come Morning, and The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the National Book Award for fiction. He had a 17-year transatlantic relationship with French writer Simone de Beauvoir, who dedicated her novel Les Mandarins to him. After 1959, Algren focused on journalism but continued to publish short stories. He died in 1981, shortly after being elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
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What kind of books did Nelson Algren write?
Nelson Algren was an American writer known for novels portraying the poor with a vision of their pride, humor, and yearnings. His works often captured the atmosphere of the city's underside.
Algren's books include:
* Somebody in Boots (1935), about a poor Texan drifting through the Depression
* Never Come Morning (1942), about a Polish petty criminal in Chicago
* The Neon Wilderness (1947), a collection of short stories
* The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), about a poker dealer struggling with drug addiction
* Chicago, City on the Make (1951), a prose poem
* A Walk on the Wild Side (1956), a novel set in Depression-era New Orleans
* Who Lost an American? (1963), a collection of sketches
* Notes from a Sea Diary: Hemingway All the Way (1965)
* The Devil’s Stocking (1983), published posthumously2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What is Nelson Algren best known for?
Nelson Algren, born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 28, 1909, was an American writer known for his novels portraying the lives of the poor, marked by pride, humor, and resilience. His works capture the atmosphere of the city's underbelly, with its vibrant sounds, foul smells, and glaring neon lights. Algren's notable works include The Man with the Golden Arm, which won a National Book Award in 1950. This novel tells the story of Frankie Machine, a poker dealer struggling with drug addiction. Another significant work is A Walk on the Wild Side, a picaresque novel set in 1930s New Orleans. Algren died on May 9, 1981, in Sag Harbor, New York.
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Where did Nelson Algren find inspiration for his stories?
Nelson Algren drew inspiration from his experiences and observations of the poor, capturing their pride, humor, and yearnings, as well as the atmosphere of the city's underbelly jukebox sounds, odors, and neon lights. His novels often depicted the lives of petty criminals and down-and-outs in urban environments like Chicago and New Orleans. Algren's time as a migratory worker in the South and Southwest, along with his work in Chicago, also influenced his writing.
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What was special about the characters in Algren's books?
Nelson Algren's novels are celebrated for portraying the poor with a vision of their pride, humor, and persistent yearnings, moving beyond routine naturalism. Algren captured the mood of the city's underside with poetic skill, depicting its pounding jukeboxes, stench, and neon glare. His characters include petty criminals, drug-addicted poker dealers, and Depression-era drifters involved with prostitutes and con men. Algren's tough-guy style and black humor paint an erotic epic of bohemianism.
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How did Nelson Algren influence American literature?
Nelson Algren significantly impacted American literature through his gritty portrayal of the marginalized. His works, such as The Man with the Golden Arm, lifted the lives of the poor from routine naturalism, highlighting their pride, humor, and yearnings. Algren captured the mood of the city's underside with poetic skill, describing its pounding jukeboxes, stench, and neon glare. His work A Walk on the Wild Side has been called an erotic epic of bohemianism. Algren's unflinching look at lower-class urban life influenced writers exploring similar themes.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Nelson Algren (born March 28, 1909, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.—died May 9, 1981, Sag Harbor, New York) was an American writer whose novels of the poor are lifted from routine naturalism by his vision of their pride, humour, and unquenchable yearnings. He also caught with poetic skill the mood of the city’s underside: its jukebox pounding, stench, and neon glare.
The son of a machinist, Algren grew up in Chicago, where his parents moved when he was three years old. He worked his way through the University of Illinois, graduating in journalism in the depth of the Great Depression. Sometime after graduating, he adopted a simplified spelling of the original name, Ahlgren, of his Swedish grandfather, who had converted to Judaism and taken the name Abraham. He went on the road as a door-to-door salesman and migratory worker in the South and Southwest, then returned to Chicago, where he was employed briefly by a WPA (Works Progress Administration) writers’ project and a venereal-disease control unit of the Board of Health. In this period, too, he edited with the proletarian novelist Jack Conroy the New Anvil, a magazine dedicated to the publication of experimental and leftist writing.
Algren’s first novel, Somebody in Boots (1935), relates the driftings during the Depression of a young, poor, white Texan who ends up among the down-and-outs of Chicago. Never Come Morning (1942) tells of a Polish petty criminal who dreams of escaping from his squalid Northwest Side Chicago environment by becoming a prizefighter. Before the appearance of Algren’s next book—the short-story collection The Neon Wilderness (1947), which contains some of his best writing—he served as a U.S. Army medical corpsman during World War II.
In 1947 Algren met the French writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir. The two began a transatlantic relationship that lasted 17 years. De Beauvoir dedicated her novel Les Mandarins (1954; The Mandarins) to him, limning him in the character Lewis Brogan.
Algren’s first popular success was The Man with the Golden Arm (1949; filmed 1956), which won the first National Book Award for fiction. Its hero is Frankie Machine, whose golden arm as a poker dealer is threatened by shakiness connected with his drug addiction. In A Walk on the Wild Side (1956; filmed 1962) Algren returned to the 1930s in a picaresque novel of New Orleans bohemian life. After 1959 he abandoned the writing of novels (though he continued to publish short stories) and considered himself a journalist. His last novel, The Devil’s Stocking, which he completed in 1979, was rejected by many publishers but was published posthumously in 1983.
Algren’s nonfiction included the prose poem Chicago, City on the Make (1951) and sketches collected as Who Lost an American? (1963) and Notes from a Sea Diary: Hemingway All the Way (1965). Algren was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters three months before he died.