A Walk on the Wild Side

For other uses, see Walk on the Wild Side (disambiguation).
A Walk on the Wild Side
First edition cover
AuthorNelson Algren
LanguageEnglish
PublisherFarrar, Straus and Cudahy
Publication date
1956
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages346 pp. (paperback edition)
OCLC62225900

A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, also adapted into the 1962 film of the same name. Set in Depression era, it is "the tragi-comedy of Dove Linkhorn",[1] a naive Texan drifting from his hometown to New Orleans.

Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind."[2]

It is most often quoted for Algren's "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Flanagan2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Macmillan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Nelson Algren, A Walk on the Wild Side, Chapter 3, said in jail by "an old-timer named Cross-Country Kline" to protagonist Dove Linkhorn.