Nelson Algren

Nelson Algren
Algren in 1956
Algren in 1956
BornNelson Ahlgren Abraham
(1909-03-28)March 28, 1909
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
DiedMay 9, 1981(1981-05-09) (aged 72)
Long Island, New York, U.S.
OccupationWriter
EducationUniversity of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign (BA)
GenreNovel, short story
Notable awardsNational Book Award
1950
Spouse
  • Amanda Kontowicz
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1937; div. 1946)​
    [1]
  • Betty Ann Jones
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1965; div. 1967)​
PartnerSimone de Beauvoir (1947–1964)

Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award[2] and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name.

Algren articulated the world of "drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums".[citation needed] Art Shay singled out a poem Algren wrote from the perspective of a "halfy," street slang for a legless man on wheels.[3] Shay said that Algren considered this poem to be a key to everything he had ever written.[3] The protagonist talks about "how forty wheels rolled over his legs and how he was ready to strap up and give death a wrestle."[3]

According to Harold Augenbraum, "in the late 1940s and early 1950s he was one of the best known literary writers in America."[4] The lover of French writer Simone de Beauvoir,[4] he is featured in her novel The Mandarins,[4] set in Paris and Chicago. He was called "a sort of bard of the down-and-outer"[4] based on this book, but also on his short stories in The Neon Wilderness (1947) and his novel A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). The latter was adapted as the 1962 film of the same name (directed by Edward Dmytryk, screenplay by John Fante).

  1. ^ Prof. Brooke Horvath, PhD (2005). Understanding Nelson Algren. Univ. of South Carolina Press. ISBN 9781570035746.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference nba1950 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference ShayP118 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d "1950". Harold Augenbraum and Rachel Kushner. 60 Years of Honoring Great American Books (book-a-day blog), June 18, 2009. National Book Foundation. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
    Augenbraum was the executive director of the National Book Foundation, marking the 60-year anniversary of the National Book Award for Fiction, as resumed after the war. Algren won the first one.