Nelson Algren
Nelson Algren wrote about the criminal underclass of Chicago with ferocious sympathy and lyrical prose, earning him the first National Book Award for The Man with the Golden Arm. Simone de Beauvoir called him the greatest American writer.
Works
- The Man with the Golden ArmNovel of drug-addicted boxer and hustlers surviving Chicago's brutal underworld
- Never Come MorningNovel of Polish American boxer's rise and tragic fall in urban Chicago
- A Walk on the Wild SideNovel of female drifter's journey through New Orleans underworld and poverty
- The Neon WildernessCollection of linked stories depicting urban American outsiders and underworld characters
- Chicago: City on the MakePoetic essay portrait of Chicago's streets, hustlers, and working-class neighborhoods