Nelson Algren

Nelson Algren was born in 1909 in Detroit and lived almost his entire life in Chicago. He wrote nine novels, among the best known The Man with the Golden Arm (the first American National Book Award), Never Come Morning and Lost LivesFurthermore, Algren was also a prolific author of short stories, essays, travel books, and poems. His life was a succession of problems with gambling, disastrous marriages, and intense extremes that took him from Texas prisons and soup kitchens to Hollywood literary parties and celebrations. Nelson Algren also had a long and passionate love affair with the feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir. Nelson Algren died in 1981, shortly after being named a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.