Before you leave...
Take 20% off your first order
20% off
Enter the code below at checkout to get 20% off your first order
Algren: A Life (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781613735329)
Vendor:
Mary Wisniewski
Product type:
Books
- $30.00
$30.00- $30.00
- Unit price
- per
Subtotal:
$30.00
Description
xChicago Writers Association Nonfiction Book of the Year (2017)
Society of Midland Authors Literary Award in Biography (2017) A tireless champion of the downtrodden, Nelson Algren, one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century, lived an outsider's life himself. He spent a month in prison as a young man for the theft of a typewriter; his involvement in Marxist groups earned him a lengthy FBI dossier; and he spent much of his life palling around with the sorts of drug addicts, prostitutes, and poor laborers who inspired and populated his novels and short stories. Most today know Algren as the radical, womanizing writer of The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first National Book Award, in 1950, but award-winning reporter Mary Wisniewski offers a deeper portrait. Starting with his childhood in the City of Big Shoulders, Algren sheds new light on the writer's most momentous periods, from his on-again-off-again work for the WPA to his stint as an uninspired soldier in World War II to his long-distance affair with his most famous lover, Simone de Beauvoir, to the sense of community and acceptance Algren found in the artist colony of Sag Harbor before his death in 1981. Wisniewski interviewed dozens of Algren's closest friends and inner circle, including photographer Art Shay and author and historian Studs Terkel, and tracked down much of his unpublished writing and correspondence. She unearths new details about the writer's life, work, personality, and habits and reveals a funny, sensitive, and romantic but sometimes exasperating, insecure, and self-destructive artist. biography The first new biography of Algren in over 25 years, this fresh look at the man whose unique style and compassionate message enchanted readers and fellow writers and whose boyish charm seduced many women is indispensable to anyone interested in 20-century American literature and history.
Author: Mary Wisniewski
ISBN-10: 1613735324
ISBN-13: 9781613735329
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2016
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.50lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.40w x 1.40d
Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2016
Publishers Weekly 09/12/2016
Library Journal 10/01/2016 pg. 78
Booklist 10/01/2016 pg. 9
Choice 07/01/2017
Society of Midland Authors Literary Award in Biography (2017) A tireless champion of the downtrodden, Nelson Algren, one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century, lived an outsider's life himself. He spent a month in prison as a young man for the theft of a typewriter; his involvement in Marxist groups earned him a lengthy FBI dossier; and he spent much of his life palling around with the sorts of drug addicts, prostitutes, and poor laborers who inspired and populated his novels and short stories. Most today know Algren as the radical, womanizing writer of The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first National Book Award, in 1950, but award-winning reporter Mary Wisniewski offers a deeper portrait. Starting with his childhood in the City of Big Shoulders, Algren sheds new light on the writer's most momentous periods, from his on-again-off-again work for the WPA to his stint as an uninspired soldier in World War II to his long-distance affair with his most famous lover, Simone de Beauvoir, to the sense of community and acceptance Algren found in the artist colony of Sag Harbor before his death in 1981. Wisniewski interviewed dozens of Algren's closest friends and inner circle, including photographer Art Shay and author and historian Studs Terkel, and tracked down much of his unpublished writing and correspondence. She unearths new details about the writer's life, work, personality, and habits and reveals a funny, sensitive, and romantic but sometimes exasperating, insecure, and self-destructive artist. biography The first new biography of Algren in over 25 years, this fresh look at the man whose unique style and compassionate message enchanted readers and fellow writers and whose boyish charm seduced many women is indispensable to anyone interested in 20-century American literature and history.
Author: Mary Wisniewski
ISBN-10: 1613735324
ISBN-13: 9781613735329
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2016
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.50lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.40w x 1.40d
Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2016
Publishers Weekly 09/12/2016
Library Journal 10/01/2016 pg. 78
Booklist 10/01/2016 pg. 9
Choice 07/01/2017
By Mary Wisniewski
xMary Wisniewski is a reporter at the Chicago Tribune and former Reuters investigative reporter covering Midwest crime and politics. Previously a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and a reporter for Chicago Lawyer, Wisniewski has won numerous awards for reporting and has taught creative writing and published literary reviews. She is an active participant in the Nelson Algren Committee, past president of the Chicago Headline Club, and appears frequently on local television and radio.
Recently Viewed Products
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.