Nelson Algren: His Life, Work and Colleagues

In his introduction, Richard Bales explains that this book is not intended to duplicate the work of the three “full-length” biographies of Algren by Bettine Drew, Mary Wisniewski, and Colin Asher. Instead, the purpose of these sixteen essays is to “fill in the gaps” of the previous works, and in so doing, Bales creates an interesting book with chronologically arranged chapters of text, photographs, quotations, and beautiful line drawings by artist Marshall Philyaw. But, unlike conventional biographies, the footnotes follow each individual chapter, rather than being grouped together at the end of the book. The work is partly a valuable research tool, partly a literary history, and partly a biography; the pages of footnotes alone account for fully one-third of the whole book. Bales keeps his focus on Nelson Algren himself, whose fascinating career keeps the book coherent and readable, thus avoiding the effect of bits and pieces.Perhaps the best chapter in the book details the “transatlantic love affair” between Algren and the famous French philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir, who had been involved with the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre since 1929. Her relationship with Algren lasted from 1947 to 1964, necessitating frequent flights across the Atlantic for both Algren and Beauvoir. For a time, they would rendezvous in the little cottage Algren had purchased at Miller Beach in northern Indiana on the shore of Lake Michigan, where she visited him in 1950 and 1951. Algren sold the cottage in 1957, but their relationship continued. They still visited one another, and he often wrote her letters and poems. Algren's sense of frustration grew stronger and stronger as it became obvious that Beauvoir had no desire to sever her connection with Sartre. It all came to an end in 1964, but Bales emphasizes the importance of her place in Algren's life by reproducing a 1954 photograph of her in Paris with pen in hand, and a photograph of Sartre and Beauvoir on a Parisian balcony in 1965. Bales also includes an earlier photo of the Miller Beach cottage taken in 1950, as well as a lovely drawing by Philyaw depicting the two lovers strolling along the beach. When their passion was ending, Algren wrote to Beauvoir that her “life belonged to Paris and to Sartre.”In 1948, just before the publication of Algren's most famous novel, The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), he described Chicago as a city of “whores, thieves, junkies” as if to underscore his fascination with the rough edges of society. Bales notes that Algren often writes about “the voiceless and the downtrodden,” and he does so with a candor that sometimes caused his early work to be censored. “Thundermug,” a chapter from his early novel Somebody in Boots was edited by the Windsor Quarterly (1935), and certain sexual references in that novel were later removed in the Vanguard Press edition.Algren could fairly be described as a true man of letters. During his lifetime he published novels, poetry, essays, and short stories. He worked as an editor and writer for the Federal Writers’ Project, which published his Galena Guide in 1936. He was invited to teach at two of the most prestigious writing workshops in the country, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (1963) and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (1965). His Chicago: A City on the Make (1951) has been reissued six times. The third edition (1968) is famous for its dedication to singer and activist Joan Baez. Perhaps his most overlooked achievement is the New Anvil (1939), a literary magazine he cofounded with his friend Jack Conroy. Even though only seven issues were actually printed, Bales contends the New Anvil was on a par with publications like Poetry: A Magazine of Verse and Partisan Review. And Bales justly regrets that Algren is not quite yet in the “Canon of Twentieth-Century American literature,” an oversight that this book might very well correct.