Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren

"Who now reads Cowley?" Alexander Pope asked in 1737, referring to the English metaphysical poet. Who now reads Algren? Yet during his lifetime, Nelson Algren (1909-81) was a critically acclaimed and popular writer, having won the first National Book Award (1950) for The Man with the Golden Arm; the Award of Merit for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1974), to which he was elected; published New York Times best sellers that were made into movies; and who was praised by figures such as Ernest Hemingway and Richard Wright. In this new biography, Asher (writing, Kingsborough Community Coll., CUNY) draws on Algren's extensive FBI file (Algren joined the Communist Party in the 1930s and later protested the Vietnam War), interviews, archives, and private communications to present an accurate portrait of the author. Asher concedes the preciseness of his subject's experience is difficult because Algren fictionalized much of his life in encounters with the press, including Conversations with Nelson Algren (1964), on which other biographers have relied.