The Man with the Golden Arm: 50th Anniversary Critical Edition

The Man with the Golden Arm, the classic American novel of the postwar period, is Nelson Algren's most powerful and enduring work. To celebrate this book's fiftieth anniversary, Seven Stories has released the first critical edition of an Algren work. With contributions by Algren biographer Bettina Drew, Algren scholar James R. Giles, Carlo Rotella, Lee Stringer, Studs Terkel, and Kurt Vonnegut, among others.

Nelson Algren was a writer, novelist, columnist, and educator. He was born Nelson Algren Abraham on March 28, 1909 in Detroit, Michigan. Algren graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism in 1931. After graduation, Algren worked as a door-to-door salesman and a migratory worker. He also worked for a venereal disease control unit of the Board of Health and with the WPA writers' project. Algren served as a medical corpsman in the U.S. Army during World War II. Later, he served as co-editor of the magazine The New Anvil. Algren taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and the University of Florida. He also wrote a regular column for the Chicago Free Press. Algren's first novel, Somebody in Boots, was published in 1935. His second novel, Never Come Morning, was published in 1942. The book was banned from the Chicago Public Library. Algren received a 1947 Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a grant from Chicago's Newberry Library. In 1949, Algren published The Man with the Golden Arm. The book won the National Book Award and was adapted as a film in 1956. Another book, A Walk on the Wild Side, was also adapted for film in 1962. Algren died in Sag Harbor, New York, on May 9, 1981.

The appeal of Kurt Vonnegut, especially to bright younger readers of the past few decades, may be attributed partly to the fact that he is one of the few writers who have successfully straddled the imaginary line between science-fiction/fantasy and "real literature." He was born in Indianapolis and attended Cornell University, but his college education was interrupted by World War II. Captured during the Battle of the Bulge and imprisoned in Dresden, he received a Purple Heart for what he calls a "ludicrously negligible wound." After the war he returned to Cornell and then earned his M.A. at the University of Chicago.He worked as a police reporter and in public relations before placing several short stories in the popular magazines and beginning his career as a novelist. His first novel, Player Piano (1952), is a highly credible account of a future mechanistic society in which people count for little and machines for much. The Sirens of Titan (1959), is the story of a playboy whisked off to Mars and outer space in order to learn some humbling lessons about Earth's modest function in the total scheme of things. Mother Night (1962) satirizes the Nazi mentality in its narrative about an American writer who broadcasts propaganda in Germany during the war as an Allied agent. Cat's Cradle (1963) makes use of some of Vonnegut's experiences in General Electric laboratories in its story about the discovery of a special kind of ice that destroys the world. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) satirizes a benevolent foundation set up to foster the salvation of the world through love, an endeavor with, of course, disastrous results. Slaughterhouse-Five; or The Children's Crusade (1969) is the book that marked a turning point in Vonnegut's career. Based on his experiences in Dresden, it is the story of another Vonnegut surrogate named Billy Pilgrim who travels back and forth in time and becomes a kind of modern-day Everyman. The novel was something of a cult book during the Vietnam era for its antiwar sentiments. Breakfast of Champions (1973), the story of a Pontiac dealer who goes crazy after reading a science fiction novel by "Kilgore Trout," received generally unfavorable reviews but was a commercial success. Slapstick (1976), dedicated to the memory of Laurel and Hardy, is the somewhat wacky memoir of a 100-year-old ex-president who thinks he can solve society's problems by giving everyone a new middle name. In addition to his fiction, Vonnegut has published nonfiction on social problems and other topics, some of which is collected in Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974).

Studs Terkel was an actor, writer, and radio host. He was born Louis Terkel on May 16, 1912 in New York City. He took his name from the James T. Farrell novel, Studs Lonigan. Terkel attended the University of Chicago and graduated with a law degree in 1934. Terkel acted in local stage productions and on radio dramas until he began one of the first television programs, an unscripted show called Studs Place in the early 1950s. In 1952, Terkel began Studs Terkel's Almanac on radio station WFMT in Chicago. Terkel compiled a series of books based on oral histories that defined America in the 20th Century. Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do received a National Book Award nomination in 1975. The Good War: An Oral History of World War II won the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction in 1985. Working was turned into a hit musical in 1978. Terkel was named the Communicator of the Year by the University of Chicago in 1969.