Algren, Nelson (ôl`grən), 1909–81, American novelist, b. Detroit. He grew up in Chicago, and much of his fiction is set in the slums. His novels, such as Never Come Morning (1942), The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), and A Walk on the Wild Side (1956), are brutally realistic. In a lighter vein are the personal sketches collected in Who Lost an American (1963), Notes from a Sea Diary (1965), and The Last Carousel (1973).

Algren, Nelson

orig. Nelson Ahlgren Abraham

(born March 28, 1909, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—died May 9, 1981, Sag Harbor, N.Y.) U.S. writer. The son of a machinist, Algren grew up in Chicago and worked his way through the University of Illinois during the Great Depression. His novels of the poor skillfully capture the mood of the city's underside and are lifted from routine naturalism by his vision of his characters' pride, humour, and unquenchable yearnings. Among his popular successes were The Man with the Golden Arm (1949; film, 1956) and A Walk on the Wild Side (1956; film, 1962). He also published an admired short-story collection, The Neon Wilderness (1947).

Algren, Nelson (b. Nelson Ahlgren Abraham) (1909–81) writer; born in Detroit, Mich. He trained as a journalist after a childhood in the Chicago slums. After working at a variety of jobs during the Depression, he settled in Chicago and became a leading exponent of the Chicago school of realism; his five streetwise novels include The Man With the Golden Arm (1949, National Book Award) and A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). After 1956 he wrote mostly stories and essays, producing only one novel (1981). In later years he became known for having had an affair with the French intellectual/writer, Simone de Beauvoir.