Farrell, James T.

Farrell, James T. (Thomas) (1904–79) writer; born in Chicago. He grew up in the Irish-Catholic milieu of Chicago, attended the University of Chicago, held a variety of jobs, visited Paris, and then settled in New York City (1931) where he became involved with left-wing politics. At the same time, he began writing naturalistic urban fiction, of which the Studs Lonigan Trilogy (1932–35) remains his best-known work; for almost two decades, by which time far more explicit works left it looking tame, it was considered almost raunchy. It was also seen as a radical indictment of American society. Farrell continued his critique in a steady stream of fiction—in all, 50 novels and 13 volumes of short stories—but he rejected Marxist communism by the 1950s and his reputation waned.