Nonconformity [Hardcover]

Nelson Algren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996

The winner of the first National Book Award for The Man with the Golden Arm and author of Walk on the Wild Side discusses writing and the writer in relation to society. IP.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

During the McCarthy era, writer Nelson Algren was fingered as a Communist. The author of hugely successful novels including The Man with the Golden Arm and A Walk on the Wild Side, Algren lost a contract with his publisher, Doubleday, for a book of essays. The manuscript for those essays had been missing for nearly four decades. But publisher Daniel Simon has resurrected the work, a collection of diatribes and rants on the life and philosophy of the modern writer. The book reflects the depth of Algren's sensitivity, which was at odds with the tough-guy image he tried to present.

From Publishers Weekly

In works like The Man with the Golden Arm, Algren (1909-1981) looked at the rough-and-tumble lives of petty criminals and drug addicts, writing with a tough compassion without romanticizing his subject matter. These same characteristics inform this odd and passionate manifesto, which he wrote in the early 1950s but which is seeing publication for the first time now, edited by Simon, the publisher of Seven Stories. While in part a look at the writing life and American literature, the book's central obsession is with the political pressures put on artists during the '50s and the larger pressures toward conformity Algren saw in American life. While at times rambling and at other times dated, the depth of feeling running beneath Algren's words is palpable, and his demand that American artists fully engage with their culture remains relevant. Anyone seeking to understand how the McCarthy era affected the inner lives of artists will find much material here. FBI informants who denounced Algren to his then-publisher Doubleday helped prevent this book from being published at the time it was written. Readers will find much that bears thought in this wise, courageous and humane book.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Pr (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568580150
• ISBN-13: 978-1568580159
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,085,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A meaningful YAWP, August 27, 2009

By 

Sean Hoade (Las Vegas, Nevada USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Nonconformity: Writing on Writing (Paperback)

Nelson Algren was one of a kind... or was he? In this wonderful volume, we see that Algren suffered with those who suffered for their individuality and seethed at those who would smother it in any of us, artists or not. This is a very quick read, and has been edited (which I know thanks for an amazing Afterword) for perfect clarity. He wrote this in the '50s, and so some of his references are unfamiliar -- but HA! No problem, because the editors have made extensive footnotes about these references, footnotes which are interesting reading in their own right. If you care about American literature, politics, or freedom, reading this book will help you see you're the latest in a long line of brilliantly similar-minded people.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance Cooked To Critical Mass, March 1, 2000

By 

Caverly E. Stringer (Mamaroneck, NY (You asked!)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nonconformity: Writing on Writing (Hardcover)

This book stalks sure footed through the dense thicket of modern American literature, with The Novel and Nelson Algren firmly at its center. It is at once entirely personal and, sonehow, universal at the same time. What it has to say about about writing evokes the kindred spirit shared by all great writiers, vastlty differing though thier style and temperments might be. Each exquisitely realized chapter is peppered with excerpts of their prose in such a way that it fairly leaps off the page, providing a critical mass of context and vibrancy to the very difficult subject of what it is that writers do and do best. Get it. Read it. Love it. I certainly did.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliance Cooked To Critical Mass, March 1, 2000

By 

Caverly E. Stringer (Mamaroneck, NY (You asked!)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nonconformity: Writing on Writing (Hardcover)

This book stalks sure footed through the dense thicket of modern American literature, with The Novel and Nelson Algren firmly at its center. It is at once entirely personal and, sonehow, universal at the same time. What it has to say about about writing evokes the kindred spirit shared by all great writiers, vastlty differing though thier style and temperments might be. Each exquisitely realized chapter is peppered with excerpts of their prose in such a way that it fairly leaps off the page, providing a critical mass of context and vibrancy to the very difficult subject of what it is that writers do and do best. Get it. Read it. Love it. I certainly did.