Nelson Algren


(March 28, 1909-May 9, 1981)

Loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose. 

Algren won the first National Book Award in 1950 for The Man with the Golden Arm, a novel set on Chicago’s Northwest Side and, like much of his work, concerned with the city’s quasi-criminal underbelly. Algren lived much of his life in and around Chicago’s Polish Triangle and was remembered there with a fountain dedicated in his name and inscribed with a quote from one of his essays in Chicago: City on the Make. Though Algren’s reputation is built around a small output of novels, stories and essays, and though he was often ignored in mainstream literary circles, he was elected to the American Academy-Institute of Arts and Letters. There is an annual short story contest named in Algren’s memory, and the Nelson Algren committee sponsors an annual birthday party for him.

2010 Inductee: Named on 7 Ballot(s)

Nelson Algren At Amazon
Nelson Algren At Barnes and Noble
Nelson Algren At Borders

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obituary

Nelson Algren Papers at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library of the Ohio State University

The Nelson Algren Committee