Nonconformity

In this major, posthumous work, the winner of the First National Book Award presents an illuminating, highly quotable essay on the craft of writing, the art of literature, and the relationship of the writer to society. Written in the early 1950s, this eagerly-sought project was suddenly canceled when Algren was denounced as a former Communist.

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.