The Neon Wilderness
First edition
AuthorNelson Algren
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort stories: tragi-comedy, satire
PublisherDoubleday & Co.
Publication date
1947
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages286 (1st ed.)
OCLC1117160
813.52

The Neon Wilderness (1947) is the first short-story collection by American writer Nelson Algren. Two of its stories[1] had received an O. Henry Award. Algren received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters[2] the same year.

Overview

The book collects 24 stories: 8 previously published (from 1933 to 1947)[3][4] and 16 new. Most of them are set in then-contemporary Chicago (1930s and 1940s), in the so-called "Polish-American ghetto". They revolve around the lower classes: workers and unemployed, drunkards and gamblers, prostitutes and hustlers, small-businessmen and policemen. Unlike Dickens or Zola, their general tone is tragi-comedy or sympathetic satire.

Two stories had received an O. Henry Award (and been reprinted in the related annual volume): Algren's second-published story "The Brothers' House"[1] (1935 award) and "A Bottle of Milk for Mother (Biceps)"[1] (1941 award). Two had been selected for The Best American Short Stories: "A Bottle of Milk for Mother"[4] (as "Biceps",[5] 1942 volume) and "How the Devil Came Down Division Street"[4] (1945 volume). The year the collection was released, Algren received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a grant from Chicago's Newberry Library.[2]

Contents

The collection contains the following 24 stories (with first appearance for the 8 previously published).

  1. "The Captain Has Bad Dreams"
  2. "How the Devil Came Down Division Street" (1944, Harper's Bazaar)[6]
  3. "Is Your Name Joe?"
  4. "Depend on Aunt Elly"
  5. "Stickman's Laughter" (1942, The Southern Review)[4]
  6. "A Bottle of Milk for Mother" (1941, as "Biceps",[5] The Southern Review)[4]
  7. "He Couldn't Boogie-Woogie Worth a Damn"
  8. "A Lot You Got to Holler"
  9. "Poor Man's Pennies"
  10. "The Face on the Barroom Floor" (1947,[n. 1] The American Mercury)[4]
  11. "The Brothers' House" (1934, Story magazine)[4]
  12. "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone"
  13. "He Swung and He Missed" (1942, The American Mercury)[4]
  14. "El Presidente de Méjico"
  15. "Kingdom City to Cairo"
  16. "That's the Way It's Always Been"
  17. "The Children" (1943, The American Mercury)[4]
  18. "Million-Dollar Brainstorm"
  19. "Pero Vencermos"
  20. "No Man's Laughter"
  21. "Katz"
  22. "Design for Departure"
  23. "The Heroes"
  24. "So Help Me" (1933, Story magazine)[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ That first appearance was as "The Face on the Barroom Floor, or Too Much Salt on the Pretzels". (See Contento reference.)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Random House, "O. Henry Award Winners 1919–1999", Bold Type (via Archive.org)
  2. 1 2 Google Books, The Neon Wilderness: "Algren received a 1947 Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a grant from Chicago's Newberry Library."
  3. ↑ Brooke Horvath, Understanding Nelson Algren, University of South Carolina Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-57003-574-6, p. 167.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Chicago Public Library, "The Nelson Algren Collection" (1933–1999), Special Collections, 2005 — Partial bibliography with editions and printings, first appearances and reprintings, reviews and notices, etc.
  5. 1 2 WorldCat, "A bottle of milk for mother" (1941): "From the Southern Review under the title of 'Biceps'. In O. Henry memorial award prize stories of 1941."
  6. ↑ William G. Contento, "Stories: Algren, Nelson", in "Miscellaneous Anthologies Index" ("updated March 17, 2015"), Homeville: Bibliographic Resources (at Phil Stephensen-Payne's Galactic Central)
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