Man with the Golden Arm: 50th Anniversary Critical Edition » (50TH ANNIVERSARY)

Nelson Algren (1909-1981) wrote of the despised urban underbelly of America before it was fashionable to do so, and still stands as one of our most defiant and enduring novelists. His novels include The Man with the Golden Arm, winner of the first National Book Award, A Walk on the Wild Side, and Never Come Morning.

A novel of rare genius, The Man with the Golden Arm has been called "Algren's most satisfying work." It describes the dissolution of a card-dealing WWII veteran named Frankie Machine, caught in the act of slowly cutting his own heart into water-thin slices. For Frankie, a murder committed may be the least of his problems." "In this first critical edition of an Algren work, Algren's novel is joined by reminiscences from John Clellon Holmes, Mike Royko, Studs Terkel, and Kurt Vonnegut, among others; rare photos by Art Shay; a previously unpublished letter by Algren on the novel's genesis; and an array of critical views, both contemporary and historical.

Times Literary Supplement - Newton

This fiftieth-anniversary critical edition of Man with the Golden Arm shows Algren at his very finest. The edition closes with over a hundred pages of reminiscences, letters, early press reviews and recent scholarly essays. If you are to judge a man by his friends, then we should rate Algren high indeed: Studs Terkel, Kurt Vonnegut, even Lou Reed wanted to include a testimonial...The Man with the Golden Arm is a great book...No reader with an interest in American literature, or in the sufferings of ordinary people, can afford to ignore it.