Showing results for "Chicago" in Authors

As millions of radio listeners already know, no one has had a life quite like storyteller Daniel Pinkwater. In this comical collection of memories, Pinkwater tells of how he grew into the beloved figure he is today: a robust genius of the printed page and rotund genie of the radio. He shares a conversation with his father about art school that changed the course of his career, describes his inauguration as a sculptor in a sleazy Chicago art factory, and recounts setting off for a bright center of the American art scene— or at least as close as Hoboken, New Jersey.

A tireless champion of the downtrodden, Nelson Algren, one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century, lived an outsider's life himself. He spent a month in prison as a young man for the theft of a typewriter; his involvement in Marxist groups earned him a lengthy FBI dossier; and he spent much of his life palling around with the sorts of drug addicts, prostitutes, and poor laborers who inspired and populated his novels and short stories. Most today know Algren as the radical writer of The Man with the Golden Arm, but award-winning reporter Mary Wisniewski offers a deeper portrait.