Nathanael west biography

In , poet Hayden Carruth wrote, “Nathanael West, who died almost unknown in , is recognized today as one of the most significant American writers of his time.” Here is Carruth’s capsule biography of West:

Born 17th October, , New York City, the son of Max (a successful building contractor) and Anna Weinstein. Early schooling at Manhattan public schools: P.S. S1, P.S. 10 and the De Witt Clinton High School.



Entered Tufts College in autumn, , but withdrew after two months and transferred to Brown University in February, Graduated in Special friends at college included S. J. Perelman (who later married his sister, Laura), Quentin Reynolds, Frank O. Hough; various undergraduate literary projects, including (probably) early sketches for Balso Snell, helped to sharpen West’s la

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Nathanael West: A Novelist Apart

Books

Few American authors of our time have had such critical acclaim and so little popular success as Nathanael West. Now ten years after his death in an automobile accident, the curious, original vitality of two of his books, Miss Lonelyhearts andThe Day of the Locust, is still making itself felt. The latter title, described by some critics as the best novel to come out of Hollywood. has just been reissued in the New Classics Series by the New Directions Press. RICHARD B. GERMAN has drawn from his Introduction the following account of west and his work.

By Richard B. Gehman

by RICHARD B. GERMAN

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NATHANAEL WEST, who died in at the age of thirty-six, published four curious, highly original novels during the thirties, of which the second, Miss Lonelyhearts, and the fourth, The Day of the Locust (both in the New Directions New Classics series), are generally considered the most likely to survive. The others, The

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Nathanael West

Nathanael West was born Nathan Wallenstein Weinstein, on October 17, , in New York City. After dropping out of high school, West gained admission into Tufts University bygd forging his high school transcript. After being expelled from Tufts, West got into Brown University bygd appropriating the transcript of a fellow Tufts lärling who was also named Nathan Weinstein. While at Brown, West became increasingly interested in unusual literary style and the writings of French surrealists and British and Irish poets.

Following graduation, he went to Paris for three months, and it was at this point that he changed his name to Nathanael West. Shortly thereafter he returned home to work in construction for his father as well as a night manager of the Kenmore Hotel in Manhattan. He also worked a short while for the magazine Contact with William Carlos Williams. Though West had been working on his writing since college, it was not until his quiet night job at the hotel that he f