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70-618: FWP employed thousands of people and produced hundreds of publications, including state guides, city guides, local histories, oral histories, ethnographies , and children's books. In addition to writers, the project provided jobs to unemployed librarians, clerks, researchers, editors, and historians. Funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 , FWP was established July 27, 1935, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt . Henry Alsberg ,

140-493: A July 8, 1942, letter to his publisher Maxwell Perkins , said of the novel: "I think it very, very good. It is as fine and good stuff to come out of Chicago." The novel offended members of Chicago's large Polish-American community, some of whose members denounced it as pro- Axis propaganda. Not knowing that Algren was of partly Jewish descent, some incensed Polish-American Chicagoans said he was pro- Nazi Nordic. His Polish-American critics persuaded Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly to ban

210-463: A Nazi-financed plot, and said the novel proved a deep desire to harm ethnic Poles on Algren's part. The Polish American Council sent a copy of a resolution condemning the novel to the FBI. Algren and his publisher defended against these accusations, with the author telling a library meeting that the book was about the effects of poverty, regardless of national background. The mayor had the novel removed from

280-553: A bitter Algren wrote of Beauvoir and Sartre in a Playboy magazine article about a trip he took to North Africa with Beauvoir, that she and Sartre were bigger users of others than a prostitute and her pimp in their way. Algren's next novel, The Man with the Golden Arm (1949), would become his best known work. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1950. The protagonist of the book, Frankie Machine,

350-663: A documentary about FWP, Soul of a People: Writing America's Story , premiered on the Smithsonian Channel . It was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities .The film includes interviews with American authors Studs Terkel and Stetson Kennedy , and American historian Douglas Brinkley . A companion book was published by Wiley & Sons as Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America . The Slave Narrative Collection

420-612: A grant from Chicago's Newberry Library . It was in that same year that Algren had an affair with Simone de Beauvoir . Mary Guggenheim, who had been Algren's lover, recommended De Beauvoir visit Algren in Chicago. The couple would summer together in Algren's cottage in the lake front community of Miller Beach , Indiana, and also travel to Latin America together in 1949. In her novel The Mandarins (1954), Beauvoir wrote of Algren (who

490-659: A great short story writer. Algren had another commercial success with the novel A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). He reworked some of the material from his first novel, Somebody in Boots , as well as picking up elements from several published short stories, such as his 1947 "The Face on the Barroom Floor". The novel was about a wandering Texan adrift during the early years of the Great Depression . He said it

560-484: A heart attack at home on May 9, 1981. He is buried in Oakland Cemetery, Sag Harbor , Long Island . After Algren died, it was discovered that the article about Hurricane Carter had grown into a novel, The Devil's Stocking , which was published posthumously in 1983. In September 1996, the book Nonconformity was published by Seven Stories Press , presenting Algren's view of the difficulties surrounding

630-479: A key to everything he had ever written. The protagonist talks about "how forty wheels rolled over his legs and how he was ready to strap up and give death a wrestle." According to Harold Augenbraum , "in the late 1940s and early 1950s he was one of the best known literary writers in America." The lover of French writer Simone de Beauvoir , he is featured in her novel The Mandarins , set in Paris and Chicago. He

700-516: A lawyer, journalist, playwright, theatrical producer, and human-rights activist, directed the program from 1935 to 1939. In 1939, Alsberg was fired, federal funding was cut, and the project fell under state sponsorship led by John D. Newsom. FWP ended completely in 1943 after the US entered World War II and funds were diverted to the war effort. An estimated 10,000 people found employment in the FWP. The project

770-473: A major collection of previously unpublished writings that included two early short stories, "Forgive Them, Lord," and "The Lightless Room," and the long unfinished novel fragment referenced in the book's title. In 2019, Blackstone Audio released the complete library of Algren's books as audiobooks. And in 2020 Olive Films released Nelson Algren Live , a performance film of Algren's life and work starring Willem Dafoe and Barry Gifford , among others, produced by

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840-430: A party celebrating the publication of Somebody in Boots . They eventually would divorce and remarry before divorcing a second and final time. His second novel, Never Come Morning (1942), was described by Andrew O'Hagan in 2019 as "the book that really shows the Algren style in its first great flourishing." It portrays the dead-end life of a doomed young Polish-American boxer turned criminal. Ernest Hemingway , in

910-540: A short time to learn to live together in peace. You must live in peace" – here he paused to gain everybody's attention – "you must live in peace or leave the galaxy!" Algren won his first O. Henry Award for his short story "The Brother's House" (published in Story Magazine ) in 1935. His short stories "A Bottle of Milk for Mother (Biceps)" (published in the Southern Review ) and "The Captain

980-499: Is 'Lewis Brogan' in the book): At first I found it amusing meeting in the flesh that classic American species: self-made leftist writer. Now, I began taking an interest in Brogan. Through his stories, you got the feeling that he claimed no rights to life and that nevertheless he had always had a passionate desire to live. I liked that mixture of modesty and eagerness. Algren and Beauvoir eventually became disenchanted with each other, and

1050-481: Is Impaled" ( Harper's Magazine ) were O. Henry Award winners in 1941 and 1950, respectively. None of the stories won the first, second or third place awards but were included in the annual collection of O. Henry Award stories. The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1950. In 1947 Algren won an Arts and Letters Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters,

1120-475: Is an aspiring drummer who is a dealer in illicit card games. Frankie is trapped in demimonde Chicago, having picked up a morphine habit during his brief military service during World War II . He is married to a woman whom he mistakenly believes became crippled in a car accident he caused. Algren's next book, Chicago: City on the Make (1951), was a scathing essay that outraged the city's boosters but portrayed

1190-578: The Chicago Public Library system, and it apparently remained absent for at least 20 years. At least two later efforts to commemorate Algren in Polish Downtown echoed the attacks on the novels. Shortly after his death in 1981, his last Chicago residence at 1958 West Evergreen Street was noted by Chicago journalist Mike Royko . The walk-up apartment just east of Damen Avenue in the former Polish Downtown neighborhood of West Town

1260-671: The Federal Theatre Project , faced tremendous scrutiny from the committee. The Dies HUAC committee, like the McCarthy committee of the 1950s, "used inquisitorial scare tactics, innuendo, and unsupported accusations." Alsberg, Flanagan, and others who were accused of supporting the communist agenda could not "examine evidence against them, could not produce their own witnesses, could not cross-examine accusers." Accusations that communist activities were carried out openly, and that Soviets funded labor unions, which took control of

1330-628: The Great Depression in 1931. During his time at the University of Illinois, he wrote for the Daily Illini student newspaper. Algren wrote his first story, "So Help Me", in 1933, while he was in Texas working at a gas station. Before returning to Chicago, he was caught stealing a typewriter from an empty classroom at Sul Ross State University in Alpine. He boarded a train for his getaway but

1400-645: The Greater Grand Crossing section of the South Side. When he was eight, his family moved from the far South Side to an apartment at 4834 N. Troy Street, in the North Side neighborhood of Albany Park . His father worked as an auto mechanic nearby on North Kedzie Avenue. In his essay Chicago: City on the Make , Algren added autobiographical details: he recalled being teased by neighborhood children after moving to Troy Street because he

1470-675: The Haymarket defendants and the Memorial Day Massacre victims – in Chicago: City on the Make . Algren told McCarrell that he never joined the Communist Party , despite its appeal to artists and intellectuals during the Great Depression . Among other reasons, he cited negative experiences both he and Richard Wright had with party members. However, his involvement in groups deemed "subversive" during

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1540-638: The McCarthy years drew the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Among his affiliations, he was a participant in the John Reed Club in the 1930s and later an honorary co-chair of the "Save Ethel and Julius Rosenberg Committee" in Chicago. According to Herbert Mitgang , the FBI suspected Algren's political views and kept a dossier on him amounting to more than 500 pages but identified nothing concretely subversive. During

1610-510: The Montana State University Archives and Special Collections . A large digital archive called What America Ate has been created to house the digitized remains of the project. For most of its lifetime, FWP faced a barrage of criticism from American conservatives . When Massachusetts: A Guide to its Places and People , was published, it was lauded by government officials, including Governor Charles F. Hurley . But

1680-805: The Slave Narrative Collection , a set of interviews that culminated in more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. Many of these narratives are available online from the above-named collection at the Library of Congress website. Folklorist Benjamin A. Botkin was instrumental in insuring the survival of these manuscripts. Among the many researchers and authors who have used this collection are Colson Whitehead , who drew from it for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Underground Railroad . Other programs that emerged from Alsberg's desire to create an inclusive "self-portrait of America" were

1750-642: The University of North Carolina Press , and Southeast Regional Director of the Federal Writers' Project. In These Are Our Lives , the only book published by the Southern Life History project, Couch explained that their goal was to "get life histories which are readable and faithful representations of living persons, and which taken together, will give a fair picture of the structure and working of society." The Illinois Writers' Project,

1820-540: The Vietnam War . According to Bettina Drew's biography, Algren angled for a journalism job in South Vietnam . Strapped for cash more than a decade after his only two commercially successful novels, he saw Vietnam as an opportunity to make money, not from journalism fees but dealing on the black market. In 1975, Algren was commissioned to write a magazine article about the trial of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter ,

1890-507: The 1950s, Algren wished to travel to Paris with his romantic companion, Simone de Beauvoir , but due to government surveillance his passport applications were denied. When he finally did get a passport in 1960, McCarrell concludes that "it was too late. By then the relationship [with de Beauvoir] had changed subtly but decisively." Algren described Ashland Avenue as figuratively connecting Chicago to Warsaw in Poland. His own life involved

1960-523: The 1956 film adaptation of The Man With the Golden Arm . Nonconformity also presents the belief system behind Algren's writing and a call to writers everywhere to investigate the dark and represent the ignored. The Neon Wilderness and The Last Carousel were also reprinted by Seven Stories Press and recognized as the Library Journal Editors' Best Reprints of 1997. In 2009, Seven Stories then published Entrapment and Other Writings ,

2030-556: The 1977 hoax, and those of other American newspaper reports of the broadcast. The passage in Algren's book says: I am an authorized representative of the Intergalactic Mission," Kenyatta finally disclosed his credentials. "I have a message for the Planet Earth. We are beginning to enter the period of Aquarius. Many corrections have to be made by Earth people. All your weapons of evil must be destroyed. You have only

2100-582: The FTP and the FWP. In the wake of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and consequent global economic disruption, several writers and politicians called for a new U.S. Federal Writers' Project. In May 2021, on the anniversary of the original project, Congressman Ted Lieu and Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez introduced legislation to create a new FWP, to be administered by the Department of Labor , that would hire unemployed and underemployed writers. Supporters of

2170-639: The FWP had published 321 works; hundreds more remained in various stages of publication. Some were published in the years leading up to 1943 under the renamed Writers' Program. Others were never completed. Over the lifetime of the FWP and the Writers' Program, 10,000 people were estimated to be employed. In the 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock , funded by the Federal Theater Project, composer Marc Blitzstein incorporated some of opponents' efforts to prevent this production. In September 2009

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2240-597: The FWP, as did such mainstream publishing companies such as Viking Press , Random House , and Alfred A. Knopf , each of which published some of the books. By 1939, HUAC's tactics seemed to work, and the newly elected Congress cut the WPA budget while increasing HUAC's funding. In January 1939, 6,000 people were laid off from Federal One. By July 1939, Congress voted to eliminate the Theatre Project, which had been criticized for communist influence. Federal sponsorship for

2310-700: The Federal Writers' Project (1999). A short-lived FWP project was called America Eats , a proposed book of the regional foodways of the United States. Writers in each state were tasked with gathering information about foods and food-related events unique to their area, and preparing essays about these. The country was divided into five regions: the Northeast, the South, the Middle West, the Far West, and

2380-401: The Federal Writers' Project ended in 1939. The program was permitted to continue under state sponsorship, with some federal employees, until 1943. In the last months of the FWP's operation, Henry Alsberg was fired. He continued to work past his firing date in order to meet contractual arrangements with the publishers of three upcoming American Guide books. By the time of his departure in 1939,

2450-461: The Golden Arm . His novel Never Come Morning was published several years after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , a period when Poles, like Jews, were labeled an inferior race by Nazi ideology . Chicago's Polish-American leaders thought Never Come Morning played on these anti-Polish stereotypes , and launched a sustained campaign against the book through

2520-534: The Life History and Folklore projects. These consisted of first-person narratives and interviews (collected and conducted by FWP workers), which represented people of various ethnicities, regions, and occupations. According to the Library of Congress website, American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1940 , the documents "chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at

2590-706: The Make ". A passage featured in Algren's book The Devil's Stocking (1983) was broadcast on TV some six years earlier during the Southern Television hoax in the UK which generated international publicity when students interrupted the regular broadcast through the Hannington transmitter of the Independent Broadcasting Authority for six minutes on November 26, 1977. Issue No. 24 of Fortean Times (Winter 1977) transcribed

2660-593: The Polish community of Chicago in many ways, including his first wife Amanda Kontowicz. His friend Art Shay wrote about Algren, who while gambling, listened to old Polish love songs sung by an elderly waitress. The city's Polish Downtown , where he lived for years, played a significant part in his literary output. Polish bars that Algren frequented in his gambling, such as the Bit of Poland on Milwaukee Avenue , figured in such writings as Never Come Morning and The Man With

2730-515: The Polish press, the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America , and other Polish-American institutions. Articles appeared in the local Polish newspapers and letters were sent to Mayor Ed Kelly , the Chicago Public Library , and Algren's publisher, Harper & Brothers . The general tone of the campaign is suggested by a Zgoda editorial that attacked his character and mental state, saw readers who got free copies as victims of

2800-530: The Seven Stories Institute. Algren's friend Stuart McCarrell described him as a "gut radical," who generally sided with the downtrodden but was uninterested in ideological debates and politically inactive for most of his life. McCarrell states that Algren's heroes were the "prairie radicals" Theodore Dreiser , John Peter Altgeld , Clarence Darrow and Eugene V. Debs . Algren references all of these men – as well as Big Bill Haywood ,

2870-523: The Southwest. While materials, in various quantities, were gathered from all five regions, the book America Eats! was never completed and published. The United States entry into World War II in 1943 resulted in a loss of funding for the FWP and its projects. Materials from the America Eats project are held in various archives and libraries around the country, including at the Library of Congress and

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2940-553: The Wild Side , Algren had no desire to serve in the war but was drafted in 1943. An indifferent soldier, he dealt on the black market while he was stationed in France. He received a bad beating by some fellow black marketeers. Algren's first short-story collection, The Neon Wilderness (1947), collected 24 stories from 1933 to 1947. The same year, Algren received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and

3010-669: The Writers Workshop. They married that year and divorced in 1967. According to Kurt Vonnegut , who taught with him at Iowa in 1965, Algren's "enthusiasm for writing, reading and gambling left little time for the duties of a married man." Algren played a small part in Philip Kaufman 's underground comedy Fearless Frank (1967) as a mobster named Needles. In 1968, he signed the Writers and Editors War Tax Protest pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against

3080-562: The age of three, he moved with his parents to Chicago, Illinois , where they lived in a working-class, immigrant neighborhood on the South Side . His father was the son of a Swedish convert to Judaism and of a German Jewish woman, and his mother was of German Jewish descent. (She owned a candy store on the South Side.) When he was young, Algren's family lived at 7139 S. South Park Avenue (now S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) in

3150-517: The arts' projects, were found to be false. Author Richard Wright , a future Guggenheim scholar, was often under attack, with his writings pronounced as "vile". Among the many charges leveled by HUAC against the FWP and its workers, was that Richard Wright was not born in the United States. (He was born in Mississippi.) Alsberg wrote a long court brief and provided supporting documents to refute each charge. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt supported

3220-450: The back alleys of the city, its dispossessed, its corrupt politicians and its swindlers. Algren also declared his love of the City as a "lovely so real". The Man With the Golden Arm was adapted as a 1955 movie of the same name, starring Frank Sinatra and directed and produced by Otto Preminger . Algren soon withdrew from direct involvement. It was a commercial success but Algren loathed

3290-749: The day after its publication, "conservatives attacked the book over its essays on the 1912 Lawrence textile strike and other labor issues. Such critics were even more scathing about the coverage of the Sacco and Vanzetti affair." Scholars called the questionable passages fair accounts; the controversy helped increase book sales. The most poisonous attacks against the FWP came from the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and its chair, Congressman Martin Dies Jr. of Texas. Alsberg and Hallie Flanagan , his counterpart at

3360-543: The director of the Polish Museum of America predicted, would obliterate the history of Chicago ethnic Poles and insult ethnic Polish institutions and local businesses. In the end a compromise was reached where the Triangle kept its older name and a newly installed fountain was named after Algren and inscribed with a quotation about the city's working people protecting its essence, from Algren's essay " Chicago: City on

3430-545: The film. He sued Preminger seeking an injunction to stop him from claiming ownership of the property as "An Otto Preminger film", but he soon withdrew his suit for financial reasons. In the fall of 1955, Algren was interviewed for The Paris Review by rising author Terry Southern . Algren and Southern became friends through this meeting and remained in touch for many years. Algren became one of Southern's most enthusiastic early supporters and, when he taught creative writing in later years, he often used Southern as an example of

3500-651: The forerunner to the American Academy of Arts and Letters . In 1974 the Institute awarded him the Award of Merit Medal for the novel. And three months before he died in 1981, Algren was elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters. Algren was also honored in 1998 with the Nelson Algren Fountain located in Chicago's Polish Triangle , in what had been the heart of Polish Downtown , the area that figured as

3570-470: The galaxy. The Devil's Stocking is Algren's fictionalized account of the trial of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a real-life prize-fighter who had been found guilty of double murder, about whom Algren had written a magazine article for Esquire in 1975. In the book, as a period of unrest within the prison begins, the character 'Kenyatta' gives a speech closely mirroring the Fortean Times transcript of

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3640-428: The hoaxer's message as: This is the voice of Asteron. I am an authorized representative of the Intergalactic Mission and I have a message for the planet Earth. We are beginning to enter the period of Aquarius and there are many corrections which have to be made by Earth people. All your weapons of evil must be destroyed. You have only a short time to live to learn to live together in peace. You must live in peace or leave

3710-589: The legislation included writers James Fallows , Ruth Dickey, and Jonathan Lethem . Ethnography Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 547110967 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:45:28 GMT Nelson Algren Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham ; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981)

3780-530: The novel from the Chicago Public Library . Algren served as a private in the European Theater of World War II as a litter bearer. Despite being a college graduate, he was denied entry into Officer Candidate School. There is conjecture that it may have been due to suspicion regarding his political beliefs, but his criminal conviction would have most likely excluded him from OCS. According to Bettina Drew in her 1989 biography Nelson Algren: A Life on

3850-561: The prize fighter who had been found guilty of double murder. While researching the article, Algren visited Carter's hometown of Paterson, New Jersey . Algren was instantly fascinated by the city of Paterson and he immediately decided to move there. In the summer of 1975, Algren sold off most of his belongings, left Chicago, and moved into an apartment in Paterson. In 1980, Algren moved to a house in Sag Harbor , Long Island . He died of

3920-424: The pseudonym Jeremiah Digges, received critical acclaim. In each state, a Writers' Project non-relief staff of editors was formed, along with a much larger group of field workers drawn from local unemployment rolls. The people hired came from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from former newspaper workers to white-collar and blue-collar workers without writing or editing experience. Notable FWP projects included

3990-405: The publication of The Negro in Virginia (1940). Notably, it included photographs by Robert McNeill , now remembered as a groundbreaking African-American photographer. African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston was employed by the Florida Writers' Project. Years after her death, her unpublished works from this time were compiled in Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings by Zora Neale Hurston from

4060-436: The series. Some full-length books are available online at the Internet Archive. The FWP also published another series, Life In America , and numerous individual titles. Many FWP books were bestsellers, including New England Hurricane: A Factual, Pictorial Record , a rapidly produced volume about the devastation wreaked by the 1938 New England hurricane . Others, such as Cape Cod Pilot , written by author Josef Berger using

4130-444: The turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire , pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison , Nelson Algren , May Swenson , and many others." Among several projects within these first-person narratives was the Southern Life History Project created by William Couch , head of

4200-410: Was a fan of the South Side White Sox . Despite living most of his life on the North Side, Algren never changed his affiliation and remained a White Sox fan. Algren was educated in Chicago's public schools, graduated from Hibbard High School (now Roosevelt High School) and went on to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign , graduating with a Bachelor of Science in journalism during

4270-462: Was an American writer. His 1949 novel The Man with the Golden Arm won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name . Algren articulated the world of "drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums". Art Shay singled out a poem Algren wrote from the perspective of a "halfy," street slang for a legless man on wheels. Shay said that Algren considered this poem to be

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4340-442: Was apprehended and returned to Alpine. He was held in jail for nearly five months and faced a possible additional three years in prison. He was released, but the incident made a deep impression on him. It deepened his identification with outsiders, has-beens, and the general failures who later populated his fictional world. In 1935 Algren won the first of his three O. Henry Awards for his short story, "The Brother's House." The story

4410-402: Was called "a sort of bard of the down-and-outer" based on this book, but also on his short stories in The Neon Wilderness (1947) and his novel A Walk on the Wild Side (1956). The latter was adapted as the 1962 film of the same name (directed by Edward Dmytryk , screenplay by John Fante ). Algren was born in Detroit , Michigan, the son of Goldie (née Kalisher) and Gerson Abraham. At

4480-428: Was featured in the HBO documentary, Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives . The film includes actors Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson performing dramatic readings of selected transcripts. The 1999 film Cradle Will Rock , by Tim Robbins , while depicting the events of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), dramatizes the attacks against Federal One by HUAC. Its efforts resulted in closing both

4550-436: Was first published in Story magazine and was reprinted in an anthology of O. Henry Award winners. His first novel, Somebody in Boots (1935), was later dismissed by Algren as primitive and politically naive, claiming he infused it with Marxist ideas he little understood, because they were fashionable at the time. The book was unsuccessful and went out of print. Algren married Amanda Kontowicz in 1937. He had met her at

4620-458: Was generally uniform: each guide included detailed histories of the state or territory, with descriptions of every city and town, automobile travel routes, photographs, maps, and chapters on natural resources, culture, and geography. The inclusion of essays about the various cultures of people living in the states, including immigrants and African Americans, was unprecedented. City books, such as The New York City Guide , were also published as part of

4690-421: Was in an area that had been dominated by Polish immigrants and was once one of Chicago's toughest and most crowded neighborhoods. The renaming of Evergreen Street to Algren Street caused controversy and was almost immediately reversed. In 1998, Algren enthusiasts instigated the renaming after Algren of the Polish Triangle in what had been the center of the Polish Downtown. Replacing the plaza's traditional name,

4760-597: Was intended not only to provide work relief for unemployed writers, but also to create a unique "self-portrait of America" through publication of histories and guidebooks. From 1935 to 1943, the project cost about $ 27,000,000 – 0.002% of all WPA appropriations. The American Guide Series , the most well-known of FWP's publications, consisted of guides to the then 48 states, the Alaska Territory, Puerto Rico , and Washington, D.C. The books were written and compiled by writers from individual states and territories, and edited by Alsberg and his staff in Washington, D.C. The format

4830-436: Was one of the few racially integrated project sites. Among its directors was Jacob Scher . The Chicago project employed Arna Bontemps , an established voice of the Harlem Renaissance , and helped to launch the literary careers of African-American writers such as Richard Wright , Margaret Walker , Katherine Dunham , and Frank Yerby . The Virginia Negro Studies Project employed 16 African-American writers and culminated in

4900-412: Was superior to the earlier book. It was adapted as the 1962 movie of the same name. Some critics thought the film bowdlerized the book, and it was not commercially successful. A Walk on the Wild Side was Algren's last commercial success. He turned to teaching creative writing at the University of Iowa 's Writers Workshop to supplement his income. In 1965, he met Betty Ann Jones while teaching at

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