The Devil's Stocking

Nelson Algren

Arbor House Library of Contemporary Americana, 1983 - Fiction - 308 pages

"This is a man writing and you should not read it if you cannot take a punch. . . . Mr. Algren, boy, you are good."-Ernest Hemingway

"Algren is an artist whose sympathy is as large as Victor Hugo's, an artist who ranks . . . among our best American authors."-"Chicago Sun-Times

""The Devil's Stocking is clearly vintage Algren. . . . [He] seems not to have aged but only matured and to be, as never before, in firm possession of his subject. His language throughout the novel is precise, controlled, almost entirely free of the lush lyrical excesses of the past, but nonetheless genuinely warm and alive. The story is recognizable as belonging in the classic Algren repertoire, yet is also freshly conceived and carried forward with an easy assurance that indicates Algren had it in him to write five or six more novels in the same vein."-"The New York Times Book Review

"The Devil's Stocking is the story of Ruby Calhoun, a boxer accused of murder in a shadowy world of low-purse fighters, cops, con artists, and bar girls. Chronicling a battle for truth and human dignity that gives way to a larger story of life-and-death decisions, literary grandmaster Nelson Algren's last novel is a fitting capstone to a long and brilliant career.

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.

About the author

Nelson Algren was a writer, novelist, columnist, and educator. He was born Nelson Algren Abraham on March 28, 1909 in Detroit, Michigan. Algren graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism in 1931. After graduation, Algren worked as a door-to-door salesman and a migratory worker. He also worked for a venereal disease control unit of the Board of Health and with the WPA writers' project. Algren served as a medical corpsman in the U.S. Army during World War II. Later, he served as co-editor of the magazine The New Anvil. Algren taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and the University of Florida. He also wrote a regular column for the Chicago Free Press. Algren's first novel, Somebody in Boots, was published in 1935. His second novel, Never Come Morning, was published in 1942. The book was banned from the Chicago Public Library. Algren received a 1947 Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a grant from Chicago's Newberry Library. In 1949, Algren published The Man with the Golden Arm. The book won the National Book Award and was adapted as a film in 1956. Another book, A Walk on the Wild Side, was also adapted for film in 1962. Algren died in Sag Harbor, New York, on May 9, 1981.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Devil's Stocking; The Arbor House library of contemporary
• Author: Nelson Algren
• Publisher: Arbor House Library of Contemporary Americana, 1983
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Mar 4, 2008
• ISBN: 0877955484, 9780877955481
• Length: 308 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General