The Man With the Golden Arm - Nelson Algren 1949 - Doubleday &, New York - First Edition There’s people in hell who want ice water…’

Algren’s shockingly brilliant novel of the disinherited,
The Man With the Golden Arm tells the sordid tale of Frankie Machine, the ‘golden arm’ dealer of a back street Chicago gambling den, whose heroin addiction and failing marriage drive him to the depths of despair.

The character of Frankie Machine was memorably brought to life on the silver screen by Frank Sinatra, in Otto Preminger’s 1955 film adaptation of the novel, which co-starred Kim Novak and Eleanor Parker.
  The novel won the first National Book Award, in 1950.

Nelson Algren was born in 1909, in Detroit, but lived most of his life in Chicago. A prolific writer of short stories, essays, and travelogues, he is best remembered for his gritty novels,
The Man with the Golden Arm, and A Walk on the Wild Side. Algren’s life was a succession of gambling problems, disastrous marriages and wild extremes, ranging from Texas prisons and skid-row soup kitchens to Hollywood parties and literary celebrations; he also had a passionate love affair with French feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir. A recipient of the National Book Award, Algren was also appointed a fellow of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters shortly before his death in 1981.

References: Flanagan, ‘
Prophet of the neon wilderness’ The Telegraph 2006. ‘Nelson Algren’ The New York Times 1981. web canongate.com. web imdb.com. web penguinbooks.com

pp. [8] 343 [1].
  Condition: Near fine, with small bookseller s sticker to lower rear pastedown, in very good unclipped dust jacket, light wear to edges, and 2.5cm chip to top of rear panel, near spine.   Ref: 106424   Price: HK$ 3,000