Algren, Nelson
March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Biography:
Nelson Algren was born to Gerson Abraham (a garage mechanic) and Goldie (candy store owner) Algren in Detroit, MI. Algren was the youngest of three siblings and lived with his family in a poor immigrant neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. He graduated from Chicago’s public schools in 1928 and in 1931 graduated with a B.A. in journalism from the University of Illinois right during the Great Depression. He went south in hopes of working for a newspaper, and ended up with many different jobs, including being a door-to-door salesman. In 1933 he worked at a gas station in Rio Hondo, Texas and wrote his first short story, So Help Me, which was published in Story magazine. This led to a contract for his first novel, Somebody in Boots. In 1939 Algren moved back to Chicago and worked for the Chicago Board of Health and also was a co-editor for The New Anvil. He published several short stories and contributed to the W.P.A. Illinois Writer’s Project. He married Amanda Kontowicz in 1937, but the two divorced, re-married, and divorced again. His second book, Never Come Morning, was published in 1942 before Algren enlisted in the U.S. army in 1942, during WWII. During this experience he wrote several short stories for magazines such as Noble Savage and Esquire. After the war Algren published many books. His breakthrough novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, published in 1949, won the first National Book Award for fiction in 1950. It was later made into a film, starring Frank Sinatra. Algren married Betty Ann in 1965 and got divorced her two years later. He regularly wrote a column for the Chicago Free Press and taught creative writing classes at both Iowa and Florida universities, but struggled with heavy drinking and gambling. Algren liked to grapple with tough subjects, and vividly painted Chicago’s overlooked urban life with including drunks, pimps, prostitutes, and other low-life figures in his novels. He moved to Paterson, New Jersey and wrote his fourth Novel The Devil’s Stocking which was published after his death in 1983. In September of 1980 he moved to Long Island and died of a heart attack on May 9, 1981.
Selected Works:
- Somebody in Boots (1935)
- Never Come Morning (1942)
- The Man with the Golden Arm (1949)
- A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)
- Notes from a Sea Diary: Hemingway All the Way (1965)
- The Last Carousel (1973)
- The Devil’s Stocking (1983)
Awards:
- 1947 National Institute of Arts and Letters Fellowship>
- 1950 Newberry Library Fellowship
- 1950 National Book Award
- 1974 National Institute of Arts and Letters of Merit
- 1982 Fiction contest established in his name by Chicago Magazine
- 1983 P.E.N./Nelson Algren Fiction Award begun in his memory by P.E.N. American Center
Critical Reception:
Algren’s first book, Somebody in Boots, received little success during the Great Depression, selling only 750 copies. Algren had better success with The Man with the Golden Arm, winning the National Book Award for fiction in 1950, and having the book turned into a movie. His book Chicago, The City On The Make, was disapproved by the Chicago Chamber of Congress because Alger’s specialized on showing the rough side of the city instead of its successful business enterprises. Algen’s comic novel, A Walk on the Wild Side was declared a master piece.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Algren spent most of his life outside of Michigan and was greatly influenced by his family and immigrant neighborhood in Chicago.
Anderson, Lauri
October 27, 1942 -
Place of Birth: Foxcroft, ME
Place of Principle Residence: Hancock, MI
Biography:
Lauri Arvid Anderson was born to Ruby Littlefield of “Old New England” and Arvid Anderson (a Finnish immigrant) in 1942 in Maine. He attended the University of Maine and achieved his BA in English in 1965 and his MA in International Education in 1969 from Michigan State University. From 1965 to 1967 Anderson volunteered for the Peace Corps in Nigeria and then served as an English teacher at North County High School in Vermont between 1967 and 1969. In 1971 Anderson completed a MA in English at the University of Pacific and taught at Mizpah Mission School as the chair of English and Dean until 1972. He then moved to Izmir, Turkey to work at the American Collegiate Institute as the chair of English until 1976. From there Anderson went to Hancock, Main where he still serves as the chair of English and the Division Head of Humanities. In addition her served as and English instructor for the Phillips-Andover Academy, a school for gifted minority students, from 1995 to 1997. Anderson has authored five prose works and one book of poetry, many of which exemplify a sarcastic tone, and Anderson’s Finnish heritage. He is the brother of poet Wendy Anderson and author Stuart Anderson and has three children, Eric, Charlotte, and Lucy.
Selected Works:
- Impressions of Arvo Laurila (2005)
- Misery Bay (2001)
- Children of the Kalevala (1997)
- Heikki Heikkinen and Other Stories of Upper Peninsula Finns (1995)
- Hunting Hemingway’s Trout (1990)
- Small Winter Wars (1983)
- Snow White and Others (1971)
Awards:
- 1996-1997 FinnFest guest writer
- 1995 MLA guest writer
- 1994 Honorable Mention, Fiction Contest, Finnish American Reporter
- 1988 Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future
- 1985 Selected for NEH Institute in Commonwealth Literature, Indiana U.
- 1983 Selected for NEH Seminar in Twelfth-Century Civilization, Mt. Holyoke
- 1981 Selected for NEH Seminar in American Humor, U. of New Mexico
Critical Reception:
Anderson has written and received many grants to continue his academic and creative work.
For Back to Misery Bay:
“Lauri Anderson deftly and often humorously captures the love-hate relationship that his Finnish-American characters have with Misery Bay, their hearts’ home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Many of Lauri Anderson’s Finns seem determined to raise their various dysfunctionalities to an art form, but through their very fallibility they tug at our hearts. As one wise old Finn advises his war-shattered nephew, People are really screwed up but love them anyway. They’re all we have.
—Judy Hakola, Lecturer in English, University of Maine
For Hemingway’s Trout:Stories:
This short collection of stories and sketches about Ernest Hemingway and an army of fictional characters who study his work is mildly interesting but lacks the order, tension and overarching theme necessary to form an exciting whole.
- Publishers Weekly
Brief, amateurish essays about Ernest Hemingway here alternate with seven short stories, each constructed around some character or image from Hemingway’s work….some of the individual stories are entertaining, but the collection feels contrived, the prose dated by references to the Sixties. Book budget dollars would be better spent on new editions of Hemingway.
- Library Journal
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Anderson teaches at Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan. Several of his books, including Children of Kalevala, take place in Upper Michigan.
Arnold, Edmund
June 25, 1913 - February 2, 2007
Place of Birth: Bay City, MI
Biography:
Edmund Arnold was born to Anne and Ferdinand Arnold in Bay City, MI in 1913. He graduated from Arthur High School and Bay City Junior College in 1934. Arnold served as a combat correspondent during WWII, and afterwards bought the Frankenmuth News with a friend in 1946. Arnold was an early consultant and educator in graphic art design and pioneered cleaner displays of stories and pictures to hundreds of newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, New Orleans Times – Picayune, Boston Globe, Toronto Star, and National Observer. Arnold spent four decades as a design consultant and made changes in newspaper design that have now become standard practice. He installed bigger type, six columns of print instead of eight, and a modular layout that organized stories into squares instead of long, haphazard chunks of text overlapping one another. Besides working as an editor for Frankenmuth News, Arnold served as a picture editor for Saginaw News, a night editor for The State Journal, a Linotype News editor, a director of trade relations for Mergenthaler Linotype Company, and a Distinguished Professor of Journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University. Arnold published several books in his field, including Functional Newspaper Design in 1956 and Ink on Paper 2 in 1971. In 1957 he was given the George Polk Award for his contribution to typographic redesign, and the Society for News Design’s lifetime achievement award in 2000. Arnold died on February 2, 2007 and was survived by Viola (his wife of sixty-five years), his three children Kathleen, Bethany, and Bruce, and five grandchildren.
Selected Works:
- The Trailblazers: The Story of the 70th Infantry Division (1989)
- Improving Your Publication (1985)
- Editing the Organizational Publication (1982)
- Arnold’s Ancient Axioms (1978)
- Ink on Paper 2 (1972)
- Modern Newspaper Design (1969)
- Feature Photos That Sell (1960)
Awards:
- 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award, Society for Newspaper Design
- 1999 Lifetime Service Award, American Press Institute
- 1980 L.H.D., Wagner College
- 1983 Gold Key Award, Columbia University
- 1981 Arts and Sciences Lecturer Award (initial)
- 1971 The Friars’ Award, St. Bonaventure University
- 1990 Professional Honors: Army Distinguished Civilian Service Medal
- 1988 American Press Institute Award for Service to Journalism
- 1984 Photo-Journalism Award, United States Navy
- 1983 Distinguished Alumnus, School of Journalism, Michigan State University
- 1983 Honorary Life Membership, Virginia Press Association
- 1979 Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal
- 1978 Journalism Pioneer Medal, the Newspaper Fund
- 1973 The John Fields Memorial Award, Central Michigan University
- 1968 The Carl Towley Memorial Award, Journalism Education Association
- 1960 U.S. Army Certificate of Appreciation
- 1958 Award of Appreciation, National Editorial Association
- 1957 George Polk Memorial Award, The Overseas Press Club
Critical Reception:
Considered the “Father of Modern Newspaper Design,” Arnold has received a plethora of awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Newspaper Design and an Award of Appreciation from the National Editorial Association.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Arnold launched his newspaper career with the Frankenmuth News (from Frankenmuth, Michigan) where he began his crucial changes to newspaper design. He graduated from Bay City Junior College and got a B.A. at Michigan State University.
Arnow, Harriette Simpson
July 7, 1908 - March 21, 1986
Place of Birth: Wayne County, KY
Place of Principle Residence: Ann Arbor, MI
Biography:
Harriette Simpson Arnow was born to Mollie and Elias Simpson in Wayne County, Kentudcky in 1908. As a young girl she loved to read and began writing stories and poems. Although she loved English, she decided to major in science at the University of Louisville, graduating in 1930. After a short stint in teaching, Arnow moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to focus on her writing. She supported herself working as a waitress, a library clerk, and an assistant for the Federal Writer’s Project and in 1936 published a highly successful novel entitled Mountain Park. Arnow met and married Harold Arnow, a newspaper reporter, in 1939 and the two moved to a farm in the Daniel Boone Forest where they worked as farmers and writers. In 1944 Arnold moved with her husband to Michigan, where Harold got a job as a reporter for The Detroit News. Fifteen years after Mountain Park was published, Arnold wrote and released her second novel, Hunter’s Horn, a 1949 best seller and a Fiction Book Club selection. Her most successful novel, The Dollmaker, was published in 1954 and was a best seller for thirty-one weeks and received second place in the National Book Awards, and a Friends of American Writers award. In addition to her books, Arnow wrote many articles and pamphlets and instructed in the Appalachian Writer’s Workshop. She had two children, Marcella and Thomas, and died on March 21, 1986.
Selected Works
- Mountain Path (1936)
- Hunter’s Horn (1949)
- The Dollmaker (1954)
- The Weedkiller’s Daughter (1970)
- Old Burnside (1977)
Awards:
- 1955 Runner up, National Book Award
- 1955 Honorary Degree, Albion College 1955 Berea College Centinnel Award
- 1955 Friends of American Writers Award
- 1955 Women’s Home Companion Silver Distaff Award
- 1961 Commendation from Tennessee Historical Commission
- 1961 Award of Merit of American Association for State and Local History
- 1962 Tennessee Historical Quarterly prize for the best article of the year
- 1975 Cranbrook Writers Guild Award
- 1983 Inducted into Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame when living in Ann Arbor
- 1984 Mark Twain Award, Michigan State University
- n/a Mid-America Award for Distinguished Contributions to Midwestern Literature
Arrathoon, Leigh Adelaide
November 30, 1942 -
Place of Birth: Manhattan, NY
Place of Principle Residence: Rochester, MI
Biography:
Leigh Adelaide Arrathoon was born to Henry Elkin and Peggy Walles in Manhattan, New York. For one year she attended Centre d’art dramatique, a New York French Acting School, with a full tuition scholarship in 1957 to represent Forest Hills High School. She received her AB in French and Spanish from Hunter College Park Avenue in 1963 and enrolled in summer school at the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne, and Lille at Boulogne sur Mer, between 1961 and 1963 to study French language, literature, and culture. In 1966 and 1968 Arrathoon got her MA in French literature and Spanish literature respectively, and her MA and PhD in French Medieval Language and Literature in 1975. She was one of the first four women admitted to graduate school at Stanford. Arrathoon has worked as a teacher at many schools as a French, Spanish, or medieval literature teacher at schools including Princeton University and Oakland University. Many of her stories and articles have appeared in publications like The South Hill Gazette, Verses Magazine, and The Dana Literary Society. Ball State University forum nominated her article “The Two Saras of Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale” for the Pushcart prize. She has published a seven-book series about Michigan and short historical fictions for children, as well as historical novels for young adults. One of her historical novels, Summer of the Bear, won the Michigan State History Award.
Selected Works:
- The Lady of Bergi (1984)
- Mirror of Love (1991)
- Great Places: Jody’s Michigan Adventures (1999)
- The Summer of the Bear (2002)
Awards:
- 2001 Appeared on Michigan Magazine
- 2007 Michigan State History Award
- n/a nominated for Pushcart Prize
Critical Reception:
Arrathoon’s work on medieval history, literature, and poetics has received academic attention, as demonstrated in her nomination for the Pushcart Prize for her article “The Two Saras of Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale.” In addition, her historically researched children’s novels have been well received, including a Michigan State History Award in 2007.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Arrathoon has published several books of children’s stories about Michigan, including a seven-book series entitled Jody’s Michigan Adventures, focusing on different locations like Detroit, Greenfield Village, and Mackinac Island. Her work won the Michigan State History Award in 2007.