^Lot 474 Nelson Algren

Writer (1909–1981) best known for his book, The Man With the Golden Arm. TLS, two pages, 8.5 x 11, October 16. Letter to a woman. In part: “I doubt that I can be of much help to you on recalling the Ill. Writers Project as I operated only upon its periphery. The chief periphery was a bar…called King’s Palace, and Mr. Fredericks used to have the project fink, one Jacob Scher, tail us there. Scher wasn’t a drinking man and had no appetite for dives, but he was a brave informer and would endure the fumes and the crumb-bums in order to catch us drinking on project time. The Fredericks would fire me and I would go the rounds of the welfare stations; to establish need.” At the bottom of the second page, Algren has added a felt tip and colored pencil sketch of a cat. In very good condition, with uniform toning to pages, moderate mirroring of sketch and signature to first page, paper loss to top left corner of first page, paperclip impression to second page, and some light spreading of ink. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.