Algren At Sea

This collection of Nelson Algren's travel writings documents his journeys through the seamier sides of great American cities and the international social and political landscapes of the mid-1960s.

"Notes from a Sea Diary" offers one of the most remarkable appraisals of Ernest Hemingway ever written. Aboard the freighter "Malayasia Mail," Algren ponders his personal encounter with Hemingway in Cuba, and the values inherent in Hemingway's stories, as he visits the ports of Pusan, Kowloon, Bombay, and Calcutta.

"Who Lost an American?" is a whirlwind spin through Paris and playboy clubs, New York publishing and Dublin pubs, Crete, and Chicago as Algren adventures with Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Brendan Behan, and Juliette Greco.

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."