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The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren
Larry McMurty once wrote that Nelson Algren held the best literary claim to he Rio Grande Valley of Texas, though few people realise that the poet of the Chicago slums ever lived or wrote here. Yet it was in Depression-era Texas that Algren developed his instinctive need to speak for the powerless - a need that made him one of the foremost chroniclers of the American outcast. The Texas that Algren understood was a world where impoverished people lived among simmering yet casual violence, a world where the law - racist, abusive and corrupt - ruled with an utter ruthlessness and power.
The Texas Stories vividly re-creates this now-vanished world. The collection includes So Help Me, winner of a 1935 O. Henry Award; The Last Carousel, which won the 1972 Playboy Fiction Award; and the early Thundermug, a piece that was censored when it appeared in the radical Windsor Quarterly in 1935. Here too is Algren's unique retelling of the legend of Bonnie and Clyde. Including work from more than four decades, The Texas Stories provides a much-needed overview of Algren's artistic development. It will enthusiastically be welcomed by Algren fans, Texans, literary scholars, Western historians and many others.
Nelson Algren (1909-1981) was the author of eleven books, including Never Come Morning, The Neon Wilderness, A Walk on the Wild Side and The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first National Book Award for Fiction in 1950.
Bettina Drew is the author of the critically acclaimed biography Nelson Algren: A Life on the Wild Side.
The Texas Stories vividly re-creates this now-vanished world. The collection includes So Help Me, winner of a 1935 O. Henry Award; The Last Carousel, which won the 1972 Playboy Fiction Award; and the early Thundermug, a piece that was censored when it appeared in the radical Windsor Quarterly in 1935. Here too is Algren's unique retelling of the legend of Bonnie and Clyde. Including work from more than four decades, The Texas Stories provides a much-needed overview of Algren's artistic development. It will enthusiastically be welcomed by Algren fans, Texans, literary scholars, Western historians and many others.
Nelson Algren (1909-1981) was the author of eleven books, including Never Come Morning, The Neon Wilderness, A Walk on the Wild Side and The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first National Book Award for Fiction in 1950.
Bettina Drew is the author of the critically acclaimed biography Nelson Algren: A Life on the Wild Side.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
159 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
About the author
Nelson Algren
70 books297 followersPeople note American writer Nelson Algren for his novels, including
The Man with the Golden Arm
(1949), about the pride and longings of impoverished people.
Born of Swedish-immigrant parents, Nelson Ahlgren Abraham moved at an early age to Chicago. At University of Illinois, he studied journalism. His experiences as a migrant worker during the Depression provided the material for his first Somebody in Boots (1935). Throughout life, Algren identified with the underdog. From 1936 to 1940, the high-point of left-wing ideas on the literary scene of the United States, he served as editor of the project in Illinois. After putting the finishing touches to his second, he in 1942 joined and enlisted for the war. Never Come Morning received universal acclaim and eventually sold more than a million copies.
A dark naturalist style of Algren passionately records the details of trapped urban existence with flashes of melancholy poetry. He characterizes the lowlife drifters, whores, junkies, and barflies of row. He records the bravado of their colloquial language and lays their predicament bare.
Born of Swedish-immigrant parents, Nelson Ahlgren Abraham moved at an early age to Chicago. At University of Illinois, he studied journalism. His experiences as a migrant worker during the Depression provided the material for his first Somebody in Boots (1935). Throughout life, Algren identified with the underdog. From 1936 to 1940, the high-point of left-wing ideas on the literary scene of the United States, he served as editor of the project in Illinois. After putting the finishing touches to his second, he in 1942 joined and enlisted for the war. Never Come Morning received universal acclaim and eventually sold more than a million copies.
A dark naturalist style of Algren passionately records the details of trapped urban existence with flashes of melancholy poetry. He characterizes the lowlife drifters, whores, junkies, and barflies of row. He records the bravado of their colloquial language and lays their predicament bare.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 8, 2026
Autobiographical tales of desperate times and desperate people in Depression Era West Texas by the legendary Nelson Algren.
Each tale leaves the reader with a lingering question or two. Algren is anything but obvious. In any given story he might stop mid-tragic account to rhapsodize over the black smoke pouring out of a slow moving engine of a coal train passing through a snow bound homeless encampment.
Homelessness is a recurring theme in this anthology. The editor, Bettina Drew notes in her introduction that Algren never forgot how the underprivileged were the invisibles in America’s meaner times. She also notes the same situations exist today. Obviously.
Absolutely brilliant writing and haunting tales of hoboes, carnies, broke-down whores, prison inmates, escapees, and itinerant losers from assorted walks of life.
Each story doesn’t resolve so much as end on a minor chord.
Each tale leaves the reader with a lingering question or two. Algren is anything but obvious. In any given story he might stop mid-tragic account to rhapsodize over the black smoke pouring out of a slow moving engine of a coal train passing through a snow bound homeless encampment.
Homelessness is a recurring theme in this anthology. The editor, Bettina Drew notes in her introduction that Algren never forgot how the underprivileged were the invisibles in America’s meaner times. She also notes the same situations exist today. Obviously.
Absolutely brilliant writing and haunting tales of hoboes, carnies, broke-down whores, prison inmates, escapees, and itinerant losers from assorted walks of life.
Each story doesn’t resolve so much as end on a minor chord.
April 6, 2009
Before he wrote the urban classics associated with him, such as MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM and WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, Algren spent some time as a vagrant in Depression-era Texas. Some interesting stories, including a good take on Bonnie and Clyde, who were much in the news in those days.
November 6, 2019
I read these stories after retrieving the book from the same institution that jailed him for stealing the typewriter he used to write the stories.
I am interested in Algren because he found his voice in Brewster County, Texas - specifically Alpine - though he's known as the poet of Chicago. Witness to grinding poverty, casual violence, and abuse of power here in Texas, all his books have a prison passage after his time spent in the Brewster County jail. I sense that both the details and significance of this episode grew in his memory. If any Goodreaders can tell me the location of the boarding house where he stayed in Alpine I'd like to know. I learned he was writing on an unused typewriter belonging to Sul Ross University, which he then tried to steal. He was caught on the train leaving town. His cadence and phrasing of the West Texas accent is off in these early stories, making for some cringeworthy energy.
I am interested in Algren because he found his voice in Brewster County, Texas - specifically Alpine - though he's known as the poet of Chicago. Witness to grinding poverty, casual violence, and abuse of power here in Texas, all his books have a prison passage after his time spent in the Brewster County jail. I sense that both the details and significance of this episode grew in his memory. If any Goodreaders can tell me the location of the boarding house where he stayed in Alpine I'd like to know. I learned he was writing on an unused typewriter belonging to Sul Ross University, which he then tried to steal. He was caught on the train leaving town. His cadence and phrasing of the West Texas accent is off in these early stories, making for some cringeworthy energy.
February 10, 2017
I had never read any stories by Nelson Algren but became curious about him after learning of a writing competition named for him. Even though he is associated with Chicago some of his greatest work came out of time he spent in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the early 1930s. These were the years of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, times which challenged the poor, down & out people Algren often focused on. These tales show how well Algren could portray characters in extreme circumstances without ever becoming caricatures. His Bonnie and Clyde in the story "After the Buffalo" shows an ability to make the story of the famed bank robbers seem new and compelling. This will not be the last Algren that I read.
October 19, 2018
There is an authenticity to the narrative voice in each in every story that I find lacking in so much of what I read. I was completely transported to Depression era Texas and the lives of these vagrants, criminals, and down and outers. I particularly enjoyed So Help Me.
On a side note, I listened to this as an audiobook, and the reader was FABULOUS. I don't think I have ever come across a reader/book pairing that was more perfect.
On a side note, I listened to this as an audiobook, and the reader was FABULOUS. I don't think I have ever come across a reader/book pairing that was more perfect.
December 6, 2022
Realistic semi-autobiographical stories of people destitute around the Rio Grande valley in depression-era 1930's trying to scratch out meagre livings and avoid ill-tempered lawmen and appalling prisons. Many were itinerant, riding the rails by evading the rail police.
While Algren finds humor in some of this and does not dwell on the poverty and hardship, the cumulative effect on a reader may naturally be somewhat dispiriting nevertheless. Whatever bitterness Algren must have gained from his encounter with depression-era Texas is not found in these stories.
The writing is first rate.
Algren grew up mostly in southside Chicago and was a well known writer after the war. He had a long term affair with - wait for it - French existentialist philosopher and women's rights activist (and bisexual) Simone de Beauvoir. Her adopted daughter published Beauvoir's letters to Algren after Beauvoir died. You can read them in "A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren" free at archiv.org. (Never use subtitles in a search there because then their Jurassic engine won't recognize your book.)
While Algren finds humor in some of this and does not dwell on the poverty and hardship, the cumulative effect on a reader may naturally be somewhat dispiriting nevertheless. Whatever bitterness Algren must have gained from his encounter with depression-era Texas is not found in these stories.
The writing is first rate.
Algren grew up mostly in southside Chicago and was a well known writer after the war. He had a long term affair with - wait for it - French existentialist philosopher and women's rights activist (and bisexual) Simone de Beauvoir. Her adopted daughter published Beauvoir's letters to Algren after Beauvoir died. You can read them in "A Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren" free at archiv.org. (Never use subtitles in a search there because then their Jurassic engine won't recognize your book.)
September 9, 2025
Nelson Algren is incredible. This collection is full of vivid little portraits of depression era Texas that are frequently awful and always deeply human. The scenes of trains, jails, fairs, and cattle ranches are particularly striking, as are the figures of Bonnie and Clyde. At first I thought his writing was better suited to the longer form, but over the course of reading this collection, stretched across his career as a writer, the value of the short stories becomes obvious. It’s not just one story. It’s the parts that repeat among them that are most powerful. As a chronicler of the downtrodden, I’ve found no one better.
May 15, 2019
Worth reading for Algren fans, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it. Many of the stories feel like the same one being told in slightly different ways. But there are a couple strong ones, especially "After the Buffalo," which purports to tell the true story of Bonnie and Clyde. Other standouts included "Lest the Traplock Click" and "So Help Me." If nothing else, Algren masterfully captures life in Texas during the roughest stretch of economic hardship in U.S. history.
July 3, 2019
Damn, kids. Talk about some stark storytelling. Set among jails, boxing rings and freezing too-early mornings, these are dark times in a dark place "Last Picture Show" style. From a door-to-door coffee salesman cum "naturalistic urban writer" and the "American Gorky" here in his formative years provides us with romance only in the turn of phrase which illustrates the plight of the starving worker/hobo. And the enduring philosophy present at toward the end of "If You Must Use Profanity."
A big takeaway came for me in the last and most satisfying story in the collection "The Last Carousel": "I already knew that you had to work for nothing or you'd never get rich. Grit counted more than money. All a poor boy had to do to get a foothold on the ladder of success was to climb one rung whenever anyone above him fell off."
Over grit and dust and the unforgiving sun, another rung climbed on the ladder of being an Algren completest.
A big takeaway came for me in the last and most satisfying story in the collection "The Last Carousel": "I already knew that you had to work for nothing or you'd never get rich. Grit counted more than money. All a poor boy had to do to get a foothold on the ladder of success was to climb one rung whenever anyone above him fell off."
Over grit and dust and the unforgiving sun, another rung climbed on the ladder of being an Algren completest.
September 9, 2007
TEXAS STORIES possibly predates Kerouacs ON THE ROAD by at least 20 years. TEXAS STORIES is a collection of shorts written by Algren shortly after graduating from Journalism School at the University of Chicago in the 1930's at the height of the Depression. According to Algren in his conversations with Donaghue, he packed his bags and jumped on a freight train landing in Texas where TEXAS STORIES is written. Dialectal and regionalisms are authentic since he wrote primarily about demoralized denizens and also about American and Mexican migrant workers of Texarkana, whom he shared time in a flophouse with for a protracted period of time. Writing in the genre of naturalism, much like his contemporary Steinbeck [GRAPES OF WRATH:]; characters are enduring the worst the Depression offers and the havoc the Dustbowl brings to north-west Texas.
Before returning to Chicago, Algren steals a typewriter from the flophouse and is caught. He spends a short time in Jail. Quite possibly "Thundermug" was written from this short experience.
"Texas Holiday" an interesting tale about Boone Terry, a type of Jim Crow cattle Rancher who fancies himself the beneficent boss to the migrant workers at a time when most plantation and Ranch owners are at their most exploitative. It is also the beginning of the labor movement and labor rights in the United States. The character Scott Naylor , is probably a tribute or mirror version of Woody Guthrie and his rhetoric on socialist labor songs of that period. Boone Terry isn't quite understanding the country is on the threshold of major social reforms in the workplace. Instead he sits under the tree to hear Scott's beautiful voice but, drunk on excesses, is unable to hear neither Scott's demands nor the unhappiness he feels with his working conditions when he 's told he should be grateful.
After his visit back to Chicago, Algren returns to Texas to write SOMEONE IN BOOTS.
Before returning to Chicago, Algren steals a typewriter from the flophouse and is caught. He spends a short time in Jail. Quite possibly "Thundermug" was written from this short experience.
"Texas Holiday" an interesting tale about Boone Terry, a type of Jim Crow cattle Rancher who fancies himself the beneficent boss to the migrant workers at a time when most plantation and Ranch owners are at their most exploitative. It is also the beginning of the labor movement and labor rights in the United States. The character Scott Naylor , is probably a tribute or mirror version of Woody Guthrie and his rhetoric on socialist labor songs of that period. Boone Terry isn't quite understanding the country is on the threshold of major social reforms in the workplace. Instead he sits under the tree to hear Scott's beautiful voice but, drunk on excesses, is unable to hear neither Scott's demands nor the unhappiness he feels with his working conditions when he 's told he should be grateful.
After his visit back to Chicago, Algren returns to Texas to write SOMEONE IN BOOTS.
May 28, 2015
These are both as dark and insightful as I expect from Algren and somehow very different from his Chicago based stories I was familiar with. Algren had a wonderful ability to capture the voices and lives of people usually ignored by the media and other "literary" writers and this collection is no exception. As with any story collection, some of the examples here are better than others, but some are truly brilliant.
February 19, 2009
Fantastic.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews