Nathanael West

Author profile

born

October 17, 1903 in New York City, The United States

died

December 22, 1940

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Novellas

About this author

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Born Nathanael von Wallenstein Weinstein to prosperous Jewish parents; from the first West set about creating his own legend, and anglicising his name was part of that process. At Brown University in New York, he befriended writer and humourist S. J. Perelman (who later married his sister), and started writing and drawing cartoons. As his cousin Nathan Wallenstein also attended Brown, West took to borrowing his work and presenting it as his own. He almost didn't graduate at all, on account of failing a crucial course in modern drama. West indulged in a little dramatics of his own and, in tearful contrition, convinced a gullible professor to upgrade his marks.

After spending a couple of years in Paris, where he wrote his first novel, The Drea...more

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Books by Nathanael West

Average rating: 3.83 · 9,302 ratings · 689 reviews · 23 distinct works

	The Day of the Locust 3.74 avg rating — 4,055 ratings — published 1939 — 33 editions	My rating:
	Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust 3.95 avg rating — 3,580 ratings — published 1939 — 9 editions	My rating:
	Miss Lonelyhearts 3.77 avg rating — 1,028 ratings — published 1933 — 28 editions	My rating:
	A Cool Million and The Dream Life of Balso Snell: Two Novels 3.75 avg rating — 238 ratings — published 1931 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Nathanael West : Novels and Other Writings : The Dream Life of Balso Snell / Miss Lonelyhearts / A Cool Million / The Day of the Locust / Letters by Nathanael West, Sacvan Bercovich (Editor) 4.38 avg rating — 137 ratings — 4 editions	My rating:
	A Cool Million 3.51 avg rating — 127 ratings — published 1934 — 8 editions	My rating:
	The Dream Life of Balso Snell 3.37 avg rating — 100 ratings — published 1931 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Day of the Locust; The Dream Life of Balso Snell 3.81 avg rating — 47 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Complete Works of Nathanael West 4.19 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1957 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Miss Lonelyhearts; A Cool Million: Or, The Dismantling Of Lemuel Pitkin 3.47 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1933 — 3 editions	My rating:

More books by Nathanael West…

Quotes by Nathanael West

“He smoked a cigarette, standing in the dark and listening to her undress. She made sea sounds; something flapped like a sail; there was the creak of ropes; then he heard the wave-against-a-wharf smack of rubber on flesh. Her call for him to hurry was a sea-moan, and when he lay beside her, she heaved, tidal, moon-driven.”
― Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust

14 people liked it

“He read it for the same reason an animal tears at a wounded foot: to hurt the pain.”
― Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust

14 people liked it

“At college, and perhaps for a year afterwards, they had believed in literature, had believed in Beauty and in personal expression as an absolute end. When they lost this belief, they lost everything.”
― Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts

10 people liked it

See all Nathanael West's quotes »

Polls

What fiction book would you like to read for November?

The Green Hat by Michael Arlen

4 votes, 36.4%

Maurice by E.M. Forster

3 votes, 27.3%

The Big Sleep and Other Novels by Raymond Chandler

2 votes, 18.2%

Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel by David C. Downing

1 vote, 9.1%

Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

1 vote, 9.1%

11 total votes

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