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Nathanael West

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Nathanael West


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

Died
December 22, 1940

Genre
Fiction, Novellas


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 Rhode Island, 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 ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.72 · 46,304 ratings · 3,468 reviews · 48 distinct works • Similar authors
The Day of the Locust
3.69 avg rating — 24,444 ratings — published 1939 — 218 editions
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Miss Lonelyhearts / The Day...
3.89 avg rating — 10,492 ratings — published 1939 — 59 editions
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Miss Lonelyhearts
3.56 avg rating — 7,310 ratings — published 1933 — 193 editions
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Miss Lonelyhearts / A Cool ...
3.75 avg rating — 1,301 ratings — published 1934 — 3 editions
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A Cool Million
3.65 avg rating — 934 ratings — published 1934 — 39 editions
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A Cool Million and The Drea...
3.73 avg rating — 489 ratings — published 1931 — 32 editions
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The Dream Life of Balso Snell
3.24 avg rating — 544 ratings — published 1931 — 10 editions
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Novels and Other Writings: ...
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4.30 avg rating — 325 ratings — published 1957 — 2 editions
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The Collected Works of Nath...
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3.82 avg rating — 236 ratings — published 1966 — 21 editions
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The Day of the Locust and T...
3.67 avg rating — 225 ratings — published 1991 — 14 editions
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More books by Nathanael West…

Related News

Buying a gift for a bookworm seems like it should be easy, but it proves to be a daunting task year after year. Before you drive...
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Quotes by Nathanael West  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Numbers constitute the only universal language.”
― Nathanael West
755 likes
Like

“Only those who still have hope can benefit from tears.”
― Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust
tags: hope
67 likes
Like

“He read it for the same reason an animal tears at a wounded foot: to hurt the pain.”
― Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts
tags: pain
59 likes
Like

Polls

June 2016 Short Story Poll

 
  50 votes, 24.9%

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, 122 pages, 1879
 
  49 votes, 24.4%

 
  41 votes, 20.4%

 
  13 votes, 6.5%

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, 127 pages, 1923
 
  13 votes, 6.5%

Anthem by Ayn Rand, 105 pages, 1938
 
  10 votes, 5.0%

Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West, 80 pages, 1933
 
  8 votes, 4.0%

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, 105 pages, 1907
 
  6 votes, 3.0%

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, 50 pages, 1917
 
  6 votes, 3.0%

 
  5 votes, 2.5%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

201 total votes
More...

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