Nathanael West (born Nathan Weinstein; October 17, 1903 – December 22, 1940) was an American writer and screenwriter. He is remembered for two darkly satirical novels: ''

Miss Lonelyhearts ''Miss Lonelyhearts'' is a novella by Nathanael West. He began writing it early in 1930 and completed the manuscript in November 1932. Published in 1933, it is an Expressionist black comedy set in New York City during the Great Depression. It is ...

'' (1933) and '' The Day of the Locust'' (1939), set respectively in the newspaper and Hollywood film industries.

Early life

Nathanael West was born Nathan Weinstein in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, the first child of Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Anuta (Anna, née Wallenstein, 1878–1935) and Max (Morduch) Weinstein (1878–1932), from Kovno, Russia (present-day

Kaunas, Lithuania Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...

), who maintained an upper middle class household in a Jewish neighborhood on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

. West displayed little ambition in academics, dropping out of high school and only gaining admission into

Tufts College Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

by forging his high school transcript. After being expelled from Tufts, West got into Brown University by appropriating the transcript of a fellow Tufts student, his cousin, Nathan Weinstein. Although West did little schoolwork at Brown, he read extensively. He ignored the realist fiction of his American contemporaries in favor of French surrealists and British and Irish poets of the 1890s, in particular Oscar Wilde. West's interests focused on unusual literary style as well as unusual content. He became interested in

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

, as experienced or expressed through literature and art. West's friends at "Camp Paradox," a summer camp in Adirondack, New York, nicknamed him "Pep" in ironic reference to his somnolent disposition. West himself acknowledged and made fun of his lack of physical prowess in recounting the story of a baseball game where he cost his team the game. Wells Root, a close friend of West, remembers hearing this tale half a dozen times, recalling that everyone had placed bets on the game, which came down to the final inning with the score tied and the enemy at bat with two outs. At that point the batter hit a long fly towards West;

He put his hands up to catch it and for some inexplicable reason didn't hold them close together. The ball tore through, hit him in the forehead, and bounced into some brush. There was a roar from the crowd and esttook one look and turned tail. To a man, the crowd had risen, gathered bats, sticks, stones, and anything they could lay hands on and were in hot pursuit. He vanished into some woods and didn't emerge until nightfall. In telling the story he was convinced that if they had caught him they would have killed him.

It is unclear whether this ever actually happened, but West later re-imagined this in his short story " Western Union Boy". As Jewish students were not allowed to join most fraternities, his main friend was his future brother-in-law

S. J. Perelman Sidney Joseph Perelman (February 1, 1904 – October 17, 1979) was an American humorist and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for ''The New Yorker''. He also wrote for several other magazines ...

. (Perelman married West's sister Laura.) West barely finished at Brown with a degree. He then went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

for three months, and it was at this point that he changed his name to Nathanael West. His family, who had supported him thus far, ran into financial difficulties in the late 1920s. West returned home and worked sporadically in construction for his father, eventually finding a job as the night manager of the Hotel Kenmore Hall on East 23rd Street in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. One of West's real-life experiences at the hotel inspired the incident between Romola Martin and Homer Simpson that would later appear in '' The Day of the Locust'' (1939). In 1933 he was employed as the manager of the Sutton Hotel in New York City, located at 330 E. 56th Street.

Author

Although West had been working on his writing since college, it was not until his quiet night job at the hotel that he found the time to put his novel together. It was then that West wrote what would eventually become ''

'' (1933).

Maxim Lieber Maxim Lieber (October 15, 1897 – April 10, 1993) was a prominent American literary agent in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. The Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers named him as an accomplice in 1949, and Lieber fled first to Mexico and then ...

served as his literary agent in 1933. In 1931, however, two years before he completed ''Miss Lonelyhearts'', West published '' The Dream Life of Balso Snell'', a novel that he had conceived of in college. By then, West was within a group of writers working in and around New York City that included

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

and

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

. In 1933, West bought a farm in eastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

but soon got a job as a contract scriptwriter for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

and moved to Hollywood. He published a third novel, ''

A Cool Million ''A Cool Million: The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin'' is Nathanael West's third novel, published in 1934. It is a brutal satire of Horatio Alger's novels and their eternal optimism. Plot summary ''A Cool Million'', as its subtitle suggests, prese ...

'', in 1934. None of West's three works sold well, earning him less than $800, so he spent the mid-1930s in financial difficulty, sporadically collaborating on screenplays. Many of the films he worked on were B movies, such as ''

Five Came Back ''Five Came Back'' is a 1939 American black-and-white melodrama from RKO Radio Pictures produced by Robert Sisk, directed by John Farrow, written by Jerry Cady, Dalton Trumbo, and Nathanael West, and starring Chester Morris and Lucille Ball. ...

'' (1939). It was at this time that West wrote '' The Day of the Locust.'' He took many of the settings and minor characters of his novel directly from his experience living in a hotel on

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywoo ...

. In November 1939, West was hired as a screenwriter by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

, where he collaborated with Boris Ingster on a film adaptation of the novel '' Before the Fact'' (1932) by

Francis Iles Anthony Berkeley Cox (5 July 1893 – 9 March 1971) was an English crime writer. He wrote under several pen-names, including Francis Iles, Anthony Berkeley and A. Monmouth Platts. Early life and education Anthony Berkeley Cox was born 5 July ...

. West and Ingster wrote the screenplay in seven weeks, with West focusing on characterization and dialogue and Ingster focusing on the narrative structure. RKO assigned the film, eventually released as ''

Suspicion Suspicion is a feeling of mistrust. Suspicion(s), The Suspicion, or Suspicious may also refer to: Film and television Film * ''Suspicion'' (1918 film), an American silent film directed by John M. Stahl * ''Suspicion'' (1941 film), an American ...

'' (1941), to Alfred Hitchcock; but Hitchcock already had his own, substantially different, screenplay. Hitchcock's screenplay was written by

Samson Raphaelson Samson Raphaelson (March 30, 1894 – July 16, 1983) was a leading American playwright, screenwriter and fiction writer. While working as an advertising executive in New York, he wrote a short story based on the early life of Al Jolson, called ' ...

, Joan Harrison (Hitchcock's secretary), and

Alma Reville Alma Lucy Reville, Lady Hitchcock (14 August 1899 – 6 July 1982), was an English director, editor, and screenwriter. She was the wife of the film director Alfred Hitchcock. She collaborated on scripts for her husband's films, including '' Sha ...

(Hitchcock's wife). West and Ingster's screenplay was abandoned, but the text can be found in the

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rang ...

's edition of West's collected works.

Death

On December 22, 1940, West and his wife Eileen McKenney were returning to Los Angeles from a hunting trip in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. West ran a stop sign in

El Centro, California El Centro ( Spanish for "The Center") is a city and county seat of Imperial County, California, United States. El Centro is the largest city in the Imperial Valley, the east anchor of the Southern California Border Region, and the core urban ar ...

, resulting in a collision in which he and McKenney were killed. (Their deaths occurred the day after that of their friend

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

.) McKenney had been the inspiration for the title character in the Broadway play '' My Sister Eileen'', and she and West had been scheduled to fly to New York City for the

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

opening on December 26. West was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, with his wife's ashes placed in his coffin.

His work

Although West was not widely known during his life, his reputation grew after his death, especially with the publication of his collected novels by New Directions in 1957. ''Miss Lonelyhearts'' is widely regarded as West's masterpiece. '' Day of the Locust'' was made into a film which came out in 1975, starring

Donald Sutherland Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films '' Citizen X'' (1995) a ...

and

Karen Black Karen Blanche Black (née Ziegler; July 1, 1939 – August 8, 2013) was an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She rose to prominence for her work in various studio and independent films in the 1970s, frequently portrayi ...

. Likewise ''Miss Lonelyhearts'' (1933) saw production in film (1933, 1958, 1983), stage (1957), and operatic (2006) versions; and the character "Miss Lonelyhearts" in Hitchcock's film ''

Rear Window ''Rear Window'' is a 1954 American mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder". Originally released by Paramount Pictures, the film st ...

'' has parallels to West's work. The obscene, garish landscapes of ''The Day of the Locust'' gained force in light of the fact that the remainder of the country was living in drab poverty at the time. Though West attended

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

rallies in New York City's

Union Square Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

, his novels have no affinity to the novels of his contemporary activist writers such as John Steinbeck and

John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a young man, visit ...

. West's writing style does not allow the portrayal of positive political causes, as he admitted in a letter to

Malcolm Cowley Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), his lyrical memoir, ''Exile's Return ...

regarding ''The Day of the Locust'': "I tried to describe a meeting of the anti-Nazi league, but it didn't fit and I had to substitute a whorehouse and a dirty film". West saw the American dream as having been betrayed, both spiritually and materially, and in his writing he presented "a sweeping rejection of political causes, religious faith, artistic redemption and romantic love".Yaffe, David. "Go West." ''Partisan Review'', 66 (Fall 1999), p. 670. This idea of the corrupt American dream endured long after his death, in the form of the term "West's disease", coined by the poet

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

to refer to poverty that exists in both a spiritual and economic sense. Jay Martin wrote an extensive biography of West in 1970. Another biography, ''Lonelyhearts: The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney'', by Marion Meade was published in 2010.

Published works

Novels

* '' The Dream Life of Balso Snell'' (1931) * ''

'' (1933) * ''

'' (1934) * '' The Day of the Locust'' (1939)

Plays

* '' Even Stephen'' (1934, with

) * '' Good Hunting'' (1938, with Joseph Schrank)

Short stories

* " Western Union Boy" * " The Imposter"

Posthumous collections

* Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. ''Nathanael West, Novels and Other Writings'' (

, 1997)

Screenplays

* '' Ticket to Paradise'' (1936) * ''Follow Your Heart'' (1936) * ''The President's Mystery'' (1936) * ''Rhythm in the Clouds'' (1937) * ''It Could Happen to You'' (1937) * ''Born to Be Wild'' (1938) * ''

'' (1939) * '' I Stole a Million'' (1939) * '' Stranger on the Third Floor'' (1940) * '' The Spirit of Culver'' (1940) * ''

Men Against the Sky ''Men Against the Sky'' is a 1940 drama directed by Leslie Goodwins and starring Richard Dix, Kent Taylor, Edmund Lowe and Wendy Barrie. Based on a story by John Twist, with a screenplay by novelist Nathanael West, the film is about aircraft de ...

'' (1940) * '' Let's Make Music'' (1940) * '' Before the Fact'' (1940) (unproduced)

References

External links

* * * * Ingrid Norton
"The Nihilism of Nathanael West"
''Open Letters Monthly'' (January 2011) * Elizabeth Hardwick
"Funny as a Crutch"
''New York Review of Books'', November 6, 2003

thomaslarson.com *
Profile
Library of America website
Promotional website for ''Lonelyhearts: The Screwball World of Nathanael West and Eileen McKenney''
nathanaelwest.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:West, Nathanael 1940 deaths 1903 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American screenwriters American male novelists American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent American satirical novelists Brown University alumni Burials at Mount Zion Cemetery (New York City) Jewish American novelists Jewish American screenwriters Modernist writers People from Hollywood, Los Angeles People from the Upper West Side Road incident deaths in California Screenwriters from California Writers from Los Angeles 20th-century American Jews