Entrapment and Other Writings Read Free Page A

various scenes in
The Man with the Golden Arm
, we decided we did not want to introduce yet more versions into circulation. The archive is chock-full of earlier versions of countless scenes in one or another novel. We could have filled several volumes with these, but we felt this would have been the wrong approach. Where Algren had sought to have the last word, we let him have it.
    We did allow one exception to the above, and this was, we would like to think, with Algren’s blessing. Part III of the present volume includes two previously unpublished versions of scenes from
The Man with the Golden Arm
that Algren himself identified as finished stories gleaned from early versions of the novel. We did this because these two passages, taken together with the finished versions in
The Man with the Golden Arm
, provide us with a window into the marvel of Algren’s process. To compare the early with the final version in each case is to confront the difference between good writing and the pure magic of the additionally layered, complex reality Algren was able to introduce late in his writing and revision process.
    We believe the present volume broadens and deepens our apprehension of Algren as a writer and as an individual. Some of this writing is work Algren took the trouble to complete then chose to hide, or partially hide, from view. Some is the work Algren struggled to complete, whose completion finally eluded him. Every piece in
Entrapment and Other Writings
is irreplaceable, and when taken together these stories, fragments, poems, and essays will, we hope and believe, add depth and complexity to our ongoing relationship with the unique artist and human being that Algren was.
NOTE
    1.    For a comprehensive listing of Algren’s published work, see Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith Baughman,
Nelson Algren: A Descriptive Bibliography
. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985. For other stories uncollected by Algren, see
The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren
, ed. Bettina Drew. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.

Publication Information
I. OUT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION, INTO THE WAR (1934–1941)
    “Forgive Them, Lord.” Story first published in
A Year Magazine
2 (December 1933–April 1934): 144–49.
    “A Lumpen.” Story first published in
The New Masses
16 (2 July 1935): 25–26.
    “Within the City.” Story first published in
The Anvil
3 (October–November 1935): 9.
    “American Obituary.” Story first published in
Partisan Review
2 (October–November 1935): 26–27.
    “The Lightless Room.” Unpublished story (1939). Nelson Algren archives, the Ohio State University.
    “Five Poems”: “Utility Magnate.”
The New Anvil
1 (April–May 1939): 16–17. Published under pseudonym “Lawrence O’Fallon”; “Home and Goodnight.”
Poetry
(November 1939): 74–76; “Travelog.”
Poetry
(November 1939): 76–77; “This Table On Time Only.”
Esquire
(March 1940): 78–79; “Local South.”
Poetry
(September 1941): 308–309.
II. THE WAR AND AFTER (1943–1947)
    “Do It the Hard Way.” Essay first published in
The Writer
56 (March 1943): 67–70.
    “Hank, the Free Wheeler.” Story published in
A Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads, and Traditions of the People
. Ed. B. A. Botkin. New York: Crown, 1944. 540–42.
    “Single Exit.” Story first published in
Cross Section 1947: A Collection of New American Writing
. Ed. Edwin Seaver. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947. 217–24.
III. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (1949)
    “Little Lester.” Unpublished story marked in Algren’s hand on title page, “Unpublished story from ‘Man with the Golden Arm’—Algren.” Nelson Algren archives, Ohio State University.
    “Paper Daisies.” Unpublished story marked in Algren’s hand on title page, “Unpublished story from ‘Man with the Golden Arm’—Algren.” Nelson Algren archives, Ohio State University. An almost identical unpublished manuscript variant, under the title “Hustler’s