Nathanael West

The son of Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Nathanael West was a writer and screenwriter born and raised in the Upper West Side of New York City. West was not particularly academically ambitious in his youth. He dropped out of high school, was expelled from Tufts University, and completed little schoolwork at Brown University, where he ultimately earned his bachelor’s degree. Though he had been writing since college, West didn’t complete his first novel until he was working as a hotel night manager in the early 1930s. He then spent several years working as a scriptwriter and screenwriter in Hollywood. In 1940, at age 37, West died in a car accident in El Centro, California, alongside his wife, Eileen McKenney. Today, West is remembered for two satirical novels, Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust, the latter of which was published in 1939.