In 1940, when an automobile accident prematurely claimed Nathanael West's life, he was a relatively obscure writer, the author of only four short novels. West's reputation has grown considerably since then and he is now considered one of the 20th century's major authors. Born in New
York, West worked as the night manager of the Kenmore Hotel on East 23rd
Street in Manhattan, as a contract scriptwriter for Columbia Pictures in Hollywood, and as a screenwriter for RKO Radio Picture.
Harold Bloomis Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. His many distinguished books includeThe Anxiety of Influence(1973, 1997),The Western Canon(1994),Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human(1998), andHow to Read and Why(2000).
