This dissertation has been 65-5686 microfilmed exactly as received

VELER, Richard Paul, 1936- THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM: A GENETIC STUDY.

The Ohio State University, Ph. D ., 1964 Language and Literature, modern

University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright by

Richard Paul Veler

1965 THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM:

A GENETIC STUDY

DISSERTATION

Presented in P artial Fulfillm ent of the Requirements fo r the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Richard Paul Veler, B.A., A.M.

* •>'( * * * *

The Ohio State University 1964

Approved by

Adviser / Department of English For M. G. K. and J. H. W.

! i VITA

October 29, 1936 Born - Lorain, Ohio

1958 ...... B. A., Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio

1959...... Woodrow Wilson Fellow, A. M., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1961-1963 .... Graduate Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1963-1964 .... A ssistant, Department of English, The Ohio State U niversity, Columbus, Ohio

1964-1965 .... Instructor, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: American Literature

Studies in American Renaissance Literature. Professor Claude M. Simpson

Studies in American Literature and Culture. Professor Roy Harvey Pearce

Studies in Utopian and Anti-Utopian Literature. Professor Robert C. E llio t t

Studies in Modern Drama. Professor Robert G. Shedd

Studies in English Renaissance Prose. Professor Herschel Baker

i i i CONTENTS

Page INTRODUCTION...... 1

Part I. Algren the Writer: His Intention, His Subject, His S tyle ...... 3

Part I I . The Man with the Go 1 den Arm: Its History and Sources...... 14

Part I I I . The Man with the Go!den Arm: Its C ritical Reception ...... 24

Part IV. The Man with the Golden Arm: Its Typescript Versions...... 34

CHAPTER

I. Version 1 ...... 4t

I I . Vers ion 2 ...... 89

Ml. Version 3 ...... 136

IV. Version 3^...... 1&9

V. Version k ...... 197

V I. Version 4^...... 236

VI I . Version k2 ...... 241

V III. Miscellaneous Pages ...... 249

IX. Galley Proof ...... 256

CONCLUSION...... 263

APPENDIXES

I. Typescripts at the Illin o is In s titu te of Technology . . 277

II. Table of Name Changes ...... 297

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Works by Nelson Algren ...... 299

I I . Works about Nelson Algren ...... 303

iv INTRODUCTION

Understanding a work of art is a complex process which one can approach from several points of view. He may focus historical or biographical c riteria upon it; he may examine it as though it exists in a vacuum. If the work is lite ra ry , he may be able to see the turns of the w riter's mind in successive versions. He may then trace the development of the book from its conception to its birth. This approach equips him to evaluate not only the finished product but also the author's creative

"genius" that gradually transforms the in itia l, rough copy into the fin a l, polished form. This c ritical method seems to me to be particularly sound since it allows the researcher to answer the crucial question, "What makes the work come to exist in its present form?" The answer is of utmost significance because it takes into account both the author's intention and his degree of fu lfillm en t.

I am able to apply this c ritic a l approach to Nelson Algren's

The Man wi th the Go 1 den Arm for the Ohio State University Library owns typescript and galley proof versions of the novel. Included in its collection are four major drafts, in addition to three fragmentary drafts and 164 miscellaneous pages. The major drafts vary in completeness from the fir s t , 286 pages, to the fourth, 4o8 pages. The fir s t is lit t le more than a skeleton for several of the sections of the published volume and does not reflect an intent by the author to achieve a we 11-developed plot.

It rather marks the beginning of a few plot threads, some of them p artially developed and others seemingly le ft unnoticed. The second draft greatly expands the story, adding crucial scenes that measurably advance the action in the direction of the completedbook. The third version refines the second and contains a plausible conclusion. The fourth polishes the third.

The most radical changes between versions are additions to the plot rather than alterations in characters, although these do occur. The most important changes, I believe, appear in versions 2 and 3. From the second draft onward Algren's concept of the p lo t, although s t ill sketchy, remains the same in its broad outline. One of the most significant changes, however, occurs in the third draft with the explicit introduction of Frankie's drug addiction. The only major change in character is that of Dovie Breedlove, who in the third draft becomes Mol lie (Molly) Novotny, Frankie'smistress.

The Illin o is Institute of Technology at Chicago also owns typescripts of the novel. Because of physical limitations and the

Institute library policy, I cannot include a close analysis of them in this study. The library forbids an outsider's extensive use of the typescripts until an Institute student has studied them thoroughly.

Although the library has owned the typescripts since at least 1955» no student has yet recognized their worth. Most of the typescripts, in fact, remain unsorted into drafts. The library, furthermore, is making them so inaccessible that even with Algren's permission it w ill not microfilm them. Nor will it trade a microfilm of its collection for a film of the

Ohio State holdings, although the Institute collection is considerably smaller than Ohio State's. I have examined the Institute typescripts as carefully as possible, however, and in Appendix I describe them with accurate and pertinent detail to show how they complement my project, for they support rather than invalidate my conclusions. I hope that my genetic analysis of the typescripts and proof may provide information relevant and necessary to subsequent criticism of

The Man with the Golden Arm„ Algren has received relatively little critical attention, although he portrays a representative slice of one authentic aspect of mid-twentieth century American life .

Before proceeding with the analysis, however, I introduce Algren and The Man wi th the Go 1 den Arm and explain the mechanics of this project.

Because Algren is a minor figure and because a reader's appreciation of

The Man with the Golden Arm is heightened if he understands Algren's point of view, i. e ., his intention as a writer, his subject, and his style, I believe that such an introduction is necessary. It serves, furthermore, to re 1 ate The Man with the Go 1 den Arm to A1gren1s other works. An account of the history and sources next paves the way for the bulk of this project by showing that it is a we 11-researched novel based, in p art, on documentary evidence. I next briefly summarize some of the critical opinions that greeted The Man wi th the Golden Arm. not only to demonstrate the novel's popularity but also to illustrate that my genetic study, in orientation d iffe re n t from fchal; of any other appraisal of Algren, arrives at someof the same positive conclusions. The final section of the introduction furnishes the necessary apparatus to simplify and to clarify the discussion of this complex project.

I

ALGREN THE WRITER: HIS INTENTION, HIS SUBJECT, HIS STYLE

Nelson Algren believes that the function of a w rite r is to accuse,

"to play the wasp."' Since there is no purpose in w riting about people

^Robert A. Perlongo, "Interview with Nelson Algren," Chicago Review. XI (Autumn, 1957), 95. k who have everything—"'There's no story there . . . nothing happens so

far as I'm concerned"1—2 the writer is traditionally on the side of the defendant. Present-day c ritic s , according to Algren, do not hold this view. '"There's a big boycott against the man who wears brown shoes after six in the evening. That's the way the New York c ritic s look at my w riting.

They don't 1i ke i t.Algren contends, however, that in the final analysis an author writes only to please himself. "'Every serious writer is

interested only in expressing himself. He doesn't really care what the

reaction is.'"^ A true book is a writer's confessional. Algren does not hesitate, therefore, to confess a concern that he equates with Whitman's:

"'I feel I am of them, I belong to those convicts and prostitutes himself, therefore I cannot deny them, for how can I deny myself?'"'’

Such a w riter must share in the common experience of common humanity; recording these experiences, whether noble or mean or sordid or pathetic, is only incidental. "'A writer's got to live the situation out as much as possible, not just sit around watching, taking notes on c everybody,"' says Algren. No one can validly argue that Algren does not use his experiences as a hobo(he was picked up for vagrancy )P

2lb id. , pp. 95-96

^Kenneth A11 sop, "A TaIk on the Wild s ide," The Spectator. CCIII (October 16, 1959), 509,511.

N/an Allen Bradley, "Author Nelson Algren— He Sits and Broods," Chicago Daily News, Sept. 6, 1952, p. 22. See also Nelson Algren, "Do It the Hard Way," The W rite r. LVI (March, 19^3), 67.

-’David Ray, "A Talk on the Wild Side: A Bowl of Coffee with Nelcon Algren," The Reporter, XX (June 11, 1959), 31-32.

6per longo, pp. 97-98.

7|bid. . p. 98. as a thief (he was jailed four months for stealing a Mexican gun),® and as the victim of a thief (he visited police show-up seven years after Q be i ng ro I 1 e*))

It is not surprising to learn that Algren, with this intense

interest, does not compromise his honesty in treating his subject matter.

Indeed, he becomes irate with writers who are afraid to be realistic. An author should write "'without haste, as the story grows within, regardless of all social and moral ideas, regardless of whom your report may please or offend, regardless of whether the c ritic s stand up and cheer for a month or take hammer and tongs after you, or simply ignore you— regardless of all forms, of all institutions, of all set ways of conduct and thought.

Regardless, chiefly, o f what the writer himself prefers to believe, know, hear, think or feel.'"*® This kind of writing is difficult but forceful.

Ideally the writer should divorce even himself from the subject. For­ getting his preferences, he should record lif e as it is. He can record i t , however, only as he sees it . The observation is his.

This theory of the writer's function dictates the theme of Algren's work. He portrays 111 the rout ine 1i ves of people just living inthat kind of ring of fir e to show how you can't go out of a certain neighborhood if you're addicted, or for other reasons, that you can't be legitimate, but that within that limitation you can succeed in making a life that is

®A11 sop, p. 509.

^Alston Anderson and Terry Southern, "Nelson Algren: The Art of Fiction IXll ," The Paris Review, No. 11 (Winter, 1955). 51.

'^Algren, "Do It the Hard Way," p. 6 9 . Italics are mine. routine . . . with human values that seem to be a little more real, a

little more intense, and human, than with people who are freer to come and go . . . 1,1' ^ The socially accused are less hypocritical andmore generous in personal relationships than are the socially accepted. Human qualities are not dependent upon social status. At the same time Algren questions the contented awareness of the people on top, those who are convinced of the rightness (and righteousness) of th eir values. “The

Unacknowledged Champion of Everything," for example, asks why the under- 1 2 privileged cannot have th eir springtime dreams come true. Even Who

Lost an American? contains an implication that man is saved by nothing

i 3 except the love of man. J In this guidebook to “ the Seamier Sides,"

Algren alludes b it t e r l y to John Donne: “ To say1 Each man's death diminishes 14 me' today only rouses interest in Blue Cross." "The Mafia of the Heart" declares that one sees a kind of double justice, a public and a private way of doing things, in the inability of the best people to realize their

15 complicity in vice. Algren, furthermore, voices a plea for recognition of a ll men. "Remembering Richard Wright" announces that any man whom 1 £ society does not recognize as a unique being is dehumanized. The preface

'^Anderson and Southern, pp. 52-53.

'^Nelson Algren, "The Unacknowledged Champion of Everything," Story. n.s. No. 2 (October, i 960 ) , 23.

'^See also Nelson Algren, "Hemingway: The Dye That Did Not Run," The Nation. CXCII I (November 18, 1 9 6 1), 387-390.

'^Nelson Algren, Who Lost an American? (New York, 1963) , P- 205.

15Nelson Algren, "The Mafia of the Heart," Contact, II (October, I960), 15.

'^Nelson Algren, "Remembering Richard Wright," The Nation, CXCII (January 28, 1961), 8 5 . to Nelson A1qren1s Own Book of Lonesome Monsters. which includes stories

by Saul Bellow, Chandler Brossart, George P. E lliott and Joseph Heller,

says, "The stories that follow have the common hope that every man, no

matter how lonesome nor what a monster, is deserving of understanding by

we Gsid other lonesome monsters."'^ Algren's other works, short stories

and novels alike, reiterate this pervasive social theme.

Algren writes about people at the bottom of the social b a rrel,

about "a hopeless, sodden mass of human beings, forever mutilated, forever

damned, in jail or out 'doing time on a bum rap, with no parole.'"^® He

writes about "the nameless nobodies, the nobodies nobody knows who prowl

the c ity below the c ity , the wilderness of furnished rooms where the

sunlight is always soiled and there are no holiday hours: the pavement-

colored thousands of the nighttime streets with faces cut from the same

cloth as their caps. And eyes that reflect nothing but the pavem ent."^

Fragmented characters— card sharks, dope addicts, bartenders, prostitutes,

pimps, boxers and boxer's g irl friends— , the "underdogs of sin, the small 20 souls of corruption, the fools of poverty," fill Algren's writings.

Whores populate Somebody in Boots and A Wa1k on the Wild Side, "Beasts

^ ?Nelson A1qren1s Own Book of Lonesome Monsters. ed. Nelson Algren (New York, 1962), p. 9.

ISPhilip Rahv, "No Parole," The Nation, CLIV (April 18, 19^2), U66.

'^Nelson Algren, "One Kan's Chicago," Hoiiday. X (October, 1951), 72.

^Maxwell Geismar, "Nelson Algren: The Iron Sanctuary," American Moderns: From Rebel 1 ion to Conformity . (New York , 1958) , 191. I

8

of the Wild," "The House of the Hundred Grassfires," Who Lost an American?.

Never Come Morning, "Depend on Aunt E lly," "Design for Departure," and

the poem "How Long Blues," Hoboes like Cass McKay of Somebodyin Boots

and Dove Linkhorn of A Walk on the Wild Side s tro i1 into " If You Must

Use Profanity." Prisoners inhabit Somebody i n Boots, A Walk on the Wild

Side. and Never Come Morning. Card sharks play in Never Come Morninq.

The poem "Local South" asks pity for scrub women, cabbies, and sick

thieves. These are the men and women who compose Algren's cast. Most of

them make an entrance in The Man wi th the Go 1 den Arm.^ *

And they are all failures. For instance, an election year

political feud, not justice, dooms "the man with the golden arm," Frankie

Machine. Even at: vice lie does not succeed. Like Algren'sother characters,

Frankie searches for his complete self in the world of the city. He turns

to narcotics, women, cards, but triumphs at none of his pursuits. Not he,

but his environment is the protagonist in his efforts to live in a

disorganized, violent society. The guilt complex of Frankie and his

counterparts, dispossessed by this society that values men for what they

own, explains their self-destruction. By humanizing these degenerate

persons, who have no use for vanity or sanctimoniousness or prestige, and

by imaginatively creating their world, Algren argues that the strays of

society, and perhaps only the strays, have tender and pure feelings,

21 Katz in "Single Exit," for instance, sounds like Frankie Machine when he reflects that there is "Nothing to see and nothing to hold; nothing to claim and nothing to believe. No fam iliar face to give fresh hope or final refuge. Neither love, nor peace, nor help for weariness." For him each night betrays each day; each nighttime dream is a deception of his daytime hope. See Nelson Algren, "Single Exit," Cross Section. 19^7. ed. Edwin Seaver (New York, 19^7), p. 223. 9 that they understand lif e at its core. Like the early Hemingway, Algren tries to get down to clean experiences and emotions in a contaminated world. The clean emotions are the simple ones: hunger, fear, sex, despair, those near the bone of lif e , "where the contamination has not begun, and 22 where the individual can know that what he feels is true." Unlike

Hemingway, however, Algren seems to have abandoned any pretense that society can be improved or purified. It is a jungle of viciousness and injustice beyond reclamation. Algren says, ‘"And the more I see of literary and p o litic a lly developed people, the deeper my trust becomes in those who have not had opportunity for such development. In fact, the more I see of those below, the more I say the hell with you squares on to p .m23

His suggestion that the true human condition can best be seen underground refers, however, not only to the social outcast but also—and perhaps more importantly— to the emotionally impoverished. " I t is possible to live underground even while skiing in Sun Valley--you don't have to live in an alley to be submerged," he w rites, adding c ryp tic a lly , O/. "Although that does seem a good way of going about it." ^ He theorizes,

For nowhere before have men and women fe lt themselves divided by so vast a discrepancy between life and the representation of life. Never on the earth of man has he lived so timidly amidst such psychological disorder. Never have men and women

22Charles Chi Id Walcutt, American Li ter ary Natura1 ism, A Divided Stream (Minneapolis, 1956), p. 298.

23Ha rry R. W arfel, "Nelson Algren," Amer i can Novelists of Today (New York, 1951), p. 8.

2i+Nelson Algren, "Things of the Earth: A Groundhog View," The California Quarterly. II (Autumn, 1952), 9. 10

lived so hygienically while troubled by such a sense of personal uncleanliness. Nowhere has any people been so outwardly confident that God is on its side while being so inwardly conscience-stricken lest he be not. Never has any people set itself such a rigid moral code while applying it quite so flexibly,:, Never has any people possessed such a superfluity of physical luxuries companionedby such a dearth of emotional necessities.25

Algren uses not only a common type and group of characters but

also a common setting in many of his works. Chicago's Polish neighborhood

of The Man wi th the Go 1 den Arm is also the home of Roman Orlov ("How the

Devil Came down Division Street"), of Lefty Bicek ("A Bottle of Milk for

Mother" and Never Come Mo rn i ng) , of Gino ("No Man's Laughter"), of Katz

("Katz"; there is a different Katz in "Single Exit"), of Rocco and Lili

("Young Rocco" and "He Swung and He Missed"), of Bruno and S te ffi

(Never Come Morn ing) , and fo r a whi 1e of Cass McKay (Somebody in Boots) .

Chi cago: Ci ty on the Make and "One Man's Chicago," which use much of

the same m atter, take Algren back to the old haunts where he sold

newspapers with his nephew, loafed around saloons, and collected beer

bottle corks. Sometimes exact locations are not defined but easily 26 could be this Chicago slum inhabited by f u t i l i t y .

He reuses, furthermore, specific stories and incidents."The

Captain Is Impaled," a short story concerning an officer's feeling of

complicity at the police line up, closely resembles "The Captain Has

Bad Dreams," the opening story in The Neon Wilderness. It also becomes

lbid. , p. 8.

^Another frequent setting is New Orleans, used in parts of "So Help Me," Somebody in Boots. and A Wa1k on the Wild Side. Another is the Rio Grande Valley of Somebody i n Boots , A Wa1k on the Wild Side. and "el presidente de mejico." 11

the last section of "Rumors of Evening," Part 1 of The Man WIth the Golden 27 Arm. ' "A Poor Man's Pennies," about Sobotnik and Gladys, another of

The Neon V/i lderness stories, is like the episode in The Man with the Go 1 den

Arm in which Sparrow is bound with clothesline after stealing moneyand

a coat from Gold's department store (MGA, pp. 83-89).

Other stories, too, illustrate this technique. "Beasts of the

Wild" is a sketch of "Mama's chicks | who] descended the stairw ell like

separate blessings, one by one." They are the prostitutes of A Walk on

the Wild Side and, an excerpt from i t , "The House of the Hundred G rassfires."

Never Come Morning incorporates the previously published "A Bottle of Milk

for Mother." The brutal beating in "The Face on the Barroom Floor" is

the closing incident of A Wa l_k on the Wild Si de , which its e lf is a 9 O recast i ng of Somebody i n Boots , A1gren' s f i rst novel. Never Come Morning , f i na11y , in many ways resemb1es A Wa1k on the Wild S i de . ^

Even individual speeches link Algren's works. Lefty, in "Biceps," says to Sergeant Adamovitch, "'So run along 'n I ' l l see you in hell with yer back broke. '"33 a note on a cell wall in the f i r s t , second, and third drafts of Jhe Man with the Go 1 den Arm reads, " If i t wasnt for Me!nerney

27pp. 188-200. Hereafter, page references to The Man wi th the Golden Arm appear in the text; e .g ., (MGA, pp. 188-200).

28cass McKay becomes Dove Linkhorn; Terasina, the waitress, appears in both stories; the families of these young men are d iffe re n t, but. many of theyouths' involvements are alike--these are but a few of the many similarities.

29jailed prisoners steal bread from each other. The Kangaroo Court has rigid rules. Barroom shutters are closed during fights. Luther appears in both of these stories and also in the p a rtia lly autobiographical "So Help Me."

^Nelson Algren, "Biceps," The Neon Wilderness (New York, 19^7), p. 90. J_ wouldn't be here and where he should be is in hel1 wi th his back broke."

The whore in "Single Exit," fondling the faded flowers on her hat, says,

"'Them flowers beat out pretty long.'" Katz replies, "'You're a beat-out flower yourself.'" Molly and Frankie repeat this conversation (MGA. p. 269). ComparemWho were you fighting with?1' "Same o l'T 'in g . Wid w if e ," 1 in Never Come Morning^ and"'Who do you fight with?"' '"My w ife , that's a l l , ' " in The Man w?th the Golden Arm (MGA, p . 4).

The "poet of the Chicago slums" and possibly Sandburg's successor,

Algren writes in an incantatory style that George Bluestone calls "a surrogate for prayer."33 Even if this poetic prose sometimes seems over­ drawn and contrived, even if Algren tries "to lift the pall of horror from these slums by the sheer flig h t of words . . . (by[ floods of poetic rhetoric somewhat reminiscent of Thomas Wolfe,"'3 nevertheless he does

impart a certain dignity to his material, to the authentic background, people, and dialogue. He writes the way he feels, and, fortunately for the reader, his feeling demands anxious attention to the exact, pertinent details of scene and incident and to the precise nuances of dialect.

^P. 5 in version 1; p. 5 in version 2; and p. 6 in version 3.

^Algren, "Single Exit," p. 220.

33P. 148.

3\lalcolm Cowley, "Chicago Poem," New Repub li e , CVI (May 4, 1942), 614.

33George Bluestone, "Nelson Algren," The Western Review, XXII (Autumn, 1957), 39-

3^John J. Maloney, "Chicago: Seamy Side," The New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review. September 11, 1949, Sec. 7, p. 10. 13

Having lived in the Damen and Division Street neighborhood, he speaks

authentically about its alleys, barrooms, and j a i l s . On weekends he

s t i l l v is its the Chicago bowery, where he listens. He denies, however,

that his prose is consciously poetic. '"The only thing I've consciously

tried to do was |jtoj put myself in a position to hear the people I wanted

to hear ta lk ta lk ,'" he says, adding, " " s o many people say things

poetically, they just say it for you in a way you never could. Some guy just coming out of jail might say, "1 did it from bell to bell," or like

the 17 year old junkie, when the judge asked him what he did all day,

said, "Well, 1 find myself a doorway to lean against, and take a fix, and

then I lean, I ju st lean and dream." They always say things like t h a t . '" ^

A "Winesburg, Oh io of the s1 urn dwellers,"3® The Man wi th the Golden Arm.

like Algren's other writings, is rich with the language of punks, cranks, and petty gangsters.

Algren's notion of syntax reinforces his use of d e ta il. More sentences add relevant atmospheric detail than advance the action.

Fragments abound. E llip tic a l phrases and dependent clauses present details in themselves incomplete until the reader amplifies the

implications. One fragment in the book, for example, reads, "A car that came on slowly, but not too slowly for Frankie Machine" (MGA, p. 26)

To give this fragment its complete impact, the reader must realize that the approaching street-car is to take Frankie, ju st out of j a i l , back to the incessant, guilt-stirring barrage of insults that fill his life

37Anderson and Southern, pp. 51, 53.

38ge i sma r , p. 191. with Sophie. It is no wonder, therefore, that the tro lle y cannot come

too slowly to satisfy the dealer. Another characteristic fragment says,

" T ill tenderness turned into sleep; as night turned into morning"

(MGA. p. 112). Just as Sophie's tender feelings for Frankie do not last but give way to sleep, so do the ideal illusions of night disappear in the glare of morning re a lity . Linguistically adventuresome and aware,

Algren plays fast and loose with conventional punctuation, breaking the norms of composition ju st as his characters disavow the norms of polite society. He writes with feeling and of feeling, and expects a reader to bring a sympathetic sensitivity to the novel. He expects the plot and

its essential mood to prod the reader into a new awareness of life as it sometimes actually is for some people in some places. In this way, I believe, Algren's w riting resembles Hemingway's.

11

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM: ITS HISTORY AND SOURCES

The history of The Man wi th the Golden Arm, the novel that I consider Algren's best, begins with a feeling. As he explained it to the Par is Rev i ew interviewers,

I just had an overall feelinq. I didn't have any particular theory about what I ought to do. Living in a very dense area, you're conscious of how the people underneath live, and you have a certain feeling toward them . . . so much so that you prefer living among them than with the business classes, in a historical sense, it might be related to an idea, but you w rite out of . . .w ell, I wouldn't call it indignation, but a kind of ? r r ita b i1itv that these people on top should be con­ tented, so absolutely unaware of these other people, and so sure that their values are the right ones. I mean, there's a certain satisfaction in recording the people underneath . . . whose values are as sound as theirs and a lot funnier, and a lot truer in a way. There's a certain overall satisfaction in . . . scooping up a shovelful of these people and dumping them in somebody's parlor. 39

Algren wrote The Man wi th the Golden Arm on a fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, perhaps the $1,000 award received in 19^7 for Never Come Morning, and on a $2,000 grant from the

Newberry Library. Carl Sandburg, impressed with the poetry in Algren's stories, arranged for the la tte r stipend. This income, together with a two-year guarantee of a $60 monthly advance from the publishing firm of

Doubleday, permitted him to work uninterruptedly on the novel for three years.

Although Algren was born in Detroit March 28, 1909, he was reared on Chicago's northwest side and attended Chicago publi© schools. Having absorbed the Chicago atmosphere for several years, he did not need to look elsewhere for a geographical area to portray re a lis tic a lly . He had learned this one. His insistence upon authenticity, nevertheless, was so great that while writing the novel he lived at 1523 West Wabansia,

"not far from the neon jungle, the crap joints, the horse parlors and the bars of Division."^® From here he could make frequent forays into the neighborhood to discover precise details with which to paint the backdrop of the story and exact speech patterns with which to endow his characters. (From here he had only to cross the street to exercise his talehts as a stud poker dealer, talents which he ascribed to Frankie.)

It is not surprising, therefore, that Algren quickly abandoned his

^Anderson and Southern, p. 52.

^°Brad 1 ey, p . 22. 16

original intention to write of the war and chose instead to write of his

experience here. His present life was understandably more real to him

than were memories of the war.

At the suggestion of an agent to whom Algren sent the novel after

he had worked on it for two years, he sought a "peg" on which to hang the

plot. Accidentally, through a long-time acquaintance, he met a group of

addicts. After some consideration, he decided that introducing the

narcotics angle would not harmfully sensationalize the story. He

therefore made Frankie a morphine addict. Frankie is not patterned after

any single person; he is a composite of two or three people, one an

Italian bookie, an Army buddy who was a good dice shooter and who 41 frequently used the phrase "golden arm."

To interviewers Algren acknowledged that he adheres to no set

routine in writing a book. He sticks to no schedule but works best at

night. When in the midst of a novel or story, he works steadily for six or seven hours a day for several days. More often he works two hours a day. To loosen up, he sometimes works out on a punching bag at a

gymnasium. 42

In addition to absorbing and studying the Division Street atmosphere, Algren used a variety of other sources. His notes for the

^Anderson and Southern, p. 41. See also Bradley, p. 22; Warfel , p. 8; and Harvey B reit, "Nelson Algren," The W riter Observed (New York, 1956) , p. 86.

^On page 95 of Who Lost an American? Algren says that he had membership in the Division Street YMCA. See also Malcolm Cowley's introduction to Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews (New York, 1958), p. 233; Bradley, p. 22; and Perlongo, p. 93. novel include a few newspaper clippings. One from The Chicago Sun te lls of an automobile that ran a red lig h t, almost struck a cab, jumped a curb and smashed into a light pole. These details are nearly identical to those of Frankie Machine's automobile accident (MGA, pp. 67"*71). Six other clippings concern robberies. One is about a talkative thief, a

Bennie Lavender, who so resembles Sonny Carlson of the f ir s t draft of the novel that they share the nickname, The Green Hornet. Another, headlined

"Ciucci Nearing Death Walk," relates the procedure for electrocution in the manner supposedly used for L ittle Lester (MGA. pp. 222-22^). The remaining clippings in the Ohio State University collection, newspaper articles like "'My Life at Crime1:1 How I K illed Smith,furnish objective accounts of events that could have occurred in the Division

Street area.

Algren also obtained a copy of the court record of the suicide of

Chester M. Witwicki, which he used for the details of Frankie's death.

The verdict at the end of the "Witness Sheet" in the novel, for example, is almost identical to that of Coroner A. L. Brodie, who examined

Wi twi ck i.

^This article is one in a series by Renoto Lolli, as told to Ray Brennan, published in the Chicago Daily Tribune presumably in December, 19^5, or early in 19^6. The clippings themselves are undated. 18

Deputy Coroner Hackett in "Witness Sheet" A. L. B rod i e

The verdict of the coroner's In his home located at 2838 jury will read that the W. Chicago Ave. from deceased came to his death asphyxiation by strangulation from asphyxiation by strangu­ by a rope around his neck lation, with a rope around his suspended from a door put on neck extended from a wire roof­ by his own hands with suicidal ing put on with his own hands with intent at the above mentioned suicidal intent, at the above- location on March 13 A D 1945 mentioned location between at about 10:00 PM while tem­ midnight of March 31st, 1948, porarily insane due to i ll and 12:20 a.m. of April 1st health. while temporarily insane. (MGA, p. 342)

Algren also obtained copies of the pathological report by Or. J. Goodman, who examined the body of Witwicki, and of the testimony of proceedings 44 at the inquest.

Many of the notes that Algren took for the novel concern narcotics.

Sprinkled throughout those on other topics, they give concrete evidence of Algren's accumulation of necessary d e ta il. Several typed notes concern dosages. Others discuss the effects, e .g ., getting cold when in need of a "fix." In one note Frankie describes the feel of "coming off the Stuff." in another is the term "bull horrors" which becomes the

S"he Pathological Report by Dr. J. Goodman, who examined the body of Witwicki March 14, 1945, describes the "lin e of depression" caused by the cord and attests that death was due to asphyxiation by strangulation. The transcript of testimony of proceedings at the inquest March 14, 1945, contains sworn statements by Soseph Witwicki, brother of the victim , Mrs. Bessie Czarnak, the victim 's landlady, and Edward Russell, an investigating police officer. Their testimony does not relate, however, to that in The Man with the Golden Arm. "chuck horrors" Sophie has In the second d ra ft. Other notes concern the method of giving a "fix." One reads, for example, "--Spreading the fingers wide before injection. Then the ritual of cleaning the needle the blood mounting in the needle like mercury in a thermometer increasing the temperature of joy." Another entry, appearing twice, specifies that the relaxation from a "fix " almost makes up for the sick times its absence causes. The notes contain many remarks by Louis Fomoroshy, N ifty Louie of the novel. In one he reminisces, "'0 these grass-fire smokes they call habits nowadays. It's a ll too easy, a ll too easy now .... You can't build up a habit now if you wanted, the way they got the stuff milk-sugared up.'"^-’ The "Man Letting Everything Go," the man in a cell next to Frankie's--in this respect he resembles DeWitt of the novel— speaks on two typed pages entitled "The Man Who Let it All Go's Advice to Frankie Machine." Here and elsewhere he lauds "junk" as the only important thing: it is like God. All of this data-gathering indicates

Algren's conscientiousness about his subject. The information he presents he knows not from his own experience but from his careful observation.

Only an addict himself can know whether Algren's account is valid. These notes, however, prove Algren's attempt to be realistic.

Although not enough evidence exists to state absolutely the dates of composition, these notes do furnish a basis for speculation.

Some of the narcotics memoranda are dated April 13, 19^8. Because the introduction of Frankie's addiction occurs in the third d ra ft— Sophie's

^5| have normalized the punctuation in the quotations from Algren's notes, where the punctuation is often incorrect. 20

addiction receives little mention in versions 1 and 2— it seems logical

to assume either that Algren did not have the notes on morphine before

he wrote the third version or that he had the notes but did not choose

to use them. ! believe that the latter explanation is more likely since

the notes are mixed with others that he did use in the first two drafts.

The second draft, therefore, must represent the typescript that Algren

submitted to his lite ra ry agent. If we believe Algren's statement that

the completed novel took three years to w rite— and there is no evidence

to disprove i t — then he must have spent two years w riting the fir s t two

drafts and a year composing the final two. Because the novel was

published September 8, 19^9, it is possible that he wrote the first two

drafts in \Sb6 and 19^7 and the last two in 19^+8 and early 19^+9. Concrete

proof, however, is lacking, partly because many of the notes are undated.

Additional typed notes demonstrate Algren’s intention to use

diction appropriate to the locality. Thirty-two pages are entitled

"Division Street Idiom." From them we learn that "Whiz us" means " v is it

us"; "jump off" means "leave"; "I'll hang up" means "end it" ; "I'm wound

up with him," "Through with him"; "a cross-dea1 "a double-cross."

Several speeches given here later occur in one or more of the drafts and,

some of them, in the published book. On page 191, for example, Record

Head Bednar te lls a man in police show-up, "'For a quarter you'd steal

the straw out of your mother's kennel.1" He replies, "'What I'd do

for a quarter you'd do for a dime.'" Both of these speeches appear in

Algren's copious notes on diction.

Other random notes directly relate to the novel. Algren

transferred this thought from Frankie to Sophie: " ' I t isn 't really 21 what happens to you so much, so long as something happens--So long as you have a fuli, rich life what does it matter if you're teased |_?] all the while?'" The typed notes dated April 12, 19^8, include the name "Record

Head, Bednarski," which becomes the name of the captain in the novel.

Algren's intent to make Sparrow castigate himself is cle^r in a typed note of March 23, 1956 ( i . e . , 19^6?)>, "'I'm ju st a leftover from some­ body else's good time.'--Sparrow." in another note Sparrow recalls that when he saw Louie fa ll, he thought, "'Murdering! Murdering! Why give him a chance?'" Algren, therefore, may have planned the murder scene early. A letter to Algren, in pencil, from a Betty L. Patterson, P.O.

Box 2,000, Lexington, Kentucky, says, "Don't give up drinking the tomato juice (with egg)." A page of a fragmentary version of the novel contains this prescription for Stash. Page 190 of the novel mentions a Betty Loul^ a prostitute in police show-up. Three pages entitled "Beauty and Molly" compare and contrast the two girls. Molly, who is not the logical stenographer that Beauty is, possesses an element of hope and an interest

in caring for other people. Both of these attributes describe Molly

Novotny, Frankie's mistress. Another page of Algren's notes, a large page of scrapbook paper, contains a very rough draft of "Epitaph," written here in heavy pencil. Algren has signed the page. It reads,

Frankie MajcenckaHis Sorrowful Name

All is in the wrist whether with deck or cue Majcenek has the touch, The Faders are sweating it out When Zing! —'there it was — Get a hunch L ?H bet a bunch Tell 'em where you got it and how easy it was— Yet he crapped out when we thought he was hot Could it be that the dice were rolled? Why is he gone from the dealer's slot? 22

Still other notes have their counterparts in the novel. Algren's pessimism is apparent in the note in which Frankie wonders if there is something better than "junk": "(Ultimately the kick even better than

Junk is, of course, Death.)" This is the kick that fin a lly claims the dealer. Sophie is designated as twenty-six or twenty-seven years old.

Frankie's g u ilt complex is implied in Algren's note: "Frankie in the bar with a snapshot of Sophie: laughs a l i t t l e at it drunkenly, puts it back in his pocket, takes it out, drops ashes on i t , does everything he can to rid himself of it without being able to do so." Only the motivation for this incident, not the incident itself, occurs in the novel. One of Sparrow's humorous phrases appears in the notes. "Sparrow was declared 4F for 'Moral warpitude' because, when the army analist Lsicl asked him what he would do if the enemny |_sicl had him trapped, with his mother and sister and one of them had to be sacrificed to permit the other two to escape, he answered heroically, 'S ir, mother would have to go.1 'But if these soldiers were capable of rape?' 'That would be sister's turn, S ir.' 'And what if it were a question of your life or that of the other ninety in your outfit?' 'The o u tfit would have to go,

S ir .'" Sparrow's assertion, " 'I have a very naked e y e ," 1 becomes

Frankie's (MGA, p. 10). Another note mentions Piggy's new clothes as being "real tough—classy." They are significant in identifying him as the thief of Louie's roll of bills.

The hotel room scene between Frankie and Sparrow in the notes is somewhat different from that which appears in the novel. Frankie warns

Sparrow, "'Get your Yery best hold.' . . . 'You've told me with your very own moijith that if you don't turn somebody in, they're going to bust you.'" 23

In the book Frankie and Sparrow do not meet while Sparrow is being pressured

to name his accomplice in Louie's murder. They do meet, however, when

Sparrow delivers morphine to Frankie. The notes include, furthermore,

a speech by Frankie about drugs labeled, "In hotel scene with Sparrow."

This variation suggest a change in Algren's concept of the time of the

scene.

Another source for The Han with the Golden Arm is the show-up

dialogue which Algren transcribed during frequent visits to police line-ups

at the detective division of the Chicago police department, 1121 South

State Street. The earliest date on the show-up material is February 19,

19^6; the latest is October 9, 1952. Several pages of notes are undated.

(He once gained admittance as a burglary victim. He was robbed March 9,

19 ^9 , and, therefore, was given written permission to attend all show-ups on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, to identify the t h i e f . ) ^ Some of

the phrases used in the actual show-ups reappear in the show-up before

Captain Bednar: "for unbecoming words to a lady I think it's called"

(cf. MGA. p. 191); "annoying a 10 yeard [sicf o lf [si<3 g ir l. I

beg your pardon. It was a boy" (cf. MGA, p. 197). "What were you doing

climbing down that telephone pole at 3 a.m. with a vending machine on your back?" (cf. MGA. p. 190). "'Rape?' 'No. She volunteered her

services. Down the a lle y .' 'She volunteer the watch and rings too?'

•Yessir.' 'What a man'" (cf. MGA. p. 193)• The conversation between

Bednar and Sparrow concerning Sergeant Kvorka is reminiscent of this

one: "'What's the matter between you and Officer Dooley. Can't you two

^^The permit, number 8127-C, is dated March 2k, 19^9* get along?' 'He don't like me. But I can't say anything against the man. Why, I expect to get picked up now and then, naturally . . . '"

(cf. MGA, p. 2). Algren's note contains a Negro's aliases: R eilly,

McCarthy, and Mclnerney, the la tte r a name written on a j a i l cell wall in the first draft, page 5. This wealth of information--clippings, court records, random notes, and show-up material—justifies our calling

The Man with the Golden Arm a we11-researched novel.

111

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM: ITS CRITICAL RECEPTION

The opinions of Simone de Beauvoir and Ernest Hemingway typify the critics' reception of The Man with the Golden Arm. Talking about

A Walk on the Wild Side, Miss Beauvoir asked, "'Why are a ll your best friends pick-pockets, drug addicts and p i m p s ? ' " ^ Several c ritic s of

The Man with the Golden Arm shared this opinion. Algren's view is too one-sided to be realistic; his sympathy for the underdog distorts his total perspective of contemporary America. In the view of Chester E.

Eisinger, for example, Algren is compassionate to a fa u lt, since he extends his sympathy to the meanest person even if that person does not ju s tify it. Eisinger complained that Algren prefers the unwashed to the rest 48 of the population largely because they are the unwashed. Charles

Child Walcutt condemned the novel as "irresponsible and inaccurate—a sentimental contrivance that has little to do with reality but rather 4-9 explores a cul-de-sac in the author's imagination."

^Allsop, p. 509.

^Chester E. Eisinger, Fiction of the Forties (Chicago, 1963 ). p . 7 4 .

^W alcu tt, p. 298 . 25

Algren, who has no love for c ritic s , rebuked them for asserting that he makes heroes of vagrants and rumdums. He said in an interview with Robert Perlongo,

I think the c ritic s have exaggerated the whole thing. I certainly did not set out to make "heroes" of these people. I do fe e l, however, that a thinker who wants to think ju s tly must keep in touch with those who never think at a l l . There is no better way of recording the American saga than to study it from behind its billboards and comic strips, which tend to dwell more upon the American dream than upon the "re ality ."''

Other c ritic s pointed out additional flaws. A. C. Spectorsky disliked the melodrama, the intrustion of slapstick comedy into the humor inherent in the subject matter, the obtrusively poetical descriptions, 51 and the unconventional punctuation. The New Yorker attacked the contrived plot "with its motivations of guilt and d o o m ." - ^ Marc Rivette called attention to the frequent usage of the word "dream" and labeled 53 ineffective the concluding poem. Noting Algren's lack of concern with plot and his suspicion of ideas, Eisinger called him "the twentieth-century romantic man of feeling, inexplicably caught in the city slums.

Norman Podhoretz considered The Man with the Golden Arm "a book fu ll of half-realized attitudes identifying themselves only in a distant whisper;

50 Perlongo, p. 97*

-^A. C. Spectorsky, "Saloon Street, Chicago," The New York Times Book Review. September 11, 19^9, Sec. 7. P- 8.

52iigr iefiy Noted, " The New Yorker, XXV (September 17, 19^9), 106.

^^Marc Rivette, "A Novel of Chicago's Sordid Side," The San Francisco Chronicle. October 9, 19^9, sec. This World, p. 27.

5^Eisinger, p. 7^. 26

i t was a book that never quite discovered what it wanted to say, which

may account for the uneasiness one f e lt in reading i t . "55 Blanche

Housman Gelfant, fin a lly , lamented its structural weaknesses. Successful

as description, it fa ils as interpretation. The comic episodes with

Stashand Violet and the j a i l scenes with L ittle Lester are too long to

be effective. To Miss Gelfant it is a novel of small fragments without

acentral organic core. She acknowledged, however, that it possesses a

unity of subject, incidents and characters belong together less by

virtue of structural necessity to theme, plot and characterization than

by relevance to setting, intensity of atmosphere almost substitutes

for a sustained theme.

More representative of the reception of The Man with the Golden

Arm is Hemingway's regard. Elsewhere calling Algren one of the best writers a fte r Faulkner, he commented in The Book Find News which announced

publication of the novel,

Into a world of letters where we have the fading Faulkner and where that overgrown Lil Abner Thomas Wolfe casts a shorter shadow each day, Nelson Algren comes like a corvette, or even a big destroyer when one of those things is what you need and need it badly and at once and for keeps. He has been around for a long time but only the pros knew about him.

Now everybody w ill know about him because he w ill be available in sufficient quantity. Truman Capote fans grab your hats, if you have any, and go. This is a man writing and you should not read it if you cannot take a punch. I doubt if any of you can. Mr. Algren can hit

'’•’Norman Podhoretz, "Books: The Man with the Golden Beef," The New Yorker. XXXII (June 2, 1956), 132.

56Blanche Housman Gelfant, The American City Novel (Norman, Okla., 195*0, p. 256. with both hands and move around and he w i11 k ill you if you are not awfully careful. I hope this language is intelligible. We could always get some character in the Kierkegaard circuit f table literary terms. Mr. Algren, my

Carl Sandburg joined Hemingway in hoping that "Algren lives on, holds to his standards, and writes a long shelf of books." He wrote,

We could throw away Nelson Algren's three books, two novels and a collection of short stories, if they didn't have great qualities of insight into people, a heart of pity, a gift of cadence and song, and often when you are near heartbreak he throws in comic re lie f. The interwoven police, politicians, gamblers and thieves, fixers and hustlers, the jargons of night clubs and boy gangs, tenements, slums, "night without mercy," "children of the broken sky line." Algren makes his living grotesques so terribly human that their faces, voices, shames, fo llie s and deaths^ can linger in your mind with a strange midnight dignity.

A comparative survey of reviews of Algren's works immediately shows that it is The Man with the Golden Arm which confirms the opinion of Hemingway and Sandburg. The number of favorable and unfavorabilforeviews of the other writings nearly balance. Those of The Man with the Golden Arm are an exception; the number of favorable ones far outweigh those already cited. One of. the aspects of the novel which several critics mentioned is its humor. Emmett Dedmon cited this quality as elevating Algren above other sociologically minded writers.

"He not only pities his people, he laughs with them. He is not an outsider looking at them through a telescope of condescension;

-^"Comments by Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg," The Book Find News, ed. George B raziller, No. 8 5 , p . 5 . See also Breit, p . 8 6 . 28 he is one of them and he knows, as they do, that while dreams last, their life is as good to them as any."-^ Spectorsky also enjoyed the flashes 60 of antic, grisly humor, and Hollis Alpert called attention to the 61 ribald saga of Violet and Stash and Sparrow and Rumdum. Like George

Bluestone, The New Yorker, Time and The Booklist complimented the 62 Rabelaisian humor that redeems the pervasive grimness of the story.

Several reviewers noted Algren's compassion for his subject.

Miss Gelfant attributed part of the novel's success to his sympathy,

“Which throws a phosphorescent glow over the gray alleys and the gloomy shadowed rooms and decaying people . . . .“63 Spectorsky said that Algren 64 is “almost morbidly compassionate." Alpert spoke of Algren's “passionate 65 66 warmness"; the New Yorker reviewer, of his “broad compassion;" and the Book!ist c r itic , of “ the author's understanding and compassionate 6 7 portrayal of his characters . . . ."

•^Emmett Dedmon, “Dreams of Poor Are Shown with Humor, Pity," The Chicago Sun-Times, September 11, 19^-9, p. 6X.

6°Spectorsky, p. 8.

^Hollis Alpert, “Fallen Angels," The Saturday Review of Literature, XXXII (October 8, 19^9), 23.

^Bluestone, p. 35; “B riefly Noted," p. 106; “The Lower Depths," Time. LIV (September 12, 19^9), 108; The Booklist. XLVI (November 15, 19^9), 97.

^ G e lfa n t, p. 252.

^Spectorsky, p. 8.

^ A lp e rt, p. 23.

^ “Briefly Noted," p. 106.

^7jhe Booklist, p. 97. 29

Algren's authenticity also reaped praise. John J. Maloney lauded 68 the accuracy of background, people, and dialogue. Eisinger also noticed the accuracy and d e ta il, the degree of Algren's intimate knowledge of the subject, and the success with which he conveys the texture of urban experience.^ Maxwell Geismar was impressed with the correctness of the language^ and Spectorsky complimented Algren for his acute ear for vernacular speech and for his complete grasp of m a te ria l.^ The Time reviewer commended the author's faithfulness to speech, smells and 72 hopeless squalor. Miss Gelfant, too, mentioned his intimate knowledge of both setting and speech and his imaginative and poetic use of that material.^ Bluestone, finally, credited Algren with "the graphic eye."^

Algren's unusual style, of course, elicited comment. Miss Gelfant talked about "his power of expression, which transforms ugly fact into evocative image and creates, as an emotionally sustaining framework, a pattern of rhythm, verbal repetition, alliteration, and tobal variations."^

^Maloney, p. 10.

^Eisinger, p. Jk.

70Geismar, p. 191.

^'Spectorsky, p. 8.

^"The Lower Depths," p. 108.

^ G elfan t, pp. 255, 257.

JLl ' Bluestone, p. 35*

75Gelfant, p. 252. 30 76 The New Yorker mentioned his metaphoric style, Bluestone commented

77 about his poetic imagery; and Spectorsky talked about his passages of finely poetic, smoothly flowing prose. 78 Spectorsky continued by praising Algren's sure feel for s tru c tu re / although some other critics found fault with it . Not Spectorsky but

Bluestone, however, presented an explanation of the structural unity.

"Rumors of Evening" is an elaborate record of Frankie's unsuccessul attempt to rid himself of the drug habit, and thereby of his guilty tie to Zosh. "Act of Contrition" traces Frankie's failu re to win, through Molly's love, another lease on life . If the novel gives the impression of separate pieces of cloth loosely stitched together or, in Blanche Gelfant's phrase, of parts that f i t together, "lik e pieces of mosaic," it is simply because no other scheme w ill do. If Algren is concerned with the living death that follows love's destruction, then one can understand the succession of timeless moments, each distinguishable from the rest, like a series of stills in which action is both palpable and frozen. Postures succeed each other without correlative shifts in consciousness. Only moments of love— or love's destruction—can create new states of being. What lies between these points is the echoing wind of death. Everyone meets death at the end; the loveless meet it sooner. That is why Frankie's relationship to Zosh, then to Molly, is more te rrib le than the murder of Nifty Louie or Frankie's self-destruction. That is why events seem to zig-zag so, why strange ellipses occur between successive scenes, why the passages that deal with prison, or with Sparrow's amorous adventures, or with Frankie's all-night dealing have a curious dreamlike effect, as if time has wholly stopped. The meaning of all the digressions is precisely in their pointlessness. A more conventional development, conforming to traditional standards of plot, crisis and resolution

^ " B rie fly Noted," p. 106.

77B1 uestone, p. 35.

78spectorsky, p. 8. would constitute a different kind of novel. To reject Algren's structure, then, is to reject his central vision. When his vision changes, then his structure, too, will change. He is too careful a writer to have it otherwise.™

This explanation to me seems plausible, if somewhat idealistic.

Frederick J. Hoffman, who places Algren in the tradition of

American naturalism, believed that The Man with the Golden Arm escapes the naturalist impasse of portraying a person or event that has no intellectual or moral purpose, no purpose at a ll beyond the obvious one of entertaining. In The Man with the Golden Arm Hoffman saw the realization of the best possibilities of the naturalism of the 1930's, since Algren does not shamelessly exploit the horror of Skid Row as a commodity. Wrote Hoffman, "This is a man-made evil which man can neither understand nor control. The police are implicated along with the derelicts and petty criminals. Murder becomes not an act involving moral decision and responsibility but a circumstantial part of the novel's texture .... The Man wi th the Golden Arm has the merits of a literary intelligence, which resists the temptation either to exploit or speciously to resolve the tensions of the world it has chosen to

Q q portray. The Time reviewer joined Hoffman in rejoicing that not one O 1 paragraph of preaching appears.'

79Bluestone, p. 39.

SOFrederick J. Hoffman, The Modern Novel in America, 1900- 1950 (Chicago, 1951), pp. 187-188.

8l"The Lower Depths," p. 108. 32

A few additional aspects of the novel received c ritic a l appraisal.

Miss Gelfant pointed out the "evocative and stirring" use of urban imagery to equate physical elements in the setting with social or psychological

O p characteristics of city lif e . Eisinger commended Algren for bestowing upon Frankie not w ill, but personality: "the capacity for love and guilt, a dim awareness of the possibility of discovering identity."

Rivette, fin a lly , thought that the terrifyin g scenes about the dope habit ok and the concluding court report are noteworthy. I believe that this survey, although brief, is lengthy enough to document the acclaim that greeted the publication of The Man with the Golden Arm. Receipt of the first National Book Award as the outstanding novel of 19^9 indicates that the applause was not misdirected.

Algren himself recognized not only the merits but also the flaws of his most famous work. To an interviewer, he said, "The Arm was a solid job which humanized and personalized an American street corner lying in the path of an expanding national tr a ffic in drugs. In a decade of books written by ribbon salesmen, it appeared almost a great book. Rereading it I find it a b it on the woolly side, a l i t t l e hard to get into; but once into it, re w a rd in g \ f Algren were to rewrite the book, he would nevertheless make some changes.

I would avoid its cowboy-and-lndian ending. No gunfire and no big scenes. There is tragedy in America more common than a man being shot down in the street, more te rrib le than any

^ G e lfa n t, p. 19 .

^ E is in g e r, p. 83.

8kRivette, p. 27.

85Ray, p. 32. 33

police trap. It is the American disease of isolation, one which affects Americans from penthouse to tenement: an inability to "get with it," a simple incapacity to communicate. With drug addicts the causes are sufficiently plain: the addict is pursued and obsessed; he has withdrawn from the world; he is living behind a locked door. Thus he walks among the people and places he knows—-familiar streets and old-time faces, and no longer belongs among them. He belongs nowhere. He is loveless, friendless, sexless, defenseless—the total spiritual death within the living being. Multitudes of Americans suffer from inability to love, fear of sex and dread of joy, without being drug addicts. We are both the richest and hungriest people that ever were assured that they were the greatest ever, while at the same time being secretly frightened that they might turn out to be only second best. We are horrified by the governments that keep ppople in line by police control. Yet we ourselves are as dependent upon the stool pigeon as the Russians are upon armored tanks.

In Frankie Machine's tragedy I would depict this fear of living which has always infected our national life. Sometimes it seems to be that New England's rock-bound coast is touching Los Angeles; for all its flaunting of sex that city is actually a port of New England. As someone said of a very serious actress: "It's all out front; there's nothing to take home." We seem to have become that kind of country— whgire it's all out front and nothing to take home. "

In another interview, when asked what he would change, Algren reiterated this position. He admitted that the plot is creaky alongside that of the wel1-planned A Walk on the Wild Side. ^

86 ibid.

^See Anderson and Southern, p. 4-5, and Perlongo, p. 92. Algren regrets that because of the movie version—he says that he did not work on it—the novel is lost to the anti legalistic tradition toward society that has distinguished Chicago fic tio n . (Who Lost an American?. p. 204.) 34

IV

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM: ITS TYPESCRIPT VERSIONS

The unpublished drafts of any novel often te ll the unique story of the author's method of composition. The typescripts of Nelson Algren's

The Man with the Golden Arm tel 1 such a story. These d ra fts , some of them original pages and some of them carbon copies, compose a major portion of the Ohio State University Library's collection of Algren material. An analysis of them reveals the nature of Algren's creative process.

The collection includes fir s t editions, some of them autographed;

1,934 corrected typescript pages and kkO uncorrected pages of The Man wi th the Golden Arm; the scenario for the movie, The Man with the Golden

Arm; two sets of proof of the novel, one of them signed by Algren; 225 pages of notes for the novel; the original of the "Witness Sheet" appended to the novel; Algren's personal scrapbook concerning the novel}

Algren's six copies of the novel in foreign languages; and Algren's copy of Poetrv (September, 1947), In which "Epitaph: The Man with the Golden 88 Arm" fir s t appeared.

When I began to examine the typescript of The Man with the Golden

Arm, a ll pages bearing the same number, regardless of content, were grouped together. My first task, then, was clearly one of sorting.

This task was a major one because of Algren's technique of composition, which he explains briefly in the Paris Review interview.

QO The library has recently purchased the typescript and galley proof of Never Come Morning and the typescript of an unpublished, short work incorrectly entitled A Walk on the WiId Side. Interviewers: Do you write in drafts? Algren: Yes, but each draft gets a l i t t l e longer, I don't try to write the whole thing in one d raft. Interviewers: How much do you usually write before you begin to rewrite? Algren: Very l i t t l e , I dunno, maybe five pages. I've always figured the only way I could finish a book and get a plot was just to keep making it longer and longer until something happens . . . you know, until it finds its own plot . . . because you can't outline and then f i t the thing into it . I suppose it's a slow way of working. 9

Although the drafts of the novel become progressively longer, even a

cursory look at the typescripts reveals that Algren understates the

complexity of his erratic method of composition.

Consideration of more than content is necessary in the sorting

process. The frequency of authorial change handwritten in ink or pencil,

the width of margins, the kind and sharpness of type, and the presence

or absence of carbon paper smudges are e xtra-literary butrelevant

c rite ria . They become especially important in grouping the pages of a

single d raft, in distinguishing between an original and a carbon copy,

and in differentiating between two seemingly identical pages.

My study of the novel's gestation as it indicates the author's

technique next demands a close analysis of each of the drafts. Variations

in names, plot, and style point out the cautious turns of the author's mind. Some of the variations are simple alterations in detail, while

others are more significant additions and deletions. Some show stylistic

improvement while others are more punctuation c h a n g e s . Usually they

^Anderson and Southern, p. k 5.

9°Revi sions in the fir s t paragraph, for example, show a compression, a hallmark of his style. He constantly prunes unnecessary words, phrases (especially adverbial and ad jectival), and even whole sections from the typescripts. are d iffic u lt to describe fu lly except by a lengthy collation. It shows

that in one sentence of version 2, for example, a detail is expanded from

its appearance in version 1. The next sentence in 2 omits a detail that

appears in 1. The reader can compare these two passages. My italics

indicate the differences between the two pagsages. The principal

alterations in version 2 are the addition of "with a sluggish concern"

and the deletion of "to safety."

Version 1 Version 2

Belly upward, the roach's legs Belly upward, the roach's legs plied the alien air, trying to plied the alien air, trying, regain a foothold, while Machine. dreami 1 v . to regain a foothold, leaning on em elbow, watched its while Frankie, leaning on one efforts dully. He concluded it elbow, watched its efforts dully was the same insect that had with £ sluggish concern. It was, waved so invitingly to him from he saw, the same insect that had under a radiator while he was waved so invitingly to him from being booked and fe lt h a lf­ under a radiator while he was inclined to help the poor devil being booked and f e lt h alf­ to safety just for old time's inclined to help the poor devil sake. (pp. 22-23) now just for old time's sake. (p. 29)

The collator traces no consistent pattern in the variance of details,

since, on the one hand, Algren was quick to expand a passage or section

that conveys the particular tone or feeling that he was anxious to create.

Sometimes, I believe, he overly expanded with the result that the section

receives disproportionate importance. On the other hand, he often deleted

details to make an incident or a description subtle. Many of his sentences

are fu ll of implication about both action and mood. I do not mean to

suggest that Algren revised whimsically. His eye, acute for accurate, concrete sights, and his ear, sensitive to authentic dialect, usually would not let hriim rewrite without cause. I do want to suggest, however, that his fid e lity to his concept of re ality and his consummate concentration on mood motivated his manipulation of detail. My discussion, of necessity, is selective in the choice of details which it mentions. Those chosen either are germane to the plot alteration or are interesting because of the mood that they help to create. I have

included a few, I admit, which are merely curious.

Furthermore, any attempt to summarize a Nelson Algren novel or one of its drafts must remain unsatisfactory, for the final impression of the story depends not so much on plot action as upon tonal d e ta il.

True, one can briefly chronicle the action, but the account would

inaccurately present the novel as a work of art, of which the plot is a necessary and integral part, but, nonetheless, only one part. The account would not convey the importance which Algren ascribes to milieu; it would not reveal Algren's minute attention to detail; in short, it would not convey the atmosphere that Algren carefully creates. The total meaning of the novel comes, then, from both the plot and the atmosphere. Because they dynamically reinforce each other, any separation of them violates the integrity of the novel.

Without some mechanical apparatus, discussion of the typescripts would be unwieldy, for the drafts are not divided into chapters. However,

Algren's dramatic perspective mirrors itself in the form of the drafts.

Algren wrote, essentially, in scenes. Normally the setting, and sometimes the actors, change in successive scenes. Hence, each scene is a s e lf- contained section of the typescript. Algren did not number the sections.

He merely indicated breaks in the composition by quadruple spaces, not double spaces, between lines, or, less frequently, by asterisks, hand­ written X's, or a penned direction to leave space. To fa c ilita te discussion of the drafts, I have assigned an Arabic number to each of these 38

sections. Most typescript sections are from three to five pages long.

I have numbered the sections consecutively, assigning a new number to

the fir s t page or passage after a designated break or to each new page

a fte r an omission.

The reader may note omissions in the page collations of the

typescripts. I can conclude only that these pages are unfortunately

lost. I say “unfortunately" because their inclusion would present a

truer view of Algren's intent. In some cases it is possible to calculate

in tellig en tly what the missing pages include. In others it is impossible.

Hence, the researcher cannot determine whether some scenes crucial to the

plot are lost or whether they were never written for a particular draft.

Algren divided the published book into two parts labeled,

“Part I, Rumors of Evening," and “Part I I , Act of Contrition." Each of

these major divisions contains sections separated in the published book

by a l i t t l e less than two pica spaces. T h irty-five sections compose

Part I and th irty -s ix , Part I I . I have assigned an Arabic number to each

section, beginning a new sequence with Part II . I 16, therefore, means

Part I, section 16; II 8, Part II, section 8.

PART I

I: 3-7 8: 27-30

2: 7-10 1 ' 30-43

l : 10-15 JO: 43-56

it: 15-16 } ± : 56-61

£: 16-20 12: 62-67

6: 20-21 11: 67-71

I* 21-26 lit: 72-74 39

UL: 74-76 8: 224-226

16: 76-82 £: 226-231

1Z: 83-91 10: 231-235

J8: 91-93 11: 235-238

12: 93-99 12: 238-241

20: 99-107 1 1 : 241-244

2J_: 107-113 14.5 245-247

22: 113-121 1 1 : 247-254 i l : 121-123 16: 254-266

24: 123-140 JLZ: 266-267

25.: 11+0-145 18: 267-271

26: 145-150 1 1 : 271-274

2Z: 150-152 20: 274-279

28: 152-157 11: 279-282

2i: 157-165 22: 282-284

10: 166-169 21: 285-288

11= 169-177 24: 288-295

12: 177-181 2 1 : 295-299

12: 181-182 26: 299-302 lit: 182^188 2 1 : 302-308

12: 188-200 28: 308-311

PART 11 2£: 311-313

1: 203-208 JO: 313-319

2: 208-212 11: 319-324

2: 212-213 i l : 324-330

it: 213-219 U: 330-334

2: 219-221 lit: 334-337

6: 221-222 11: 338-342

2: 222-224 16: 343 ko

To give the reader a panoramic view of the project, I fir s t contrast the fir s t version with the final one, the published book.

I then contrast the second version with the first, especially noting the ways in which the second draft indicates both a growth of the story and a departure from the original draft. I follow this same procedure in contrasting the third version with the second and the fourth with the third. I discuss, in addition, fragmentary portions of the novel that belong in none of the major versions in the Ohio State collection. They are labeled versions 3^, and I fin a lly consider miscellaneous pages and the galley proof. Appendixes describe the typescripts at the

Illinois Institute of Technology and chart the changes in characters' names in the major drafts at Ohio State. CHAPTER I

VERSION 1

The first draft in the Ohio State collection consists of 346 typescript pages, 119 of them originals and 227 carbon copies. Of these, 184 are yellow '‘copy" paper; 162 are white or ivory. All measure

8-2 inches by 11 inches. Corrections on original pages are both typed and penned. Typing appears often to have been hasty, for many errors remain. Large blue crayon numbers distinguish several original pages of only this version. Because many original pages are missing from this version. I have used their carbon copies to supplement the extant originads to form an accurate first draft. When both the original and the carbon copy exist, I have used the o rig in al. The number of pages of the f ir s t version analyzed in this study is 286 , 119 of them originals and 167 of them carbon copies.

The Illinois Institute of Technology collection includes some original pages of version 1. Many more pages are missing from its draft than from Ohio State's; hence, the Illin o is draft is of l i t t l e value in determining Algren's initial intent (see pp.278-280).

The f ir s t version includes portions of both parts of the finished novel. L ittle more than half of the completed work, however, is represented in the first draft. Forty-seven sections of the version relate directly to forty-three sections of the book. Typescript secs. 24, 30, 31, 36,

41, 48, 5 0 , and 51 do not relate to any of the sections of the book.

41 42

Typescript sections do relate to twenty-nine sections of Part I of the novel and to fourteen sections of Part II.

Although the fir s t two pages of the draft are missing, presumably it would have begun as the book does, it breaks o ff, however, very abruptly, with Sparrow's waiting to make a delivery of morphine for

Blind Pig. It does not contain, therefore, crucial scenes that appear later in the book, it omits the actual delivery to Frankie, Sparrow's subsequent imprisonment and final implication of Frankie in Louie's murder, Frankie's hiding out with Molly, Sophie's hospitalization, Frankie's temporary evasion of the police, and his final suicide in a cheap hotel room.

The fir s t version does not contain important scenes occurring in the book before Sparrow goes to Kippel's. It does not contain scenes in which Louie gives Frankie a "fix " or Frankie "kicks the habit." It contains no e xp lic it evidence to prove that Frankie is a drug addict.

That he is suffering a prolonged fever and cold after being chilled is as plausible an explanation for his ja il sickness as is the opinion that he is delirious from a lack of narcotics.

Another possible hint of Frankie's addiction is too oblique to take seriously. In typescript sec. 31 Sparrow says that he knows where

Louie gets his money. Frankie recognizes a stained silver dollar that

Louie calls his good luck piece. Sparrow undoubtedly refers to Louie's dope peddling racket and Frankie may have seen the silver dollar at home. Because the typescript te lls of Sophie's addiction, it is more likely to assume that she paid Louie with the stained dollar than that

Frankie gave it to him. (Curiously, references in the book to Sophie's addiction are much less pronounced than are those to Frankie's plight.

See MGA, p. 24, for example.) 43

The first version contains a few significant scenes which the book omits. Here Algren graphically describes Louie's preparation to give Sophie "the needle" and her heightened reaction—"the real jab o ff"— to it (sec. 10). He also writes about Frankie's v is it to the Safari, where he views the antics of the M. C ., the strippers, and other customers.

Frankie himself gets drunk, performs on the stage, and nearly gets in a fight (secs. 29 and 30). While at the Safari, however, he warns Pig against delivering any more morphine to Sophie (sec. 29) and argues with

Sophie about using drugs (sec. 36). Algren also reports the unusual birth of Dovie's son and, in a rather lengthy passage, the disturbing effect of the birth on Frankie (secs. 50 and 5 0 *

The frequency of lost pages in the fir s t draft precludes a positive statement about the continuity of the plot. The story does move, however, but not satisfactorily because there is no resolution of the narrative. The plot, as here presented, is episodic and the experiences of Frankie and Sparrow are almost picaresque. Frankie is released from j a i l , goes home to Sophie's nagging, gets her a dog when he thinks that it w ill distract her from his a ffa ir with a Negress in their rooming house, deals with a variety of poker sessions, gets drunk during the floorshow at the Safari, murders Nifty Louie after an insult about Dovie, and fears the eventual outcome of his crime. He goes to a Christmas party, imagines his bright future, and tires of his mistress. He then goes to jail for stealing flatiro n s, there gets sick, and fin a lly goes hone to spurn both his wife and his friend, Sparrow. Having lost "the touch," he misdeals in another card game, refuses a drink from the friendly bartender, and is reminiscent and remorseful upon learning of his mistress' baby. Surely

i kk

it is d iffic u lt to find here a coherent series of events leading to a viable conclusion. If we acknowledge any sort of progression, it must be an emotional one, for the early Frankie is generally a self-confident, boastful, self-styled hero of all card dealers; the late Frankie is a guilt-ridden man who cannot escape from the plight and blight of his haunting 1i fe.

Sparrow, too, is released from j a i l , participates in stud sessions, and is a chronic th ief who tries to avoid reimbursing Kinsella for the broken flashlight pencil which Sparrow had stolen and subsequently sold to him. He is with Frankie at the time of the murder. He lets Frankie serve a six months' ja il sentence for him, reminisces a b it, witnesses the Great Sandwich B attle, and makes exhausting love to Violet before he wanders into Kippel's and the K it Kat Klub, where he meets Pig. Algren portrays him as "the goofy one," a loud talker to everyone except Frankie, upon whom he heavily depends. He is seldom taken seriously, even as he seldom takes lif e seriously.

Sophie nags Frankie upon his homecoming, is frustrated and lonely, knows that she can hold her husband only by remaining an invalid, recalls his flippant attitude during their courtship, welcomes him home again with coldness, and gets temporary elation from the "fixes" which Louie and Pig give her. Jealous of able-bodied, loved women, she blames Frankie for her present condition. Inaction characterizes her life, as she lives in a world of increasingly pervasive unreality. Now she and Frankie endure the stolid aftereffects of the automobile crash, which has occurred before the immediate action of the story begins. (The account of the accident is written almost as a flashback but in the past-perfect tense. Even Sophie's k5 frequent trips to a variety of doctors are over when the novel begins, although the typescript te lls about them.:)

This monotonous plot line and, perhaps especially, the lack of a

reasonable conclusion indicate the looseness cf the plot in the fir s t version. The typescript documents, beyond any doubt, Algren's technique of writing in scenes, for often no transition paragraph, sentence, or word

is present. Algren painted pictures or reproduced dramatic scenes, some­ times dramatic because of the tense, taut action, more often dramatic because of the f u t ilit y which the lack of action underscores. The typescript, essentially, has no plot fully sustained through rising and falling action, crisis, climax, and catastrophe. It is composed of a series of scenes which Algren has rearranged, in toto or in part, by the time the finished novel appears. The chronology of scenes and of

isolated speeches changes drastically between the fir s t and final drafts.

This transformation shows that Algren's creative process was dynamic, that only a hazy outline of plot preceded actual composition, and that the novel, in short, evolved.

The characters develop l i t t l e in this version. Although we know most about Frankie, Sparrow and Sophie and, therefore, can sympathize most with them, we sense in none of them any tangible effo rt to change their lives. They are tragically weak, driven by forces apparently beyond their grasp. There is l i t t l e development in their personalities; hence, with the possible exception of Frankie, they are static characters. This, truly, may be Algren's desired effect.

We know even less about the minor figures who d r ift in and out of the story. The old bartender considers himself no good, although he makes this admission to no one but himself; he gets drunk on his own liquor and then cries like an infant. Pig is fu lly described in his f ilt h but is understood chiefly as a drug peddler. Louie, who calls himself a "song-

,ni dancin1-man," receives l i t t l e attention except as a drug racketeer who enrages Frankie to murder. Big Stinkin' T'ing is simply a ja n ito r who receives barbs for being a bachelor from his fellow poker players. We know more about Kinsella, proprietor of the poker establishment. The victor in many skirmishes with the underworld, he now fears heart trouble, and more hauntingly, the imagined pursuit of his former enemies. Violet is known principally as a nymphomaniac, sometimes irascible and sometimes generous to Sophie. Stash is her long-suffering, senile husband, Dovie, alone, of the more important minor figures, remains relatively distinct.

Differing from Molly, her counterpart in the book, Dovie is a new girl in the apartment building whose background is unknown to Sophie, is a

Negress, and gives birth to a boy. None of these facts is present in the book. There Molly is one of Frankie's early girl friends now living with brutal Drunkie John who delights in kicking her. She is white and she has no children. Sophie has long been jealous of her. As the plot thickens, her role becomes increasingly important in the final scenes which the typescript does not include. Even with Dovie, however, there is little character development. The anticipated birth of Frankie's child makes her so litary, but this change is the most noticeable. And we do not know that it is permanent. Compared with Molly, she is pasteboard.

To come to grips with a-viable theme in the fir s t draft is impossible since the lack of plot and character development precludes a serious, sustained treatment of a central idea. At least three probably themes worthy of further development do suggest themselves, however. One of the

earliest notes struck in the typescript is an exposing condemnation of

the so-called justice in Chicago. The satirical drawing of a naked judge

sentencing to the electric chair a fully-clothed prisoner for indecent exposure, the protection which the Ward Super receives from God, the policeman's expectations of a bribe as he arrests Stash, and the ease with which Kinsella and Violet can bribe a policeman to reduce a criminal

charge or commute a sentence underscore this explosive topic.

That the jailb ird s are incarcerated because they have committed

the sin of not owning anything is a theme which Algren often voices. Had they not lived in a society in which ownership is virtue, they would not

now be ja ile d . Had they been capitalists, they would not be accused.

Had Frankie and Sparrow not been conditioned from birth to live by a sleight of hand, so conditioned that even when they are free they perpetrate more crimes, then they would be able to conform to accepted middle and upper class mores.

The theme of love, fin a lly , seems dominant in this version.

Algren explores both its constructive and its destructive power. For a while the union between Frankie and Dovie gives both of their lives meaning. Although their concept of love is chiefly physical, they seem to realize their potentiality as human beings when they are with each other. This relationship decays when Dovie realizes that she is pregnant and when Frankie becomes preoccupied with guilt for his in fid e lity and for

Louie's murder. The friendship between Frankie and Sparrow is almost beautiful in its naivete. Frankie's staunch defender, Sparrow basks in Frankie's fame as a dealer and is subservient to his whim. Frankie, on

the other hand, seems callous to "the punk," but his hurt is deep, 1

believe, when they gradually d r ift apart through misunderstanding which

Frankie's strict pride will not let him rectify. The love between Frankie

and Sophie ruins them both. Incessantly jealous of Frankie's past

experiences with other women and of his present breezy attitude toward

their marriage, Sophie turns her love to vengeance. By her self-enforced

invalidism, she cements Frankie to her with a strength that she could

achieve in no other way. She succeeds in burdening him with a load of

gu ilt which she constantly seeks to augment. Even his early frivolous

love for her dies. In its wake are dread, depression and desertion. The

love between Sparrow and Violet, finally, is hardly that at all. It is

chiefly animalistic release, but it is based partially on Violet's com­

passion for the unloved, wayward "punk."

These themes, like the plot and characterization, grow in succeeding

drafts and reach their fullest realization in the final version.

An evaluation of this draft makes us immediately aware that

version 1 represents Algren groping for a workable plot enacted by

re a lis tic people who portray his view of twentieth-century American life .

It is a very crude beginning, fu ll of discords in his concept of the novel

and of its characters. It indicates that when he began composing The Man with the Go 1 den Arm. he did not have in purview a complete story. He had

in mind, rather, a series of sometimes disjointed scenes, characters, and

ideas, which he strove to unify. Essentially unsuccessful in this initial

draft, Algren, nonetheless, did lay part of the foundation for the novel.

Some of it he destroyed and relaid. Some of it remained intact. bS

The fragmentary nature of all of the drafts, and of the first

version p articu larly, should not necessarily be construed as a weakness

in Algren's craftsmanship. Some sections abruptly stop and start because

many, many pages are missing, but gaps in pagination indicate a greater

continuity than we can demonstrate from the evidence at hand. Therefore,

while we cannot unduly chastize Algren as a sloppy workman, we also cannot

get at Algren's complete intention in any draft. Because the first version

is perhaps the most fragmentary, many generalizations about it must be

restrictive or conditional.

Algren's chief concern in the first draft assuredly and naturally

was with the story its e lf rather than with his prose style. Both the

quality of the style and, consequently, the number of revisions he made

in the draft indicate that he paid little attention to style. Draft 1

includes simple mistakes that may be the result of haste, e .g ., "the

leiutenant [sicj decided firmly" (sec, 1). Other passages are confusing,

no doubt partly because of the jargon, e.g., "Of course, the priests cut

in for handling the take, and the Lord put in the fix for his own when he

took his end" (sec. 2). Frequent passages are relatively abstract and

grammatically incorrect. Spme of these he revised within this draft to be more specific and accurate. For example, "Below the city's carnival was beginning, the red and green lights of the taverns on both sides of

the street that somehow made the street-car tracks glisten as if toith

rain" becomes "Below the tarnished crucifix a carnival, Nifty Louie's

carnival, was beginning; the red and green lights of the taverns on both sides of the street began making the street-car tracks glisten a blood

red" (sec. 10). The addition of picturesque detail and the change from 50

"that somehow made" to "began making" increase the force and completeness

of this sentence. Some sentences contain needless repetition. His prose

frequently is wordy: "Frankie was too feverish to go to chow, and lay

on his bunk, when they came for him, in a ravaging nightmare . . .

Algren strengthened this sentence by condensing it to read, "By chow-time

he was tossing on his bunk in a ravaging nightmare . . ." (sec. 3*0.

Despite these characteristic flaws, many of Algren's descriptive sentences

even in this early version have a compelling urgency about them that should

not be denied, and much of the dialogue has the ring of authenticity.

The modifications which Algren made in successive drafts do not detract

from these positive qualities. Rather the changes emphasize them.

The page numbers of all extant original pages of the first version

follow. 35; 37; 39-55; 59; 61-62, 62v-66; 68; 69-72, 72v-84; 86-91; 93;

103-105; 112-113; 119, 119 v - 121; 125-126; 129; 135; 190; 200-201; 222;

225-235; 297-305; 316-3*6; 3*6-352; 355-356.

The numbers of a ll extant carbon pages follow. 3-34; 36; 39-58;

60-84; 86-93; 97-100; 102-107; 110-114; 116-122; 124-128; 130-144;

166-189; 191-215; 217-218; 222-233; 235-251; 253-266; 268 - 271.

The following pages, then, are missing from both the original

and the carbon copy: 1-2; 38 ; 94-96; 101; 108-109; 115; 123; 145-165;

216; 219 - 221; 252; 267; 272- 296 ; 306-315; 346-348; 353-354.

The following pages have been renumbered; their original pagination

designates their correct position within this draft. Their subsequent

function is undetermined since they f i t into no known drafts. The second

set of numbers occurs in parentheses. Original pages: 53-55 (69-71);

135 (185); 227-228 (369-370); 297-305 (464-472); 316 (484). Carbon copies:

53-60 (68-75); 60 (71B). 51

The f ir s t draft consists of three kinds of pages: (1) that which contains The Man with the Golden Arm copy on only one side of the page

(this kind predominates); (2) that with The Man with the Golden Arm copy on the recto and a typed le tte r or a rough draft of a book review on the verso; and (3) that with The Man wi th the Golden Arm copy on both sides.

On the versos of original pages 61, 62, 72, and 119 are unnumbered pages of handwritten script belonging to the novel. They contain additions to what occurs on the respective rectos. In addition, the verso of page

335 contains a typed page 11; the versos of typed pages 337-340 contain typed pages 6-9; the verso of page 343 contains typed page 338; the verso of page 345 contains typed page 5, which precedes the page 6 on the verso of page 337; the verso of page 355 contains typed page 378; and the verso of page 356 contains a typed page 505. None of these versos fits into any known draft.

1 have assigned section numbers to the pages of the fir s t version as follows:

u 3-4 H): 63-69

2: 4-8 11: 69-72, 72 v -74

1 - 8-14 12: 75-82

4: 14-24 11: 82-93

£: 24-31 li+: 97

6: 31-38 I £ : 97-100

I' 39-46 16: 102

£: 47-61 JLZ: 102-105

61, 6 lv -6 2 , 62v !£ : 106-107 52

J l: no 1Z: 254-260

20: 110-114 1 8 : 260-266

2J_: 116-118 1£: 268

22: 118-119, 119 v -l20 40: 268-271

1 2 : 120-122 4l_:: 297-305

24: 124-128 42: 316

2£= 129-144 h i- 316-317

26: 166-172 44: 317-321

21: 172-183 4i: 321-322

28: 183-202 46: 323-326

2^: 202-215 h i- 326-332

i ° : 217-218 48: 332-334

2 1 : 222-232 h i- 335-337

2 2 : 232-238 10: 337-341

2 2 : 238-240 1 1 : 341-343

J4: 240-244 12: 343-345

2 2 : 244-251 11: 349

2i 253-254 1 1 : 349-352 11: 355-356

SECTION 1

As the collation indicates, the typescript begins with page 3» thereby omitting a discussion of the police captain"s feeling of pursuit and his conversation with the new prisoners, Frankie Machine, the protagonist, and Frankie's friend, Sparrow (Solly Saltskin), whom the captain ridicules in I 1.^

^This rubric means Part I, section 1 of the published book. Hereafter references follow this pattern. Curiously, the typescript begins with Frankie's view of a roach beneath a

radiator. Later, in the fourth section, this roach struggles to stay afloat in a waterbucket in Frankie's jail cell. The symbolism is transparent, for, like Frankie, the roach needs help to escape from his prison, help which Frankie refuses to give until he himself is released.

Both the typescript and the book continue with dialogue between the captain and Sparrow and between Sparrow and Frankie. In this passage first occurs a satirical thrust at the corrupt Chicago police force.

The book echoes the typescript when Sparrow says, "'Bednar had Kvork [police sergeant) pick us up just to show Schwiefka [operator of gambling room where Frankie is dealer and Sparrow he's a week behind w it' the payoff.'"

SECTION 2

This section, which begins by te llin g what Frankie sees on the cell walls, occurs in I 3^ afte r the successful theft of flatiro n s from

Nieboldt's department store. On these walls "The young men had engraved their b itterest disappointments . . . beside their fondest hopes." Here,

in both typescript and book, Algren again satirizes Chicago ju stice by citing the picture of a naked judge sentencing to the e le c tric chair a clothed man for indecent exposure.

After this portion of what becomes I 3^> the typescript continues, without a break, with a passage later appearing in I 2. For the fir s t time Frankie now says the key sentence of the novel, " ' I t ' s a ll in the wrist 'n I got the touch.'" Both typescript and book depict the humor of Sparrow's being "o ff balanced," indicate that God and the "ward super" work together, and contain the precinct captains' song. That the book is occasionally more specific shows that Algren concretized his original

notions about both characters and actions. For example, the typescript

says, in the last sentence of this section, "The Super saw that both boys worked a couple days a week and the Lord saw that they didn't get into

serious trouble in between." The book reads, "He saw that both boys worked for Zero Schwiefka by night while the super himself gave them hot tips each day." Although this section in the book continues, in the typescript it ends here.

SECTION 3

This typescript section s t ill corresponds to I 2, although the book contains two paragraphs and one sentence in the third concerning

Frankie's drug addiction which the typescript omits. Both trace the origins of the friendship between Frankie and Sparrow and refer, for the fir s t time, to Frankie as "the kid with the golden arm." The book again

is more specific than the typescript. "Zero Kinsella had never held out on the steerer since, even during the lonely months when Frankie was overseas and everyone but Sparrow seemed to have forgotten the golden arm of Frankie Machine," in the typescript, becomes, "During the lonely months with Frankie overseas and Schwiefka trying to deal his own game,

Sparrow alone, of that whole semicircle of 4-F's, from Blind Pig to

Drunkie John, had remembered that golden arm," in the book. According to the typescript, Frankie writes Sparrow a card from the hospital to say that he is coming home from the war. The book does not mention this incident. The typescript continues with what becomes I 3; however I 3 55 omits the discussion of Frankie's not acknowledging that he squints, of

Frankie's tough talk about his dealing, and of Frankie's name, Machine.

In both Frankie shows Sparrow various tricks that have taken him years

(typescript says twenty; book says ten) to learn, e.g., how to make a bow tie from a racing sheet and how to make an extra ten dollars on every hundred in the bank. In both Frankie taunts Sparrow, who, in the book, insults his own appearance. As the section concludes, Frankie continues to taunt his friend.

SECTION k

This rather lengthy section concerns a cabdriver, unnamed in the typescript, called DeWitt in the book (II 22), who is ja ile d next to

Frankie in the typescript but next to Sparrow in the book. In the typescript his wife is unnamed; in the book, she is Gracie. Both contain sim ilar humorous passages about the cabbie's "going wrong" because of his ludicrous involvements in paying the gas b i l l . After sim ilar passages, the typescript, without a break, continues with a portion of what will be I 5, a description through Frankie's eyes of the other ja ilb ird s . Omitted in the typescript is a stinging discourse on the burial of paupers. In both, an old "wino," a former night watchman, wanders into the scene to ask pathetically, and somewhat humorously, whether anyone remembers him. Of course, no one does.

Sec. k here jumps from the concluded I 5 to what w ill be I I 23 with the question, "'How many the lockup wanted to know." The answer in the typescript is "Two"; in the book "one." The typescript then switches to a portion that fin a lly ends up in I 6, a 56

passage concerning the marks of a good j a ile r . It next returns to what is

now II 23, although the typescript includes two paragraphs about the

cabbie's background and plight which the book omits. In this section the

typescript contains conversation that Algren later uses in I 6. ("'My

wife's Gracie a hundred per cent.' 'Mine stinks,' Frankie Machine

thought softly . . . .") It also contains a description of the roach's

fall into the water bucket, an incident in I 6. Now in the typescript

is a passage, appearing e a rlie r in II 23, about the cab-driver's being

a "nobody." The difference between the two accounts is that Sparrow,

only in the typescript, carries on the conversation to distract Frankie

from thinking about Sophie. And Sparrow tries to sell the cabbie a dog.

Sec. II 23 continues past the place at which typescript sec. 4 ends.

This rather jumbled composition supports the obvious conclusion

that Algren considerably rewrote this typescript section, polishing it

for specific detail and stylistic perfection.

SECTION 5

This section corresponds to I 7» In both Kinsella (Schwiefka)

comes to ja i l to "put in the fix " successfully for Frankie and Sparrow.

The typescript, however, includes four additional paragraphs about

Kinsella's background, a passage in which Sparrow talks about the

surprising lack of fear by the "boys" for Kinsella. Similar passages

follow about no one's being scared of Frankie (although the book says

that the Germans, according to Sparrow, were scared of the dealer) and

about Frankie's not catching N ifty Louie giving Sophie "funny cigarettes."

The book discusses the various levels of drug addiction. The absence of this discussion from the typescript may support Algren's claim that he

"plugged in" the dope aspect after he had completed the novel. In both

the typescript and the book, the turnkey releases his prisoners. Frankie

returns to help the symbolic roach, only to find that he is too late:

the roach has drowned, just as he ultimately will die unnaturally.

Dreading to go home, Frankie and Sparrow get on the tro lle y. Sec. I 7

continues, although the typescript moves on to another section.

SECTION 6

"The Happy Home Life of Frankie Machine" is the ironic t i t l e of

this typescript section. Speeches in this predominantly dialogue section are often similar to those in I 9 but they are arranged d ifferen tly.

Other differences exist, too. In the typescript Sophie says that Nifty

Louie told her about Frankie's being in j a i l ; in the book Frankie blames

Piggy-0 for telling her.Whereas the typescript has Sophie clicking a flashlight pencil on and off, the book stresses the sound of Frankie's playing a home-made drummer's practice board. The whole emphasis of his yearning to be a big name drummer never appears in the typescript, which also omits Sophie's verbal attack on Frankie's step-mother. It includes

Sophie's waiting for Frankie to pick up her thought ("My name is

Rumpelstiltskin") to determine the truth of what N ifty Louie (Doc

Dominowski in this scene in the book) had told her about thought transference. The typescript continues with several details which the book omits: Sophie desperately wants Frankie to look at her; Louie knows much about her; Sophie's hair has a henna rinse; she remembers a special night, perhaps her first with Frankie. In both versions Sophie 58 asks Frankie to heave his greasy cards out the window and to jump out after them. Part of the emphasis on cards shifts to that on drums in the book.

Contrast, for example, Sophie's sentence in the typescript, 1,1 It's just you 'n that greasy deck that counts,"1 with this one in the book: " ' I t ' s just you 'n that secondhand drum box that counts."1

The contrast between the following two paragraphs reveals an expanded concentration on d e ta il. The typescript reads, "'Everythin's no good for me,' she lamented, slapping the cards out of his hand,

' l i t t l e puppies 'n even havin' a l i t t l e beer, to have somethin' to do.'"

The book reads, "The fingers upon his own turned to bloodless claws— he drew his hand back fast. fEver'thin's no good fer me,' she wailed and slapped the cards out of his hand. " L ittle puppies 'n even havin' a l i t t l e beer, to have somethin' to do. I ' l l be twenny-six years for

Christmas 'n just look how I am—an old lady awready!"1

The typescript, not the book, however, next relates a two-and- one-half-paragraph account of one of Frankie's war experiences in which he comes upon a German who he thinks is dead but who violently demonstrates that he is actually very much alive. Algren reduced this incident to

"When | Sophie's] voice rose in that rattling whine he remembered the distant beat of a rtille ry and the sudden applause of M.G. fir e ." A generalization about the relative amount of detail is impossible, therefore. I believe, however, that the typescript contains more

'Working detail" which Algren then expanded or pared to heighten the desired atmosphere. A fu ll understanding of the war experience, for example, is unnecessary to grasp either the mood or the plot. In fact, it impedes the movement of the action. 59

Although typescript page 38 is missing, the start of a page 38 on

the back of page 39, reads, "in the shadowed hall, trying with pale, weak fin ." This page, if completed, probably, then, would refer to this German soldier, the stranger in Frankie's dreams waiting in the hall to break

into Frankie's hospjtal room.

SECTION 7

Both typescript and I 9 chronicle Sophie's desire for beer but the typescript omits her admiration for the navy. Both te ll of her desire for a dog. A fter a few paragraphs about Frankie in which the original copy calls him Majenski (perhaps an error, for the next page calls him Majcenski, the carbon calls him Mosienko [crossed out on the original copy], and the book calls him P rivate), the typescript continues with a one-paragraph explanation of the name Machine, an explanation sim ilar to that given in I 3. There, however, it is placed in parentheses, as an insert. The original page also contains a penned note of the

"Drink Chevalier" song that is in the book. The typescript continues to parallel I 3 with a prose version of "Epitaph," although some names are changed in the route from typescript to I 3 to the poem. As a prelude to the dish-breaking episode that occurs in both typescript and book, the typescript includes paragraphs in which Frankie plays cards to an accompaniment of Sophie's ranting, and in which Sophie asks for a dog, chides Kinsella for allowing women at his tables, and expresses her jealousy for those women and for Frankie's friendship with Sparrow.

During this time in the book she is discussing a girl with a strawberry bi rthmark. 60

After the dish-breaking scene Frankie leaves, kicking a dog on his way out. A woman, Dovie Breedlove in the original typescript, Dovie Weaver in the carbon copy, and Molly Novotny in the book, scolds him for kicking her dog. In both versions Frankie sees the woman, in the typescript a

Negress and in the book a white woman, who apologizes for scolding him.

He realizes that Sophie has been listening to him. In the typescript he then expresses his curiosity about Dovie and about how many families are living in her room. This curiosity is lacking in the book. Frankie then goes to a bar (the Club Safari in the corrected original, the Morning Star in the carbon, and Antek's Tug & Maul in the book). Note that the Club

Safari also appears in the book not as Antek's bar but as a riv a l, higher class cafe across the street.

SECTION 8

This typescript section, which omits the introduction in I 10 to Antek's bar and its customers, is entitled " I'll Take All I Can Get."

The section begins with a description of filthy Blind Pig, who appears nearer f if t y (book: sixty) years old than his actual th irty (book: forty-odd). In this section, too>are described Louie's tan (book: two-tone) shoes, noteworthy because of the impression that they make upon Frankie. The accounts of Sparrow's dog stealing racket and his sales talk about Rumdum are similar in sec. 8 and I 10, although the latte r omits paragraphs describing the beer-drinking hound. Sec. I 10 continues after the typescript section stops. A comparison of this typescript section with the book illustrates the degree of rewriting between the two, for both versions d iffe r in specific details, although their general outlines remain the same. 61

SECTION 9

The typescript and the book, I 19, begin this section differently.

The typescript chiefly concerns the effect of tenement shadows upon Sophie, an effect which the book also notes. The book, however, chiefly discusses the effect of tenement noises on her. In both Sophie feels unwanted and deserted, as though God had forgotten her. In the typescript, she awakens from drugged sleep, puts away the syringe, and remembers the images of her false "carnival." The end of this typescript section is marked XXX at the bottom of page 62. Page 6 3 , however, begins with a paragraph

labeled an insert for page 6 2 . And the next paragraph seems to follow without a break intended. I 19 continues past the point at which sec. IO s t o p s .

SECTION IO

In sec. IO Sophie feels the need for love, notes a movie boner she

i s go i ng to send to Screen 1 and (II 12), is j ea1ous of Violet1s good 1uck and resents her for having a lover on the fire escape. In a curious passage Sophie then sees the sorrowful face of Jesus, a shadow which

Violet, too, at first acknowledges and later denies by calling Sophie

"cuckoo." Sophie reads secret meanings into everything and in both

typescript and book (II 12) traces on the wall the word "perdition," as fire sirens roar, not to an exciting fire but to only a small scare at the Fish Furniture Company. "Nothing had happened after all. It had seemed too hard to bear." Trying to console herself, in the typescript

Sophie tells Violet that she was fortunate not to have been pregnant at

the time of the automobile accident. She herself does not think so, 6 2 '

especially when she reads of an injured woman who successfully gave birth

to a healthy baby while she was in a coma. Sophie puts this clipping in

her scrapbook with other morbid accounts of such incidents as unwed mothers' putting newborn babies down dumbwaiters or into furnaces (l 9).

The book does not contain the passage of this section in which Louie

gives Sophie a “fix" and in which Sophie asks God not to let him "pop"

her again.

SECTION 11

The dialogue between Sophie and Frankie now parallels that in

II 12. As Sophie's thoughts whirl "in a tumbling carousel," in both book and typescript she dances like an Hawaiian for Frankie and later

thinks that she is leading a girls' band. (In the book she also asks about the American Federation of Labor. A fter this question comes the

"perdition and fire " passage noted above.) According to the typescript, after Frankie goes to work Sophie thinks that she is in a charity hospital where the boys are playing cards. She imagines what Frankie's friends are lik e , realizing that they are a ll displeased about something.

She awakens, aware that she has reacted to the drug Louie had given her.

She meditates on going to Purgatory and on her in ab ility to bear children

(I 23). She dreams of the time when she was able to walk. Although she sees herself as a faceless creature, she asks why she should worry, for she s t ill has Frankie. Only the typescript discusses L ittle Stinker,

Big Stinkin' T'ing's older brother, distrusted by all. Frankie is the portector of Big Stinkin* T'ing, from whom "the boys" often steal. 63

SECTION 12

Although speeches and reminiscences are somewhat rearranged, this section parallels I 12, Sec. 12 does not contain the fir s t four paragraphs of I 12; the book does not use the fir s t paragraph of sec. 12, Both sections concern the courtship of Frankie and Sophie, his casualness about love and love-making, and her hold on him because of his g u ilt. Both versions indicate that he dated a variety of women, which, in the type­ script includes Sophie's sister. Both te ll that Sophie's parents dis­ approved of him. In the typescript Sophie herself e xp lic itly reproached him. The book omits this passage. She cannot, however, make Frankie ashamed. She would weaken whenever she tried to hurt him even after she had seen him walking with a whore, Myrtle Dumbrowski (Lily S plits).

Gradually she and Frankie drifted into marriage.

"He told me he loved me that night . . . I remember. 'Cause I asked him.1

"You would of kicked me out of bed if I hadn't said yes, Frankie Majcinek might have replied.'

Sophie blames Frankie for "driving the nails" into her. (In the book she tells Violet of his crucifying her.) Nonetheless, she once boasted that she would make a man of him yet, just like Joan

Crawford (Jane Wyman, crossed out in the typescript but used in the book) did to "'some b a ttlin ' the bottle worse 'n F ran kie."1 She has not done much of a job of it; however, he feels guilty and suffers from "A secret disease: the disease of his crippled joy." 64

SECTION 13

The tune playing on the juke box at Antek's Morning Star (crossed out in typescript, Safari penned in; Tug & Maul in I 13) is called a

h illb illy ballad of Kentucky. In pen, Algren labels it a song of "some war-time popularity called: The Crippled boy's lament."

When your friends a ll turn you down dear I'll be waiting When you have no place to go Please come on home.

This song, in the typescript, however, is crossed out. In the book the

song is called "the final song of a world that had known neither a-bombs

nor A-Bomb Specials £drink£J."

There's nothing le ft for me Of days that used to be ....

Although the typescript mentions Antek's four year-old child's eating crumbs from a potato chip bowl in the bar and the book mentions his eight year-old, the two texts are roughly sim ilar. Both note the symbolic, unclaimed crutch in the bar. (Later in I 13 Sophie asks Frankie to open a hospital closet door behind which they see a broken crutch.)

Both then present an account of the "fatal accident."

Sec. I 13 ends with Frankie's realization that Sophie is not completely well, a detail omitted from the typescript. The first version continues with Frankie's dream of a dealer giving him a blood-stained h alf-d o llar which he does not want because it is unlucky and because it turns out not to be silver at all. In the dream he grabs the dealer, only to realize that the dealer is himself.

While the typescript b riefly discusses Zygmunt's racket— he gets

Frankie o ff a drunken driving charge— , I 14 discusses it at greater length. Here Zygmunt calls Frankie and Sophie lucky Polaks and receives payments from Frankie for "putting in the fix ." After Sophie awakens

Frankie to say that she feels queer, as though a ir bubbles are in her neck, and that her legs are numb, I 14 stops, although the typescript

continues with what becomes I 15. Then both the typescript and book discuss Sophie's treatment by Dr. Jankowski (book: Dr. Pasterzy) and he break with him because of his asking personal questions.

The section continues like part of I 16, when Violet takes

Sophie to the movies. There Sophie likes Gene Autrey (book: Dick

Haymes). Even when V io le t, to be with Sparrow, leaves Sophie in the theater, Sophie protects her by lying to her husband, Stash. The type­ script continues, without a break, to use material later placed in I 17, a section about Violet's easily keeping secret from Stash her relation­ ship with Sparrow.

SECTION 14

The book, I 16, greatly reduces the discussions here of Sophie's regard for Frankie as her priest and of her jealousy of V iolet's health.

SECTION 15

Entitled "Poor Man's Pennies," this section, which relates to

I 17, te lls of the beginning of Sparrow's courtship of V io let. Both sections te ll how Sparrow gave up his "scraunching route" for her and how he tried to win her by lying. Only the typescript, however, relates some of the lies he te lls and narrates the account of his forcible expulsion from a Chinese restaurant after finishing a dinner for which he could not pay. The book, on the other hand, more fu lly describes

V iolet's concern for him. SECTION 16

This one-paragraph section tells of V iolet's repeatedly smoothing

"the bumps out of [Sparrow'iJ vanity." Sec. I 17 contains this idea.

SECTION 17

A humorous treatment of Sparrow's thefts, which include a geranium

and a bath-tub, starts this section. V iolet, of course, always comes to

his rescue here, just as she does in I 17- When Violet gets drunk on the

day Sparrow is released from ja il (book 117: on the day Sparrow goes to

j a i l ) , she reports that she is no longer staying with Stash. The type­

script includes an account of V iolet's securing Sparrow's release from ja il with only a misdemeanor charge for getting behind the wheel of a

taxicab. (Here Violet is an ash blond; in the book, she is a red-head.)

SECTION 18

This section, which later turns up in I 17, te lls of Sparrow's

robbery of Gold's department store. Preparing for the robbery, he shoves

the elevator operator into the elevator just like Alan Ladd (book: Edward

G. Robinson) would. The typescript ends with Sparrow's looking at the money in the cash register. The book, of course, continues to chronicle

the theft and its results.

SECTION 19

Here Violet te lls Sophie of the wonderful lies Sparrow te lls .

They hear Blind Pig enter the rooming house. These events are part of I 18. 67

SECTION 20

Both the typescript and book describe the night and the city, but I 19 greatly expands and alters the details. In both Sophie remembers the crutch seen in the bar (I 19). She had not realized that it was hers.

In the typescript Sophie sings,

I'm jealous of the birdies I'm even getting jealous of myself.

In the book she sings,

1'm no m illionai re But I'm not the type to care.

In both sec. 20 and I 19 Sophie reminisces about the events leading to her seduction.

SECTION 21

The typescript does not contain the seduction itself, since a page is missing. This section continues to relate to I 19. Sophie's reminiscences d iffe r a l i t t l e in the book but in both sec. 21 and I 19

Sophie hears a mouse-trap click, as though it has shut on her. The typescript does not contain Sophie's belief that God has forgotten His children but it does contain her thoughts about "old man Gold, of

Division Street's biggest department store," as though he were the

Biblical Noah. Sec. 21 concludes with Sophie's running cold water over greasy dishes as her wheelchair crushes others s t ill on the floor.

Finally someone, presumably Pig, comes with a delivery, saying, "'Louie sent me.'" 68

SECTION 22

Sec. 22 Is entitled "God Hates A Coward." In a ll the years

Frankie has dealt at Kinsella's (Schwiefka's) he has had only one

argument. That occurred when he caught Nifty Louie rapidly flashing a

card to make it look like a pair. In the book this is a trick played on

Umbrella Han (I 22). In the typescript Frankie and Sparrow and Kinsella

help to keep the other poker players from beating up Louie, for Frankie

has a guilty enough conscience whenever he thinks about Sophie. Although

Kinsella allows Louie to play again, Louie never forgives Frankie.

SECTION 23

Respected by the suckers who play with him, Frankie boasts to

Sparrow of his a b ility as a dealer and a pool shark. The book condenses

this passage (1 22). The typescript also contains Frankie's growing

resentment of Sophie's nagging and her dream of cousin Olga.

SECTION 2h

The book omits this section in which Sophie dreams of viewing the

face of Christ, of riding in a hearse, and of seeing a crutch that she

realizes is her own. She asks Frankie to wheel her and talks to herself about keeping him bound to her. Nifty Louie te lls her that a person feels better if he can get "a l i t t l e of his own (Ti fe?[ back." He maintains that Frankie has killed her. Sophie knows that she cannot hold Frankie if she is ever able to walk. Louie understands her frig h t of being left alone. Sophie tells Frankie that she forgives him, but he rejects her forgiveness and then feels even more guilty. He fancies what their lives might have been had no accident occurred. He considers

going to Hass, but reaches for the bottle instead.

SECTION 25

Entitled "Every Hour on the Hour," this section (cf. I 20)

includes a description of Kinsella's (Schwiefka's) "den," and an account of Sparrow, again broke, trying to borrow money to gamble on cards. He

deals until he is thrown out for getting too much of the money- himself.

By reporting the conversation during the card game, the typescript gives

background information about Kinsella, Louie, Big Stinkin' T'ing, and

Pig. The book te lls about Louie, who has some speeches that are Kinsella's

in sec. 25, Drunkie John, Umbrella Man, and Meter Reader. In the type­

script Kinsella warns Sparrow about coming to his place after stealing mechanical pencils from dime stores. Violet retorts that she would have

Kinsella deported. Kinsella, who once had to fight deportation proceedings since both Canada and Ireland disclaimed him, is sensitive about not having a country. This incident receives a l i t t l e different treatment in the book. There Louie warns Sparrow that he w ill turn him in. Frankie retorts that he would have Louie deported. Sparrow then responds that Louie has no country. After this harangue, it is Frankie in the typescript but, curiously, Louie in the book, who wants to know the use of Sparrow's flashlight pencils. In sec. 25 Kinsella and Sparrow continue to argue about the flashlight pencils. The typescript next presents more back­ ground detail about Kinsella. Then the conversation returns to the flashlight pencils, and the dialogue with Sparrow becomes increasingly tense as he insults Kinsella and implies that Louie's "business" is

illegitim ate. The book alters some of the conversation and does not 70 contain the episode in which Frankie squashes the candy Sparrow is eating

gluttonously. Sec. 25 ends before I 20 does, thereby not containing additional insults, Pig's telephone trick, Frankie's illness, his thoughts of Sophie, and the continuation of the stud session.

SECTION 26

Beginning afte r I 2b, sec. 26 omits nearly seven pages that te ll of Stash's coming home drunk, his eating stale food, his liking to tear pages from the calendar, and his lacking interest in sex. Sec. 26 starts as Violet brings home Sparrow from the Tug £- Maul. In both accounts the

Great Sandwich Battle next follows, with no major differences between them except that spring is approaching in sec. 26 and Christmas is approaching in I 2b. During the fracas about the sausage sandwich Violet makes for Stash, she hits him with her slipper and he strikes her with his gun. Neither is injured.

SECTION 27

Now including Stash's obsession for stale food, sec. 27 continues to chronicle the Great Sandwich Battle to which I 2b still relates.

Stash retreats to the fir e escape, where Violet scares him by shooting out an arc light. Supported by the innuendoes of Sparrow and V io le t, a policeman arrests Stash for the shooting which the o ffic e r assumes to have been an attempt on V io let's life . Sparrow and Violet then proceed to their love-making.

SECTION 28

Sec. 28 begins with nearly two pages of conversation in which

Sophie complains to Frankie that Negroes live in the rooming house. The 71

book omits this conversation from I 25, which then relates to sec. 28.

Frankie visits Dovie, a Negress (book: Molly Novotny, white). Only in

sec. 28 occur references to her being a Negress; only in I 25 occurs a

reference to Frankie's addiction. Only in sec. 28 does the mistress think,

" there1 s two kinds of people/ _l_ can11 understand/ th a t1 s £ naqqin1 woman and a lying man." Only in I 25 appears an extended description of her

room. In both are passages about Frankie's need to trust someone. The dialogue and exposition in both sec. 28 and I 25 concern similar subjects, but I 25 extends the discussion. The next passage, not included in the book, depicts Frankie as he hears roaches behind the wallpaper and as he

leaves Sophie sleeping with a Negro doll lying next to her as a child might. He wonders if even the doll is ashamed of the worn lapels of his coat. He goes, or dreams that he goes, to a bar at closing time. A sign there, "GET UP A PARTY/ FEED THE KITTY," appears in 1 27. There he meets a worn-out prostitute, probably a Negress, who wears a locket that

reflects to Frankie his face in a way that seems cruel to him. He brutally insults her, refuses to buy her a beer, then listens to her describe herself as a blonde. She tells of her roommate, who likes to be caught making love. Finally trying unsuccessfully to entice Frankie, the prostitute leaves.

This section next concerns Frankie's thoughts that he has "nothing to claim and nothing to believe." In bed with Sophie, he thinks that the happenings of the day betray his dreams of the night. Life itself is a betrayal. Like any woman beside any man, Sophie, now in bed with him, betrays him. 72

SECTION 29

Sec. II 27 parallels sec. 29, although here Frankie watches a floorshow at the Safari Club, not the Kitten Klub. Many of the M. C0's remarks and acts, like the mock s trip , are the same in both sections.

Sec. 29 does not contain the descriptive introduction of II 27 and some of the strippers' names and songs d iffe r. Miss Suzanne becomes Miss Dinah

Mite. A "Peeling Venus" in the typescript sings, "Why'd ja mention stars above/ Why'd ja make me fa ll in love/ I tawt that love was blin d / Why'd ja make me change my mind/ Why'd ja make me fa ll so hard/ Whyn't cha stay in your own backyard?" One in the book sings, 11 ' Daddy, I want a diamond ring/ 'N everything— . Only the book mentions Frankie's sickness but both have a girl who sings, " 'Yuh put me on a pinnacle! 111 (book: 111 Ya put me on a p i n - u k u l . The typescript continues with a lengthy passage that the book omits. A woman in a white hat and a drunken man make a scene to the record "Lay that pistol down, Babe." Frankie thinks of his in fid e lity and becomes enraged at Dovie. The woman in the white hat, now named Annie, begs the bartender and then a stranger for money. Both refuse her. After trying to interest girls at the bar, Pig talks to

Frankie, who te lls him not to come to his room, presumably with drugs for Sophie. Pig reveals his knowledge of Frankie's a ffa ir with Dovie.

Sec. 29 then again relates to II 27 with an account of another stripper.

In the typescript, however, others join her, whereas in the book she is

Molly and Frankie follows her. Finally, sec. 29 concludes as a blind man, perhaps Pig, starts to expose himself to Frankie. 73

SECTION 30

A continuation of Frankie's experiences at the Safari, sec. 30

reports Frankie's wish to k ill all of Sophie's former boy friends, his

drunken appearance on the stage, and his near fight with Mr. Floor-Show.

SECTION 31

After passing an animal shelter, Frankie goes into the Holy Name

Church to rest from his depression. Once there, however, his mind wanders

and he cannot stop wanting Dovie. At Dovie's, Frankie does not think

that he has a right to be there, since Sophie is upstairs with nothing

for happiness but "funny cigarettes." Resenting this attitude, Dovie

asks him to leave but later believes that he really does love her. After

making love, he sleeps and she compares their skin color and sings.

Frankie dreams that he is playing right field for the Philadelphia

Phillies. He cannot get the b all. When he does get it, he is unable to

prevent a home run, the home run of the series and the season. Then, in

the dream, the players leave, the stands become empty, the park becomes windy, and he is trapped with no exit. Frankie then goes upstairs to

Sophie, who, like himself, is drunk. She scolds him, not for having been with Dovie— perhaps she does not know—but for not paying any attention

to her. Louie had given her a "fix" and had brought her and him a bottle,

presumably "for free." "'Everybody got to have somethin',"1 s^ie says

in lonely desperation.

SECTION 32

Here with Frankie dealing at Kinsella's (Schwiefka's), a comparison with I 26 reveals that in the book Algren gives Louie some of Kinsella's speeches. This transfer illustrates an increase in the importance of Louie as a character. Both versions, however, have similar dialogue, despite the rearrangement of speeches. Kinsella (or Louie) and Sparrow banter

rather intensely. Frankie refuses to deal to a blind man, Pig. Louie says that he w ill stand behind Pig to read his hand. In a dramatic move,

Louie places a bloodstained silver dollar in front of him. He then wants to change it for a new b ill but Frankie reminds him that he, the dealer, makes the change. As Kinsella reaches for the dollar, Sparrow quickly pockets it . Kinsella says that he sent for Louie; therefore, Frankie says that he can deal to him, too. Both Sparrow and Frankie leave. The typescript continues as Louie, feeling unlucky at the loss of his silver dollar, follows Frankie and Sparrow. While trying to retrieve his money,

Louie insults Frankie about Dovie (Molly). Frankie then breaks Louie's neck. Some of the dialogue in the book differs from that in sec. 32, but the action remains the same.

SECTION 33

Sec. I 27 relates to sec. 33, the scene between Frankie and

Sparrow after Louie's murder. Only the book contains allusions to

Frankie's addiction. It also contains Frankie's wish that Sparrow had gotten Louie's lucky dollar and Schwiefka's accusation of Frankie and

Sparrow for driving Louie away from the game.

SECTION 34

To the beginning of sec. 3^, I 28 adds nearly four pages about

Stash's antics as boss of the house. Recently returned from ja il, he does not wash dishes, eat stale food, or go to work. He is audacious 75 enough to want Sparrow to pay board. Sec. 3^ begins by talking about a forthcoming dance. It mentions Dovie, who would not be going to the party. It tells of Sparrow's refusal to sleep with Violet while Stash

is in the house. In both sec. and I 28 Sparrow suggests that Violet get a job. But she cannot, for she must care for Sophie. In the type­ script Sparrow and Violet discuss Louie's murder, as Sparrow reveals more than he intends to disclose.

SECTION 35

This section relates to I 29, the New Year's Eve Ball (typescript:

Christmas). Here Mr. Big Stinkin' T’ ing (book: Umbrella Man) thinks that the party is for Violet and Sparrow. Therefore, he brings her an ironing board (book: a rebuilt umbrella) and Sparrow a box of poker chips. Although I 29 next mentions Meter Reader, sec. 35 continues by introducing Bruno (book: Antex), who cries for Stash who he thinks is in ja il for lif e . In I 29 Antek's wife locks him out of his home because he has been heavily drinking his own liquor. In the typescript every drunk te lls Frankie that he was a good man for k illin g Louie. Sec. 35 does not contain Sparrow's ruse on Meter Reader, but the book does follow the typescript account of Sophie's being kissed under the mistletoe and

Stash's fa llin g when he looks up at a tree. The guest lists in both sections d iffe r somewhat, but both contain Sophie's grandmother. The book adds Violet's song. It condenses the typescript's description of the mass drunkenness and jo v ia lity and adds Frankie's playing the drums and Kvorka's warning him about the possible consequences of the murder.

Sec. 35 continues with Dovie's thoughts about having a white man's baby. Aware that Frankie w ill abandon her, she does not answer when, later, he

knocks on her door. Now she cares only about the child she is to have.

In I 29 she wants a man to care for and a baby of her own; she dreams

she is holding someone else's. Here she lets Frankie in. He te lls her

that the police are chasing him. Molly says that according to hearsay,

Sparrow has been spending heavily. She resolves to run away with Frankie,

but not until flig h t is necessary. Sec. 35 next relates to I 30. In

both sections Frankie takes Sophie home from the party. In sec. 35,

however, he asks if Pig has given her morphine and here she hums, " It's

only a paper moon/ Under a cardboard sky." The typescript does not

contain Frankie's extended musings about Antek's perceptive cat.

SECTION 36

Not included in the book, this b rief section contains Frankie's

stern talk against drug addiction. His words appear to make l i t t l e

impression on Sophie.

SECTION 37

The beginning of sec. 37 does not relate to the book. At

Bruno's bar Frankie imagines the headlines making him a hero, e.g .,

"VETERAN FINGERS BLIND MAN FOR DOPE PEDDLING" and "WAR HERO EXONERATED

ON MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE." Then he thinks of a more re alis tic future.

Before I 31 relates to sec. 37, »t discusses Antek's methods of stopping

brawls. Here Antek and Meter Reader converse. Then, as in sec. 37,

Antek throws out a drunken man and his girl friend. Interrupting Frankie's

thoughts about people he knows and his present predicament, Sparrow enters

the bar. Next, Frankie questions Sparrow about his free spending. In 77 both sec. 37 and I 31 Sparrow wants to find Pig in the way searches are conducted in the movies. He and Frankie find Pig in the Safari, where, in the typescript, Frankie warns Pig against peddling morphine to Sophie.

Then, in similar passages, Pig nearly puts Frankie and Sparrow on the defensive, for he knows about Louie's murder. Only the book, however, concludes with Frankie's threat to Sparrow about taking Louie's money.

SECTION 38

Sec. 38 begins with Frankie's loss of interest in Dovie and his feat of Pig. Some of the conversation between Chester, a customer, and

Bruno is later used in I 31. At the beginning of I 32, which relates to sec. 38, Sparrow te lls Frankie about "wolf in '.111:1 In both sec. 38 and

I 31, Sparrow and Frankie imagine that they are entertaining girls on their yacht. Then in the typescript Sparrow reveals that Sophie wonders about

Frankie's affair. Sparrow has maintained Frankie's faithfulness to her.

Next Frankie asks Sparrow about Louie's money. Sparrow has saved half of i t , which he now gives to Frankie. In boththe typescript and the book Sparrow asks Frankie to eat (typescript: at Pixley 'n Ellers; book: at Thompson's), or to go to a movie (typescript: at the Biltmore or Chopin; book: at the Pilsudski or Pulaski). He suggests that they go "dog-stealin'" or "plain-stealin'." Although I 31 expands the dialogue, both it and sec. 38 conclude with Frankie's agreement to steal e le c tric i rons.

SECTION 39

This short section concerns Frankie's apprehension afte r stealing the irons. Sparrow, of course, is not caught. Sec. I 33 begins before sec. 39 by reporting the entrance of Frankie and Sparrow into Nieboldt's and the actual theft.

SECTION 40

Sec. 40 and I 34 begin d iffe re n tly. In sec. 40 Frankie dreams and watches the play of light on the walls of the jail cell. He thinks of Dovie and Louie and of a Negro lying nearby. Sec. I 34 begins with legends on the w alIs , including "Chicago Just ice Deaf Dumb B1ind and

Fal 1 ing A p a r t which accompanies a drawing of a naked, judge sentencing a fu lly clothed man to the e le c tric chair for indecent exposure. In the typescript one legend alludes to John 14:6; in the book, to John 3:7-

Both contain "Have Doc Bundeson Bunsonj cal 1 for my body person 11 y

He is a person 1 friend of mine and no autotopsy 1s necessary.11 Another, in both sections, offers the favors of the w riter's wife to anyone telephoning CEN 099” (typescript) or Madison 1-6971 (book). Other legends, too, in both sections are sim ilar. Sec. I 34 extends beyond sec. 40. It adds legends, shadows that Frankie fancies he sees, and

Frankie's re lie f at having a chance to "kick the habit."

SECTION 41

Omitted from the book, this section chronicles the accounts of

Frankie's talkative j a i l mates. Bonarue Mac te lls of his good luck as a thief and then of his arrest for transporting liquor and for stealing jewelry. In this humorous section he relates his return to Los Angeles from Catalina in the company of a policeman. Fortunately he gets the chance to throw the stolen jewelry overboard. He is questioned and charged with several unsolved crimes. He pleads guilty to two which he did not 79 commit and receives acquittal of his own thefts. Frankie's response indicates his depression, a part of his philosophy, and also, I believe, a part of Algren's. "'Everybody's shakin' a jolt for somebody,' Frankie consoled him. 'We're all in on a bad j o l t , M ac."1

Sonny Carlson, the Green Hornet, another prisoner who works on the laundry machine with Frankie, te lls him his story. As a schoolboy

Carlson quickly memorized history lessons but did not know what they meant. Later, when his robbery victims came to identify him, he, in turn, identified them and told them how much they had in the cash register. He te lls Frankie how to break a window quietly and how to open a latched door.

SECTION k2

Part of this page corresponds roughly to II 6. At the end of both versions Frankie feels himself merging with a prisoner about to be executed, for Frankie's guilt makes him feel that he should be the one killed. In the typescript, Weissman is the prisoner; in the book,

Little Lester.

SECTION k l

Both the typescript and II 7 present similar accounts of Weissman's

(Lester's) supposed execution. The book, however, makes much of Frankie's concern for Lester's shoelaces.

SECTION kk

Frankie catches cold one day in the spring a fte r playing baseball in the ja i l yard. He dreams that he is imprisoned for stealing ice cream bars (book: Captain Bednar's only electric iron). In the typescript he continues dreaming that he now has everybody "beat," that he now is happy. He dreams that "the man with the shadowed private's cap" is trying to get

into his room. After realizing that he is in the hospital, he does not want to go home, for then he w ill have to go through getting well again.

He dreams that Father Novak, for whom he served as a lta r boy and who now wears a policeman's badge and hat, tells him to "cop it straight," that

he w ill get him out of trouble. Father Novak gives him bowling shoes, worn by Weissman, which are really just sneakers with runners. Frankie dreams that he fears to look at Novak's face, for it might be Louie's.

When Frankie awakens, Bonarue te lls him that he is "sweatin' it out" the

hard way. (He may mean getting over the cold, or enduring imprisonment.)

In the book Frankie is trying to kick the drug habit. The parallel section, II 8, contains different dreams. There Frankie dreams of running

in Schwiefka's alley after Louie's murder and of his own execution in the electric chair.

SECTION

In the typescript Frankie returns home to Sophie, who is cold to him. Seeing Violet dressed up, he learns that she has sued Stash for divorce and that she has married Sparrow, now working at Wieboldt's

(later changed to Nieboldt's) unloading trucks. Frankie wheels Sophie to sleep, saying, "'Have a good dream Soschka. Have a good dream you're dancin' again.'" Similarly, in II 9 Frankie returns, talks to the Jailer,

Sophie, and V io let, te llin g Violet that Sparrow, silently present, can keep on running. Noting that everything is the same— Sophie s t ill wants a puppy--he te lls "Zoschka" to have a good dream. SECTION 46

This typescript section opens by noting the cardboard desk sign,

"Q.UIET," in Frankie's apartment building, a sign that appears in I 9.

Sophie hears sounds, including those of a woman sorting silverware into

drawers (I 19). She listens for Dovie while "the mad woman of the fourth

floor" reproves Schautzy, the carpenter, for hammering a s ta ir tread on

Sunday. Shortly after Frankie comes home, in II 9, Violet reproves J aile r

for hammering. A fter this episode the typescript notes that the hallway

bulb has been painted red since Frankie last saw it. Then the typescript

switches to a passage that later occurs in II 9, a passage about Frankie's

thoughts while coming home from Division Street. (Note that in the book

this passage precedes the notation about the light bulb.) He remembers

that "Once you got the touch it's always with you" but also that Louie

(book: someone) said, "'When a cripple leads a cripple it doesn't amount

to much . . . .'" The typescript next contains a note to "insert from

the preceding page" the passage about the hammering. Then in both the

typescript and the book Schautzy (Jailer) tells Frankie, on his way up­

s tairs, that Louie got what he deserved. Finally breaking away from

Schautzy, Frankie contends that he only stole. Silently he thinks that

the Jailer has the truest sort of heart but that lately there is little demand for this kind. After Frankie returns to his apartment, he gently

rocks Sophie, realizing that "everything was the same." Yet, everything

is different, too. It had all been better before.

SECTION 47

After noting that Frankie's hands (II 10, fingers) had lost their touch, the typescript continues with an argument between Kinsella and 82

Sparrow over the pencil flashlight that had fallen apart. Kinsella baits

Sparrow until Sparrow returns his money. When Kinsella realizes that the money is phony, he chases Sparrow, who fin a lly returns the real money.

This section continues somewhat like IS 10. Big Stinkin' T'ing (Umbrella

Man) enters Kinsella's (Schwiefka's) every noon with the Times, in which he has the daily double marked o ff. Blind Pig sits on the last bar stool of the Kit-Kat Klub (possibly a mistake, for the book says "of the Safari").

Both versions contain barbs at id ealistically portrayed persons in beer advertisements.

The typescript mentions Antek's broken glasses, whereas the book

includes Frankie's razzing Antek about them. Antek's crippled (book: deaf and dumb) cat limps along the floor until somebody's hound goes after her. Algren changed speakers from the fir s t version to the final one. In the fir s t Frankie knows that this no-good cat has trampled her young to death. In the book Antek's wife gives this report. In both, however, Sparrow enters to talk with Frankie, who refuses, for he has no kind of feelings after having been in the county ja il for six (book: nine) months. He refuses to try to get Sparrow his job back at Kinsella's

(Schwiefka's). In both versions Frankie then leaves, ending II 10.

This typescript section continues with a long passage not included in the book. Frankie goes home, thinking. T raffic lights seem to warn him; the green, for example, te lls him to keep going. Meanwhile, Dovie, no longer a strip-teaser at the Kit-Kat Klub, meaninglessly goes for walks, as all of the major characters in the novel wait for something. 83

SECTION 48

A fter saying that a ll waited until Dovie's baby would be born,

Algren writes a section designated in pen as "earlier." In this section

Pig gives Sophie a needle of morphine. Algren describes Pig's preparation,

her apprehension although she is unable to think of any reason to stop

Pig, and, fin a lly , her reaction. At the top of page 334 is typed "the

real ja b o ff," the phrase signifying the sensation when the morphine

"h its ." This section is hastily composed. It contains many uncorrected typing errors. It contains, further, a note: "insert here description of method of insertion, and reaction."

SECTION 49

Because Frankie's fingers have lost their touch, he misdeals.

The winner (typescript: Schautzi/y; book: Bird Dog) who, as a consequence, does not win as much as he would have, leaves and Kinsella

(Schwiefka) te lls Frankie to get a drink. He goes to the Tug & Maul, where, according to the book, Sparrow is waiting and which, according to the typescript, Sparrow enters. Sparrow urges Frankie to return to

Kinsella's by saying that he s t ill has rent to pay. Frankie questions

Sparrow about his own source of support, noting that Sparrow s t ill has his racket which, in the typescript, is stealing dogs, and in the book,

II 11, is "rolling stiffs," certainly a much more cruel bit of sarcasm to allude to Sparrow's having robbed Louie. Frankie next insults Antek by

refusing a drink on the house and, in the book, by spitting on the picture of Antek's wife and daughter. Antek then hits Frankie across the face 84 with a wet towel and te lls him that he is wrong about Sparrow, that Sparrow did not rob Louie of his hefty roll of money. Frankie then reasons that

the robber must have been Pig. This last altercation does not appear in the typescript.

6

SECTION 50

None of this section appears in the book. Everyone in the apart­ ment building knows that Dovie's baby is about to be born. For this reason she gains an eviction postponement. Sophie wonders if the baby w ill be white; rumor says that the father resides in the building. Nevertheless,

Frankie cannot te ll if Sophie knows the truth. When the baby boy is born a week prematurely, Frankie cannot sleep, for he hears the sounds of the

El that he and Dovie had heard. He thinks of Louie, of Dovie's song, of nights of poker, and of the war, realizing that the war time, when he was among men not as a hunter but as one of them, was the best time of his life . He reflects, too, how only three years after the war the once patriotic citizens have beeome so indifferent that they permit to remain cracked a glass case enshrining a scroll of soldiers' names. He hears

Dovie cry to him " T ill his heart fe lt tattooed, with Dovie Breedlove's tears." He then realizes that Sophie knows.

SECTION 51

The book does not include this section, too. Here Dovid delivers her own baby feet f ir s t . Among the tenants it is whispered that she has gone to O'Konski, the Smiling Psychiatrist, who must have brought about the abnormal birth. Blaming Frankie, Sophie asks Pig if the baby is white.

V Although he is blind, Pig answers that the boy is lighter than he has a

right to be. Because Violet helps Dovie daily, Sophie te lls Violet not

to v is it her. V io let, nonetheless, washes Sophie's dishes. Neither

Frankie nor Sparrow has been home for two nights.

One paragraph of this section is worth quoting because it sounds

like the early Algren, the social critic of Somebody in Boots (1935).

Years ago, before we had to destroy crops in order to raise prices so high that people would not buy them, thus conserving grain for the whole starving world until such time as the wrongheaded peoples beging [sicj to see things our way — it was in those days that it used to be said of a man, even if he were not a psychi ia tris t [s i3 > he was srmat [sic] enough to come around to the back-door to empty the ash-bin and to the front door to deliver flowers. It was decided for good, in those days, that a man was pretty smart if he could sew his own buttons.

SECTION 52

This section corresponds to the end of II 1^. In both Sparrow tries to steal a dog, only narrowly to escape the clutches of a large cook wielding a meat cleaver. From here on the typescript and book d iffe r. In the former Sparrow thinks that because it had been his idea to steal the flatirons and to roll Louie (note that in the book, neither

Frankie nor Sparrow but Pig rolls Louie), he, therefore, has ruined

Frankie's chances for a manslaughter defense and has gotten himself the probably charge of being an accessory. For a while he has been proud that he has been the one to take the roll and to spend it conspicuously.

He goes to the Safari Club, here operated by Antek, where he sees Frankie, who reports that he is going to work for a hundred per cent house Saturday night, one for Polish m illionaires. Sparrow asks Frankie to have the owner pass some of the money on to him, for he has only the $1.25 which he stole from V iolet, who now has him doing the grocery shopping. 86

In the book, on the other hand, after evading the butcher, Sparrow goes to sleep on Widow Wieczorek's pool table and next goes to a movie.

Upon leaving the theater he sees a red kite wound helplessly around high utility wires, just as his heart is impaled on city wires to be beaten mercilessly by tenement winds. He decides to go to Kippel's for a stud poker session with other Jews (see sec. 55).

SECTION 53

This section, clearly linked with the preceding missing pages, is only a portion of I 8. Sparrow reprimands Frankie for interfering in the barroom feud between Orunkie John and his generous mistress, Molly.

When Molly leaves, Antek does not allow John to follow until she has gotten a head start. The typescript continues with Sparrow's again telling Frankie not to interfere and with Frankie's brutal, and for the f ir s t time meaningful, retort: "'Ho [sic] the hell asked your Jew advice?'"

Rather than this last interchange, the book relates Frankie's wish to be going home with Molly, not to Sophie.

SECTION 54

Similar to II 13, this ribald section tells of Sparrow's unhappiness in sleeping with hot-handed, nymphomaniacal Violet. He has no peace even when drinking a cup of coffee or when closeting himself in the bathroom.

According to the book but not the typescript, she tries to convince him that she does miss Stash, her eccentric, wornout husband, for Sparrow is an expensive toy not wearing out as fast as his predecessor did. After either ten nights (typescript) or twelve weeks (book) of this sort of love-making, he quietly leaves. According to the book Violet is awake to hear his every move. Without a break the typescript continues, although

it now corresponds to II 14. In both Sparrow returns to the alleys. The

typescript b riefly describes his reaction; the book presents a longer

account. In both he steals a newspaper (typescript: Sun Times; book,

Tribune) and some pastries which he feeds to the milkman's horse. Here

in the book, sec. 52 in the typescript, he tries unsuccessfully to steal

a dog. In both he goes to the movies, after which he sees the red kite

hanging pitifully on the utility wires and heads for Kippel's. The

typescript again continues without a break; it now is sim ilar to II 15.

He begins to play at Kippel's "from the pocket." The typescript section

concludes here; the book's account goes on.

SECTION 55

S till corresponding to II 15, after two missing pages this type­

script section reveals Sparrow's lack of money to pay his gambling debt.

As he leaves Kippel's, ostensibly to get the money, the steerer, Ju-ju,

te lls him not to return. According to the typescript, Sparrow goes to

the Kit-Kat Klub, where he sees the sign:

Our Cow Died

We don' t need your bul1.

This sign hangs in Antek's Tug 6- Haul , says the book. Frankie refers to

i t when he refuses a drink on the house in II 11. Later, in II 15,

Sparrow goes to the Tug & Maul, where he notices a sign that has replaced

the bull one:

Once a rat always a rat.

At this point in the typescript Sparrow sees Kid S plits, perhaps the Lily Splits in the book and the Myrtle Dumbrowski in the typescript,

Frankie's early whore. She reports that Violet has been looking for

Sparrow. She buys him a drink; he ungraciously refers to her purse as a whore's handbag. Although no mention is made of Big Stinkin' T'ing

(or Umbrella Man) here in the typescript, in the final version Sparrow

now sees Umbrella Man at Antek's. In both Blind Pig enters the bar.

Sparrow wants to see him, in the typescript to evade drinking beer bought by Kid Splits and, in the book, to get some money from the man now wearing Louie's shoes. Pig plays the juke box:

Too many rings on yourfi fin ers [Tic] Naugyt [sicf Angeline says the typescript. More ironically effective is the book's carol:

0 tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy ....

The typescript concludes with Kid Sp1its*saying that Angeline is her

real name and with Sparrow's waiting for Pig. The book section concludes with Sparrow's agreeing to make a delivery of dope for Pig. CHAPTER I I

VERSION 2

The second version consists of 387 pages, a ll of which are carbon copies and all of which measure 8^ inches by 11 inches. Of these, 219 are ivory copy paper; the remaining 168, yellow copy paper. Numerous corrections appear in ink or pencil. Page numbers at top center are usually preceded and followed by a hyphen, e .g ., -35~. Whereas the fir s t draft contains many markings in blue crayon, this draft contains markings, often large numbers, in brown crayon.

In several significant respects version 2 differs from version 1.

The second draft incorporates the revisions made in the first draft. The typed material is quite similar to that of the first version but Algren heavily edited in longhand. Although page 3 is the fir s t extant one in the first draft, this later version begins with page 1. It relates to page 2 in the published volume. The second draft concludes with the w ell- known "The Captain Is Impaled" section, which is completely missing from the initial draft. It relates to II 25 of the book. The book follows version 2 more closely than it does version 1. Frequently a typescript section and its relative section in the book begin alike, differ, become similar, differ again, and then become similar again. Fewer shifts in the locations of speeches and scenes occur between the second draft and the book than between the fir s t draft and the book. In the second d raft, however, Algren tinkered. He added paragraphs which he later removed

89 90

(cf. sec. 65 with the book, II 7, for example) and he added meaningful

parts of sections. We now learn that Nifty Louie feels singularly unlucky

just before he is murdered (sec. 47). Frankie's hand trembles for the

fir s t time after the k illin g (sec. 48). Meter-Reader becomes an amusing

character as he is the butt of Hr. Floor-Show’ s joke at the New Year's

Eve party (sec. 5 0 * The expanded satire on the war dead represents

Algren the social c r itic (sec. 5 0 - Our knowledge of Sparrow increases

as we see him at home in the alleys after leaving Violet (sec. 78 ).

Poignancy is added to Frankie's plight when he is turned away from an

animal shelter by a woman who houses stray dogs but not stray humans

(sec. 90 ).

Algren also greatly expanded the first draft by adding entire

sections. Those fir s t appearing in the second draft are 26, 39, 40,

49, 54, 58, 60, 61, 63 , 64, 71, 74, 79-87, and 91-93- The most important

of these contribute significant episodes. Sec. 26 demonstrates that

Sophie's in ab ility to walk is psychologically motivated. Since she wants

no one but Frankie to help her upstairs, she whines when he is not present;

therefore, Violet slaps her, whereupon Sophie goes into a tantrum. Then

trying to walk by herself, she falls but Violet rescues her. Sophie questions whether Frankie no longer helps her because of her increasing

size. She realizes that she must have his love. The reader realizes

that Sophie is an emotional cripple.

Sec. 79 introduces a previously unknown aspect of Mol lie 's plight.

Here she is the recipient of Pig's "medicine." Not knowing to whom he

is delivering the morphine, Sparrow is surprised to learn that she is

"on the s tu ff." As she becomes il l he grows increasingly apprehensive and soon flees without giving her the narcotic. This episode expands the

reader's knowledge of Mol lie and prepares for Sparrow's arrest on a dope

peddling charge.

The lengthy description of the query room in sec. 81 dramatically

places Sparrow in the most dangerous position of his hazardous life .

Questioned intensively by Captain Bednar in the next section, he realizes

that the odds against him now are higher than they have ever been. He

realizes, too, that his loyalty to Frankie is now receiving its supreme

test. in this section Algren continues his satire of Chicago justice by

having Bednar acknowledge that in an election year, an unsolved murder,

specifically that of Louis Fomorowski, does not rest easily with the

political opposition. He is willing, therefore, to overlook the peddling

charge if Sparrow names his accomplice in Louie's k illin g . The pressure

on Sparrow increases in sec. 8k when Zygmunt offers him his freedom if

he signs a statement inaming Frankie. This section, furthermore, provides

valuable background data on Zygmunt and his racket. Again, Chicago justice suffers.

Sec. 86 is important since it marks the beginning of Frankie's

flight that, in this version, has no conclusion. Warned by Little Stinker

that Sparrow has turned him in, Frankie leaves home with the apparently

insurmountable task of avoiding the police. He retreats to a Negro

neighborhood, reasoning that he is safer there than in a white, Polish one, and knowing that he would feel safest with Dovie.

Secs. 91 and 92 chronicle Sophie's mental deterioration. She

confuses her present residence with that of her childhood; she imagines

Kinsella's crowd playing cards in the room next to hers; she looks for 92

Frankie on the fir e escape; and, fin a lly , she is taken to a hospital.

There she is both incoherent and perceptive. It is obvious, however, that

she w ill never be released. These sections, then, portray the conclusion

of Sophie's tragedy.

The final scene in the second d ra ft, sec. 93, is the section that

has since been published separately as a short story e n title d , "The Captain

Is Impaled." It portrays the strong sense of complicity that overcomes

the captain. Now it is he who feels guilty but, unlike his prisoners, he

cannot have the satisfaction of being punished for his "crime." This

section, I believe, is significant not only because of its reappearance

in later drafts but also because it embodies one of the chief themes that

characterize Algren and that motivate his writing a variety of novels and

short stories with a similar milieu.

The second draft also includes sections that do not appear in the

book. They are 19 and part of 20, part of 24, 32, 3k, 31, and part of

38, 40, part of k3, part of kk, 46, 4-9, part of 55, 6 9 , 71, 72, 74, 75,

76 , part of 77, 80, 84, 85, 86, 8 7 , 89, and 90. Five of these are

noteworthy. In sec. 24 Frankie dreams of a soiled h alf-d o llar that he

receives in a blackjack game. This dream is expressive because the quarrel

that precipitates Louie's murder begins about a stained coin that Frankie considers to be a bad luck omen. It is curious, therefore, that Algren deleted this passage.

Sec. 34 is unusual, for it concerns Sophie's dream of Frankie,

lying coldly, perhaps deai in bed with her. Then, a fte r a passage about various kinds of time, Sophie envisions a crutch that she realizes is

hers. F in ally, she sings a sordid song: "'Whiteheads, blackheads .... 93

I like to tweeze 'em, I get in the mood."1 This section shows Sophie's morbid state of mind. Algren may have discarded it as an exaggeration of her condition.

Sec. 75 is particular in its satirical exploration of human character.

Frankie recalls his army days as the happiest of his life because he then enjoyed comradeship, a sharing, a belonging, a confidence that men out of uniform replace with distrust. The section also satirizes man's forget­ fulness of the war dead: he ceremoniously dedicates a marker to dignify the fallen heroes and then lets weeds engalf it. Algren must have considered these barbs misplaced. Perhaps they belong in the war novel he intended to write; they digress too much from the main stream of The

Man wi th the Go 1 den Arm for him to permit thei r further inclusion.

Zygmunt's v is it to Sparrow in sec. 84 has already been discussed.

Algren may have omitted it from the book on the grounds that it gives

Sparrow emphasis that rightly belongs to Frankie.

The omission of sec. 90, already discussed, is also significant chiefly because of the subject of the section. Now Algren apparently believed that Frankie's stops at the church and at the animal shelter unnecessarily delay the forward movement of the story, hurrying to its conclusion. Although these episodes seem germane to the plot, it does not suffer measurably without them.

On the other hand, version 2 omits several sections that appear

in the fir s t draft. Either these are lost or they represent a change in

Algren's concept of the novel. They are 14, 16, 23, 30, 39, 41, 42, and 48. Five of these bear special mention. In sec. 23 Frankie boasts of his ability as a card and pool player and grows increasingly resentful of Sophie's nagging. Here, too, Sophie dreams of Olga, a cousin who died

in Sophie's girlhood. Frankie's prowess with his hands and his attitude

toward his wife is known, of course, even without this section. The dream of Olga adds l i t t l e . Sec. 30 needlessly prolongs Frankie's v is it to the Safari Club (Kitten Klub in version 2). His wish there to k ill all of Sophie's former boy friends leads nowhere. His drunken performance on stage and his interchange with Mr. Floor-Show portray only the extent of his inebriation. This scene is not missed. Sec. 41 contains the

interesting, almost amusing, but nonetheless digressive monologues by

Bonarue Mac and Sonny Carlson, Frankie's ja il mates. I believe that

Frankie's fatalistic response to them is the onlyvalid reason for their

inclusion. Frankie's g u ilt is the subject of sec. 42. Here he feels himself merging with Mellow Boy Weissman, a condemned prisoner. Perhaps at this stage in composing the second draft, Algren felt that this section either misplaces the emphasis on Weissman or overplays Frankie's guilty conscience. The omission of sec. 48 from the second draft indicates a downgrading of the import of Sophie's addiction, for this section graphically portrays Pig's giving Sophie a needle of morphine and her

reaction to it. A glance ahead to later versions reveals that Algren becomes more concerned with Frankie's addiction than with Sophie's.

Although these sections do not reappear in the second d ra ft, Algren's

later use of some of them indicates that he considered them important and that he might have been temporarily "tinkering."

Version 2, furthermore, does not contain several sections that

later appear in the book. They are I 4-, 1 5 , I 11, II 3, II 17, II 21,

II 26, II 30, II 31, II 35, and II 36. (Note that draft 2 contains more 95 sections that appear in Part I of the book than that appear in Part II.)

The absence of I 4 from the second version suggests that not until a later time did Algren decide to integrate Frankie's addiction with the other elements of the plot: this section is Frankie's early dream of Pvt. McGantic, a veteran with a th irty -fiv e pound monkey on his back who dramatizes

Frankie's narcotic problem. No explicit reference to Frankie's addiction appears in the second draft, unless one admits as evidence sec. 52, in which Algren directs that the roles of Sophie and Frankie be reversed.

Reading without the reversal, i.e . , reading what Algren originally intended,

Sophie, not Frankie, takes morphine. The dialogue makes much more sense when the roles are not reversed. Additions in pencil or ink to secs. 4,

9, 12, and 85 suggest that Frankie takes an occasional "charge." These additions, however, do not imply that Frankie is addicted. They do suggest that in revising the second draft Algren considered introducing the narcotics element, which appears fully developed in the third version.

Sec. I 5 is important because the description of Frankie's ja il mates contains the type of social criticism that is a hallmark of Algren's content. In I I 30 Frankie hides out at M olly's. She helps him to kick the "habit"; with practice on a drummer's board the touch returns to his hands. Frankie, however, becomes restless, and in II 31 he secretly returns to Antek's, where he learns from the Owner that Sparrow is stealing heavily again and that he should stay away until after the

November elections: Bednar wants to get the case cleared by then. Antek also reveals that Sparrow did not roll Louie, that it was Pig, now on

Bednar's "payroll." Frankie and Antek close a deal: "the boys" w ill get together $1,000 for Zygmunt to "put in the fix" for Frankie if Frankie can beat the "monkey." The details that Algren added in this section

re a lis tic a lly complicate the plot. Sec. 35 is the "Witness Sheet" for the

inquest on the body of Frankie. The final section in the book is the poem, "Epitaph: The Han with the Golden Arm," These last two sections a r tis tic a lly complete the novel by adding a sort of postscript. The

inquest takes the suicide from a subjective level to an objective one.

It emphasizes the impersonality of Chicago justice and of society. The record is to read that Frankie killed himself while temporarily insane.

The book has chronicled the causes, overt and latent, of his "insanity."

The poem, finally, is a recapitulation. It portrays Frankie Machine's character and lif e . Its use of the past tense and the phrase, "We remember," denotes a distance now between the speaker and the subject.

These late additions are worthwhile ones, I believe, since they present a fin a l, more detached but no less concerned view of the poignant protagon i s t .

The expanded plot of the second draft contains episodes that augment the amount of action and, hence, enliven the movement of the story. The beginning of the Great Sandwich Battle scene, added in the second d ra ft, sec. 41 , is one of the most memorable not only of this version but also of the finished book for it is singular in its humor.

The portrayal of Frankie in ja il and the elaboration of his involvement with Little Lester seems temporarily to divert the main plot (secs. 61,

6 3 , and 64). It relates directly, however, to the theft of irons and adds a suspense about Lester's fate. Sparrow's delivery of drugs to

Mol lie contributes a surprise, for, until now there has been no hint about her addiction (sec. 79). Sparrow's arrest again adds suspense, for the 97 reader naturally wonders how this major character with a long criminal record w ill fare. Bednar's interrogation of Sparrow heightens the drama by intensely concentrating on his crucial decision (secs. 81 and 82 ; see also 83 and 84). The plot picks up speed with Frankie’s flight, despite its interruptions which, themselves, further the action by depicting his search for Dovie and for peace (secs. 85 and 86). Although the new episodes about Sophie are not violently active, they do, never­ theless, show the increased pace of her mental breakdown (secs. 91 and 92 ).

The final "Captain Is Impaled" section is unnecessarily extended, unless

Algren was deliberately trying to take the focus of attention away from

Frankie and to place it on society as a whole. If so, then society, in the role of the captain, introspectively accuses itself of something less than a beneficient appraisal of mankind. Society, in which the reader is supposed to place himself, should share the responsibility for the defeat of the Frankies and Sophies and Sparrows in twentieth-century America.

If this last section is not designed to remove the focus from an isolated story and to expand its message, then it may be nothing more than a unifying device, since this typescript also begins with a section concerning the captain.

The plot of this typescript contains gaps that rely on common sense and, sometimes, ingenuity to f i l l . It furthermore omits significant sections that would f i l l some of these gaps. Although it adds references to Sophie's addiction in secs. 32 and 52, for example, it deletes the expository and descriptive account of Pig's giving her a "fix" (sec. 48, version 1). The additions to the plot in version 2, however, change it more dramatically than do the subtractions from version 1. Despite the 98

loss of some seemingly contributory scenes, the plot of version 2 is more

active than is the story line of the fir s t draft.

Version 2 adds dimension to the characters. We now know more

about even the minor characters than we do in the fir s t draft. The

addition of sec. 93, "The Captain Is Impaled," deepens the reader's under­ standing of Bednar, for example. Rather than a background figure, he now becomes a person who symbolizes the message of the plot. Although he does

not play a vital role in the action, nevertheless, his final attitude of g u ilt is one in which I believe Algren wanted the reader to participate.

Zygmunt becomes a more clearly understood character. Sec. 84 reveals the motivation for his greed: he does not want to repeat his father's life as a bartender. His intelligence becomes more apparent--he went to law school— and his shrewdness, not only as a "prospector," but also as a practicing attorney is now evident. Of course, we learn of his persuasive a b ility first-hand when he convinces Sparrow to sign a statement naming

Frankie his accomplice in Louie's murder. Mol lie , too, develops into an even more sympathetic character than she was in version 1. In addition to coping with Drunkie John's brutality she must cope with the brutality of morphine. It is to her that Sparrow makes the delivery for Pig in sec. 79. She is truly trapped. Sec. 39 describes Dovie's " l i t t l e nest."

Later, in sec. 43, the reader learns about Dovie's curiosity at the difference in the colors of her skin and Frankie's. They talk candidly about Sophie. Dovie wants "straight talk" and Frankie hopes that at last he has found someone whom he can trust (see also secs. 45, 51, and 74).

The reader also gains further insight into the major characters.

Sophie becomes an even more enigmatic figure in version 2 than she is in 99 version 1. In sec. 3b she dreams of Frankie, cold, perhaps dead, beside her in bed. The addition of sec. 26, in which Sophie goes into a tantrum, makes the reader more aware that she is emotionally disturbed. In sec. 87 she believes that voices nearby are insulting Frankie and her. Later, in sec. 91. she confuses the present with the past. She imagines that the card-players from Kinsella's have set up their table in the room adjacent to hers. She fancies that Frankie is returning. Found by neighbors on the fir e escape, she is taken to the hospital where, in 92, her fantasy and incoherency demonstrate that she is seriously, hopelessly i l l .

Sparrow becomes increasingly sympathetic in version 2. Six new sections largely concern him. He dislikes his dependence on Pig, especially when he sees Mol lie sickly in need of drugs in sec. 79. The victim of betrayal and the pawn in p o litica l maneuvers, he fends Bednar's questions in the ominous query room, proudly asserting at the end of 82 that he will "take the rap" himself rather than implicate Frankie. After gaining temporary relief from his loneliness and from the pressure of his position by a lengthy conversation with Rev. Easterman, a talkative, pseudo-pious clergyman also in j a i l , Sparrow faces the improbably task of remaining steadfast in his loyalty despite Zygmunt's persuasive arguments. 4 * / His naivete in believing Zygmunt's twisted logic does not indicate so much a lack of bravery as it does a lack of perception. He signs the statement not to harm Frankie but to help him (secs. 83 and 8b).

The second draft does not alter the reader's opinion of Frankie but it does broaden the reader's understanding of him by giving further evidence to support many of the conclusions probably drawn from the fir s t version. Frankie tauntingly won all skirmishes he and Sophie had during 100

their courtship when he broke her pride. Unforgivingly she now tries to

regain that pride (secs. 21 and 38). Frankie's a b ility as a dealer is

emphasized in sec. 38, although version 2 omits sec. 22 of the fir s t

draft in which Frankie boasts of his technique. The second version

further stresses Frankie's feeling of guilt. In sec. 38 he feels a

lingering humiliation at having to wheel Sophie. In sec. 57 Sparrow

tries even more approaches to distract Frankie from thinking about Louie's

accidental murder than he used in sec. 38 , version 1. Version 2 becomes

more explicit about Frankie's depression, too. In sec. 49 he enviously

broods about the "lucky cats." Sec. 71 chronicles his morbid thoughts,

e .g ., "'Sometimes I think I ' l l never shine again . . . .'" but version 2

does not use the part of sec. 28 of the fir s t draft which also concerns

Frankie's attitude. The single aspect of the dealer's personality which

the second draft most consciously emphasizes, then, is his seriousness.

This element is not missing from the fir s t version, but it receives more

expression in the second.

The themes of the novel, outlined in the discussion of the fir s t

d raft, all receive fu lle r treatment in the second version. More evidence

supports the corruption of Chicago justice as a dominant theme. Most

pointed is the "deal" Captain Bednar offers Sparrow. Because the political

opposition is accusing the police department of whitewashing Louie's murder

to protect one of the department's own men, the captain suggests that he w ill forget the dope peddling charge against Sparrow in exchange for

Sparrow's testimony naming the accomplice in Louie's murder. Sparrow,

in fact, is not arrested chiefly to indict him for peddling. Blind Pig

is the peddler; the police force know him. Desiring vengeance for Louie's 101 murder— Louie and Pig had worked together in the narcotics racket— Pig

turns in Sparrow, who is apprehended to name Frankie. The ends ju s tify

the means in an election year. It is Zygmunt, Zygmunt the illegal

"prospector," furthermore, who finally wrests the fateful signature from

Sparrow. Not the police captain or sergeant but the man who chisels a

fortune from the poor by smooth talk and smooth connections su fficien tly

confuses Sparrow, "offbalanced on one side," to obtain the incriminating evidence against the dealer.

I consider the theme of legal injustice as secondary in importance, however, since the other two themes, complicity and love, expand more significantly with the addition of new material in the second draft. As the reader's knowledge of the characters deepens and as the plot grows more complex, he becomes more engrossed in the underlying cause of their p lig h t, e .g ., in the cause of their being impoverished human beings. The reason that society conspires against them or that they are inherently too weak to loosen their chains becomes an increasingly germane consideration toward arriving at Algren's trye meaning. If the reader judges the characters' values to be warped, then he must ju s tify his own standard and at least attempt to explain the reason for these characters' failu re to subscribe either to his standard or to that commonly prescribed by society. The additional material in version 2 increases the reader's interrogative burden and, at the same time, increases his appreciation of

Algren's s k ill in suggesting universal questions by means of particular incidents involving particular people. The accumulation of data about the relationships among the persons in the novel broadens the reader's understanding of the final theme introduced in the discussion of the fir s t 102

version, that of love. This theme, nevertheless, is slightly subservient,

I believe, to the second, for the variety of love relationships illu strates

the response of these people not only to each other but also to society

outside their circumscribed world, a response characterized by a rebellion

against these persons who apparently have security and, simultaneously,

by a search for security through love— love of mistress, love of wife, or

love of friend, casual love and serious love, temporary love and permanent

love, love which frees and love which binds, love which grows and love

which dies.

These observations indicate that when composing the second d ra ft,

Algren had a much firmer grasp of The Man with the Golden Arm than he had

in the f ir s t version. The increase in size alone demonstrates the expansion

of the plot by the addition of new sections and of new passages to sections

retained from the first draft. The expansion is so extensive that the

286 pages of the fir s t draft develop into 387 of the second. The additions

show Algren's prowess in taking a portion of an outline, for version 1 is

little more than that, and developing it, not yet fully, but dramatically

and reasonably.

By discussion and incident, Algren b u ilt on impressions given in

the f ir s t d raft. For instance, sec. 11 expands Sophie's nagging charac­

teristic. The fuller treatment in sec. 13 of the humilitating effects of the dish-breaking episode upon Frankie implies his growing seriousness.

The addition of events in Frankie's and Sophie's courtship emphasizes their mutual independence and pride (sec. 21). This pride underlies Frankie's

notion of self-respect that now makes him ashamed of his frayed coat

(sec. kk) . These impressions, and others, only hinted at in draft 1, now become substantiated. 103

Although Algren's main concern in version 2 was with plot and

character development, nevertheless, here he does seem to have been more

aware of his style, particularly word choice, than in the first draft.

Diction becomes more colloquial. For example, Sparrow's remark to Captain

Bednar about Frankie, ‘" I noticed bloodstains on his s h irt. You catch

the guy who sliced the little girl up yet?"1 (sec. 1, version 1) is changed

to " 'A in 't them bloodstains on his shirt? Say, you catch the guy who

sliced the little girl up yet?"1 (sec. 1., version 2). Similarly, "going

to j a i l " (sec. 1, version l) becomes "s ittin g in the bucket" (sec. 1, version 2). "To let me go home" (sec. 1, version 1) becomes "to make the street" (sec. 1, version 2).

The prose becomes more consciously e x p lic it, more specific.

Sparrow's "moral wariptude" (sec. 3, version 1) becomes "'for admitting

I steal for a living'" (sec. k, version 2). The white bread in the water bucket (sec. k, version 1) becomes pumpernickel (sec. 6, version 2).

Particularizing detail often makes the image more picturesque. For

instance, the fir s t draft reads, "The single shoulder button had been

loosened over the seared heart and six doctors, in turn, had pronounced the heart something that meant, for a ll human purposes, it was as much use as a charred lump of spoiled meat dumped into the nearest container"

(sec. 33). The second version reads, "The single shoulder button had been stripped off taking the shirt down to expose the poor seared heart. Six doctors, in turn, had pronounced the heart as dead as a hustler's heart can get: a charred lump of spoiled meat sagged where the living heart had burned, ready for the nearest ash-can" (sec. 63). Or again, in the fir s t version Frankie says, '"Wei 1 the guy who own this place strong-armed a 104

couple of you m illionaires 'n passed it around to his friends. Now he's

winnin' it all back 'n having fun doin' it" 1 (sec. 42). In the more

specific second d raft, he says, "'W ell, the guy who runs this place

strongarmed a gin-rummy game on Roosevelt Road. Now he's got the

Roosevelt Road hoods workin' for him, the jo in t's doin' such a business

they're gettin' to be millionaires too—even the stickmen is millionaires

in Stickney"1 (sec. 77)• Sometimes Algren introduced a figure of speech,

often a simile, to describe an action or mood. Whereas in the first

draft Frankie feels ashamed to be caught fooling with a deck of cards

(sec. 42), in the second version Frankie is "lik e a husband almost caught

with obscene pictures by his wife" (sec. 77).

Another indication of the increased specificity is seen in

individual speech. Version 2 shows Algren slightly more careful of speech

idiosyncrasies. For instance, in the second draft he accentuated Blind

Pig's lisp. Pig now says, "'Blind guys are the betht to deal'" (sec. 47).

In the former version, Pig says "'the best'" (sec. 30).

The second version not only particularizes but also expands the

use of details. One can compare, for example, sec. 40 of the f ir s t draft with sec. 75 of the second, in which Algren broadened his satire on the contemporary citizen who p a trio tic a lly builds and pompously dedicates monuments to the war dead and soon thereafter forgets even their names.

The second draft also portrays a writer increasingly conscious of mood. Now he more carefully set the stage for the action and matched the mood of the character with the atmosphere. For example, to depict Sophie's extreme depression after recalling her fir s t sexual experience with Frankie and a long-ago Christmas celebration, Algren wrote, Yet the watchfires of the Western El still burned steadily beside the rails, in a soft and steaming fog. Till the rain began marking the moments, measuring the night by each drop, drop by particular drop, weighing each of the gigantic scales of night. Heard the p itiless drizzle keeping count, like a clock with a broken heart: while, above the dresser, beneath the luminous Christ, her own clock kept time with the rain. (sec. 3 0

The weather matches her temper.

Although the second draft is far from a polished version, its expansion and technical improvement show Algren in greater command of both story and style. He has made both of them his own.

The page numbers of a ll extant pages of the second version follow. 1-6; 8-16; 29; 31-33; 36; 38-47; 50-52; 54-67; 78; 88; 90;

92-93; 95-96; 9 8 , 98v-99; 102-103; 105-108; 111-135; 137-146; 148-159;

161-164; 168-171; 175-178; 182-184; 190-201A, 201B-213; 216-247; 249-251;

254-255; 275-283; 287-292, 292v-303; 307; 309-315, 315v-3l6; 318-321;

324-327; 331-334; 355-359, 359v-360; 365; 376; 379-387; 389-391; 393-397;

402-403; 406-407; 409; 411-413; 417-424; 426-457; 46o-4g6; 501; 503-510;

512-518; 526-536; 539-553.

Five pages, sorted by their original typed pagination, do not f i t in any of the versions represented in this study. Using their second pagination, in pencil, they f i t in the second draft. With the original numbers indicated in parentheses, they are 133 (94), 134 (95), 135 (96),

145 (103) and 146 (104).

Several pages are misnumbered: They are one hundred numbers too high. They are not intended to go elsewhere. In my judgment the errors have no further ramifications. Corrected in pen, 375-383 become 275-283, for example. With the original numbers indicated in parentheses, numbers 106

which I have used to sort these pages are 275-283 (375-383)» 287-303

(387-403), 307 (**07), 309-316 (409-416), 318-321 (418-421), 324-327

(424-427), 331-33^ (431-434), 355-360 (455-460), 376 (476), 379-387

(479 - 487 ), 389-391 (489-491) , 393-399 (493-499), 402-403 (502-503),

406-407 (506-507), 409 (509), 411-413 (511-513), 417-424 (517-524), and 426 (526).

Other pages are misnumbered: they are a few more than one hundred

numbers too high. I believe again that the errors have no special meaning.

They are 427-428 (529-530), 429-457 (540-568), 460-496 (571-607), 501

(612), 503-510 (614-621), 512-517 (623-628), 526-536 (637-647), 539-542

(650-653). Page 518 is first numbered, in ink, page 216, then, in pencil,

629, and finally, in ink, 518.

The second draft consists of two kinds of pages: (1) that which has The Man with the Golden Arm copy on only one side of the page (this kind predominates), and (2) that which has The Man with the Golden Arm copy on both sides. The versos of pages 9 8 , 292, 315, 355 and 359 a ll contain continuations of additions, in pencil or pen, which are begun on the rectos. When necessary, the content of these is mentioned in the table that follows. Other versos containing copy unrelated to this draft are those of pages 43, 216, and 291. The verso of page 291 is numbered 389.

I have assigned section numbers to pages of version 2 as follows:

1: 1-5 £: 12-16

2: 5-6 64= 29

2: 8-9 1' 31

4: 9-12 8: 31-33 2 : 36 lit: 168-171 1 0 : 38-39 2 £: 175 40-47 ! i: 2 6 : 175-178 JL2: 50-52 21’ 182-184 54-60 Jls 2 1 : 190-205 60-67 Jit: 2 2 : 205-213

i£: 78 40: 216

88 ii.: 4j_: 216-230 90 1Z-* 42: 230-241 8 J : 92-93 41: 241-247 95-96 1 2 : 44: 249-251

20: 98-99 i£: 254-255 102-1P3 i i : 46: 275 22: . 105-108 h a .’ 275-282 111-119 22: 48: 282-283 120-126 2ft: 4fi: 287

126-132 25.: 20: 287-291 26: 133-135 2 1 : 291-301

2 2 : 137-143 2i : 301-303 i i : 143-147 2 1 : 307 i 2 : 148-153 Sit: 307 1 0 : 153-157 22: 309-316

1 1 : 159 26: 318-321

12: 161-162 2 2 : 324-326 162-164 11: 28: 327 331-334 5 2 ' 2 i: 426-428

60: 334 22: 428-438 61: 355-360 28: 438-453

62: 365 22: 453-457

5 2 ' 376 80 : 460-462

6ft: 379-385 8j_: 462-470

6i: 385-386 82: 470-474

66: 386-387 8i: 474-482

6Z: 389-391 84: 482-488

68: 393-399 488-490

62: 402-403 86: 490-496

406-407 20: £Z= 501 409 21: 88: 503-510

22: 409 8^: 512-518

21: 411-413 20: 526-531 l h - 413 21: 531-536

2 2 ' 417-424 22: 539-542

21: 543-553 109

Relates to Vers ion 2 Vers ion J_ Remarks Secti on Section

1 New: entitled "The Walls." Begins with page 1, whereas 1st draft begins with page 3. Changes Lt. Katz to Captain Bednar and Bednarski. Diction becomes more colloquial. Adds, in pen, note that Sparrow says everything to Frankie "confidentially."

2 Changes Mclnerney to Kolkowski. New: (in pen) man sentenced by nude judge for indecent exposure had one loose button on his pants.

2 Lessens s atiric thrust, for instead of God's directing the Ward Super to Mass in return for a percentage of the g r if t , here He lends the Super cunning, for He is a hustlers' God, as wise as the God of merchants, lawyers and priests. Changes Kolkowski to Bonkowski.

3 Penned headnote that the only thing the Super's God does not know about is Frankie's hypo. New: paragraph about Kinsella's keeping dated racing sheets. Change: Frankie questions Sparrow about his intention to steal kindling (in 1st draft, tables), as Frankie has been doing. Becomes more exp licit: from (1) Sparrow says he was turned down for m ilitary service because of "moral warpitude"; to (2) " 'fo r admitting I steal for a living.'" Changes recipient of Frankie's wartime letter from Sparrow to Sophie. Changes name of bar from Morning Star to Tug & Maul, 1868 W. Division Street. New: paragraph about Frankie's explanation of friendship with Sparrow, who "'knows how bad i t can iget.'"

3 New: Frankie does not like to acknowledge that he squints. Sparrow says here that the army rejected him for "moral warpitude" (see sec. 3, version 1) KtQ

Relates to Version 2 Version 1 Remarks Section Section

5 cont'd. 3 cont'd. Change: Sparrow is not required to swear oath (in 1st, a "Hebe,!l one) before Frankie shows him tric k of making $10 on every $100 deposited at bank. Change: Odds for bowling alley trick raised from ten to one to twenty to one. Better now loses not a sawbuck but a double sawbuck.

6 k Begins with cabbie's saying that his wife is 100% and with Frankie's retort that his stinks. Becomes more specific; e.g., the slice of white bread in the 1st version becomes pumpernickel in the 2nd. Frankie says to the fallen roach "'when you're unincapable'" in the 1st draft; '"when you're stewed to the g ills in in the 2nd.

7 Only one paragraph. Frankie and Sparrow watch the light and hear a woman's cry.

8 New: speech by Kinsella and another, in pencil, by Frankie about the reason for Frankie's and Sparrow's incarceration.

9 New: Sparrow says that the Germans were scared of Frankie. New: (added in ink) Frankie thinks that if he did not occasionally need a " fix ," then he would not let Louie at his table and that one narcotics customer in the family is enough.

Slightly more elaborate. Makes minor revisions about Frankie's harsh homecoming from Sophie and about Sparrow's refusal to accompany Frankie home. Adds seven paragraphs in which Sparrow asks Frankie to bet on transfer numbers. Frankie is uninterested.

11 6 Omits t i t l e of 6, "The Happy Home Life of Frankie Machine." Begins before sec. 6. 1 ID

Relates to V ersion 2 Version J_ Remarks Section Section

11 cont'd. 6 co n t'd . Concerns landlord T aterka's insistence th a t doors be closed. Describes Sophie in babushka. Note in pen to see page 46 (d escrip tio n of her streaked blond hair showing black at the roots). Then follows sec. 6 in 1st, with Sophie's nagging Frankie for the dog he has promised. Change: im plies Louie, whereas 1st d r a ft says Nifty Louie, told Sophie that Frankie was j a i 1ed. New: Sophie's rebellion at being called Zosh rather than Sophee-a. Adds to Sophie's nagging, "'Your own mother said if you wasn't married you'd be settin' in the penitentiary right now. Your own mother. Passage about Sophie's hair marked to go earl ie r . New: Sophie asks Frankie to throw out the greasy cards and to jump out a f t e r them. He counters that they are not greasy, for he has put her face powder on them. Adds to passage about Sophie's wanting beer that she likes to mix light and dark beer.

12 7 Begins a little before 7. Reduces passage about Frankie's encounter w ith the German and his subsequent dreams about i t . New: Chevalier song, only noted in 1st. More about Sophie's liking beer. Here she likes the Great Lakes, too. New question by Sophie to Frankie: "'You know what the ruination of the world is?"' She answers stubbornness, of which she accuses Frankie. Important penned note a t le f t side of page 52: "Frankie ends as the man who lets everything go: pofter games, women, horse races, war, dice, booze—everything but 'M.'" Omits Frankie's dealing, explanation of name "Machine," and description of his golden arm. 112

R elates to Vers ion 2 Vers ion J_ Remarks Section Sect i on

13 New: "Whi le )_Frankie] squinted at the hand lying below his right eye" (underscoring mine)s New: Frankie wishes that Sophie would change her grimy green and red p la id babushka. Shows more of e ffe c ts o f dishbreaking episode on Frankie, as Sophie conceives it would be. Note that Sophie s till does not know Dovie, here a Negress, Club S afari Change: Merntng-Sfcat' to Tug & Maul.

14 Introduces Tug &Maul, its patrons, and their contempt for rival Club Safari. More d e s c rip tiv e d e ta ils about Pig and Antek. More explicit that Antek cheats Pig about beer. New, in pen: "Then Louie nudged the blind man and whispered obscenely: 'What's your habit--Jack the Rabbit?'" New: "In Pig's mind a new legend, to replace the frayed one above the register, formed:

Limit your abuse to 3 minutes. We get paid for overtime.

This legend is crossed out in pen. Adds Pig's lisp: from (1) "'You said a m out'ful!"' to (2) '"You thed a-medfehAfa+ it!" ' Omits Sparrow's giving Shooie a "hot fo o t." Omits Sparrow's sales talk to Frankie about Rumdum. Omits Sparrow's reminiscences about his dog-stealing racket.

15 9 Omits la t t e r p art o f 9 and m aterial on versos of pages 61 and 62. 113

R elates to Vers ion 2 Version Rema rks Section Section

16 10 A single page, 16 begins after 10. Omits description of Sophie's breasts and legs. Omits Sophie's resentment of Violet's good health and denial of seeing shadowed face of Jesus on f i r e escape. New: Sophie is glad that she was not pregnant at the time of the accident. New: Sophie reflects that all her acquaintances are "crippled and caught and done fo r ."

17 10 Includes note to see "Scrap-book of fatal accidence." Crosses out two paragraphs about the book and Sophie's addiction Omlits Louie's giving Sophie a "fix" and her reaction to it.

18 11 New: Sophie says that there is nothing deader than a dead love. Expands expository comment and dialogue between Frankie and Sophie. Change: Sophie thinks o f s e lf as v o c a lis t (in 1st: leader) of an all-girl band. Change: contains typed note, penned in 1st, that Sophie is s till exhausted from last night's hypo. Lost page 9^ is presumably about Sophie's thinking that bhe is in a charity hospital.

19 11 Omits Sophie's realization that all of Frankie's friends are secretly diseased.

20 11 Includes the addition noted in 1st about the kinds of time. Page 98v, in pen, contains more detail about time, gamblers' time and cripples' time. Rearranges Sophie's meditation on purgatory. Asks i f Pig (1st: Louie) would be in purgatory. Omits Sophie's dream of the time when she could walk, of seeing herself as a faceless creature, and of asking why she should worry, for she s till has Frankie.

21 12 Omits one-and-one-half opening paragraphs about Sophie's fear, even during her courtship, of losing Frankie. 114

R elates to Vers ion 2 Vers ion Rema rks Section Sect ion

22 12 Begins after 14 begins. Because o f missing page omits F rankie's interest in other women, including Myrtle Dumbrowski and Sophie's young s is te r . Expands d e ta ils . Notes that Sophie likes classical music. Omits Sophie's resolution and f a ilu r e to make a man of Frankie. Omits mention of Frankie's secret disease, "the disease of his crippled joy."

23 13 Omits first paragraph of 15. Replaces "some h ill-b illy ballad of the war years," crossed out, with "one last bar of Lili Marlene," in pencil. Replaces song in 1st with one which begins, "I'd like to give my dog to Uncle Sam/ You see sir I'm a blind boy, yes I am." This one, too, is crossed out. A note in pencil says, "insert English version." Change: age of Antek's daughter from four to eight years. New: F ran kie, Sophie, and Antek buy each other drinks. New: paragraph about Antek's locking the back door. Adds to account o f accident. Changes, e.g., from (1) "A bystander had come to JJoldier'sJ help. 'This is just her boy-friend, officer. That's her husband settin' on the curb. It looks like an internal triangle to meo"' to (2) "A bystander came to help. 'This is just her boy-friend, officer. That's her husband settin' on the curb holdin' his head. It looks lik e an in tern al tria n g le to me, f-th + n k the husband trie d to run th is s o ld ie r down fo r dating his w ife.'" 13 Concerns the a fte r -e ffe c ts of the accident. Although she does not have a broken bone, Sophie is s till "moonin'." New: long passage about Zygmunt's pro­ cedure as prospector and his "in" with lawyers, doctors, and policemen.

24 13 Last portion of Frankie's dream about the soiled half dollar is designated in pencil and brown crayon, "elsewhere" and " la t e r ." 115

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25 Concerns Sophie's going to Old Doc Domanowski, the Doctor of Electrical Medicine. Account of his operations and patients. Finally Violet makes Sophie stop going to this quack. 13 Expands section telling about Violet's or Frankie's taking Sophie to mov

26 13 Sophie wants only Frankie to help her upstairs. Violet slaps her when she whines because he is not here. She goes into a tantrum. Trying to walk upstairs alone, she falls. Then Vi helps h er. Sophie wonders i f Frankie does not help her any more because she is g e ttin g fat. She cannot bear his not loving her.

27 15 Adds Vi's remarks to Sparrow about his peeping-tom route: "'I know you don't get detective trainin' doin' a dry waltz with yo u rself on somebody's f i r e escape.'" Changes the lo cation of Sparrow's supposed race track from Florida to Chicago. Condenses the episode in which Sparrow does not pay the restaurant b i l l . Continues past 15. The waiter throws Sparrow from the restaurant. Vi tells Sophie th a t she m arried Stash to keep him warm and that he does not worry about her being with Sparrow. Adds a paragraph, crossed out, in which Sparrow says that he has rented a steam-heated fla t in a nice neighborhood, but it turns out to be only a basement room.

28 Adds th a t "Chmura" is "m ushin"1 Vi when she meets Sparrow, but since Chmura can have any g irl, she brushes him off to give Sparrow a chance. "'H e needed mushin' p re tty b a d ," ' she says. This passage is typed. It also appears in pencil at the bottom of page l4*f, 17 Change: Sparrow's th e ft o f a bathtub to that o f a baby bathtub. Change: Drunk in a b ar, V io le t is asked i f she is m arried. The "someone" who answers for her in the 1st version becomes "Drunk?e Johnny" in the 2nd draft. Ends before 17; therefore, it omits Sparrow's belief that Vi will marry him and his altercation w ith a cab d riv e r. 11$

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29 18 Continues past 18. New: Sparrow is bound with clothesline to old Gold, who stunned him with a washboard. At the police station Sparrow explains to Vi that he was not given a chance to pay fo r the coat he " tr ie d on" a t G old's. Vi wants him paroled to her for life. Vi tells Sophie that Sparrow's lies are "just poor man's pennies.1,1 19 Rearranges some of Vi's sentences about divorcing Stash. Omits paragraph in which Sophie wonders why she is not good for Frankie.

30 20 Adds Sophie's decision th at nobody now knows what he is doing and her hearing Umbrella Man. Continues after 20 with Sophie's reminiscences about her firs t sexual experience with Frankie.

31 21 A note reads, "p. 162." If this incident about the mousetrap were placed there, it would come at the end of this section, as it does in the book, I 19 .

32 21 Omits Sophie's fancy that Pig Is God and th at Gold is Noah. Changes song Sophie hums from (1) " Doin' the boogie-woogie aw-awl1 night long" to "Why should J[ be tormented/ By just a dream o f you?" New: Sophie has the "ch'jck horrors," an insatiable appetite when she cannot have a "charge."

33 22 Omits the t i t l e , "God Hates a Coward." Includes page 119v and other elaborations about Louie's card sleight at Umbrella Man's expense. New: reference to Dovie Breedlove noted in pencil as "elsewhere."

34 Sophie's dream of Frankie, cold (dead?) in bed beside her, designated in pencil "elsewhere." Passage about clocks also marked "elsewhere." 24 Continuation of dream. New: Sophie's song: "'W hiteheads, blackheads . . . I like to tweeze 'em, I get in the mood.'" 117

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3k cont'd, 2k cont'd. Ends before 2k does, omitting Sophie's fear of being left alone and her knowledge that, to hold Frankie, she dare not walk again. Omits Sophie's forgiveness of Frankie, which he rejects.

35 2k Condenses Frankie's conjecture that i f there had been no accident, a ll aspect of his life might now be ideal.

36 25 Omits t i t l e "Every Hour on the Hour." Begins one paragraph before 25 does, noting the taut wire string in Kinsella's, a remembrance of when Kinsella's was a pool hall. Expands dialogue throughout 36. Ends before 25, omitting Kinsella's pride in being alive after skirmishes with the under­ world and omitting a description of Nifty-Louie.

37 25 Crosses out part of the scene in which Sparrow mocks Big Stinkin' T'ing by gluttonously eating candy, which Fhankie squashes in re b u tta l. Changes answer to Sparrow's question, "'Who's the ugliest man in the house?"' from Pokey (1) '" M e l1" to (2) u iffleTlu The second u g lie s t is changed from ( l) "'B ig S tin k in ' T 'in g '" to (2) Me UJ-Btg-9fetnk{-nJ--TAtf»gTJ-u This passage is noted " In j a i l . "

38 25 Omits Kinsella's warning to Sparrow not to come to his rooms after stealing flashlight p e n ciIs . Omits subsequent banter about the pencil's use and b a tte ry . Omits Kinsella's fear of a heart attack and of pursuit by long-dead underworld enemies. Typical change: from (1) " 'T h e y 'll plant one of th e ir aces in the drapery 'n y o u 'll be in the bucket so long V i '11 f a l l in love w ith S ta s h .'" to (2) " 'N ie b o ld t's '11 p lan t one of them aces in the drapery 'n you'll be in the bucket so long feht&-fc+me-VtJ4+-mai,ry-e-ma'i4man. you'll think you're the warden."1 Slightly alters the tense banter between Sparrow and Louie, with Sparrow's revelation that he knows Louie's racket. Louie threatens him. Sparrow responds by making his " ju -ju " sign, Sparrow offers to work for Louie, to make his own needles. This passage is noted "elsewhere." 119

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38 cont'd. 25 co n t'd . Continues beyond 25. K in s e lla sometimes sends stooges into the card game to keep Frankie straight. Frankie is able to spot them. Sparrow tells those men who are not to be admitted to Kinsella's that they have the wrong spot, that it is the "Endless Belt 'n Leat'er Specialties." As the stud session continues, adds a passage about a song of the 1930's, "More, more, I keep crying for more." Includes a passage about Frankie's technique w ith women. Emphasizes how he broke Sophie's pride during their courtship and how she had never forgiven him. Now she tries to regain that pride. Frankie's reminiscences of the "old days." Frankie's feeling of guilt. Frankie asks Sparrow for a dog for Sophie. A note directs this request to be put at the end of the section. Frankie hears a train's coughing that reminds him of a wounded p riv a te try in g to cough.

39 Description of the white curtains of Dovie's room. Description of the rest of her room. As Frankie and Sparrow approach Dovie's room, Frankie asks Sparrow not to awaken Sophie, not to let her know that Frankie is going to Dovie's room. Description of Dovie. Dialogue between Frankie and Dovie about Sophie; e.g., Dovie says, "'I seen her fn-the eha’i-r Such a shame. She's so p u rtv . '" More descrip tio n of room, noting its difference from what Frankie expects. Dialogue about people's seeing Frankie here. Dovie asks if Sophie was crippled when married.

40 Frankie takes a dog to Sophie.

k] Concerns Stash's coming home w ith another woman. Notes on verso of page 216 appear typed, In the regular content, on page 217. 110

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41 cont'd. The Great Sandwich B a ttle . Vi does not feel appreciated by sexually disinterested Stash, already asleep. She goes, therefore, to the Tug & Maul and returns home with Sparrow, who asks why he is supposed to meet Stash " 'fo rm ' 11 y .1,1 26 Continues the Great Sandwich B a ttle beginning as Stash drops p a rt of a sausage sandwi ch.

42 27 Similar continuations of the Great Sand­ wich Battle. Sec. 42 contains a few slight additions in ink.

43 28 A lte rs and expands some dialogue and exposition in this scene between Frankie and Sophie and then between Frankie and Dovie. Adds at the end of 43, a description of a light bulb and a candle.

44 28 Beginning after 28, sec. 44 omits Dovie's expressing her loneliness and inviting Frankie to visit her. Crosses out part of the description of roaches. Expands the details of Frankie's seeing a Negro d oll in bed w ith Sophie. Crosses out some of the account of Frankie's going to a bar. Omits introduction of a prostitute in the deserted bar.

45 28 Changes prostitute's locket to a crucifix. Changes prostitute's reply to Frankie's cruel taunt about her being worn-out from (1) "'And for just as long, friend,'" to (2) "'We only bloom once, friend.'" Omits prostitute's attempt to get Frankie to buy her a beer, her account of a roommate who likes to get caught when having intercourse, and her unsuccessful effort to seduce Frankie by exposing her breasts to him. Omits Frankie's thoughts that his life has been betrayed. 120

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46 31 Relates to only the end of 31 about Sophie's need fo r "som ethin'": "'Everybody got to have somethin',"1 she says. Omits, therefore, Frankie's visit to a church and to Dovie before he goes home.

47 32 Another stud session including, now, not Big Stinkin' T'ing (in 1st) but "umbrella mans." New: Louie is well-dressed. This fact is significant because of Pig's later use of Louie's clothes and because of subsequent identification that Pig is the man who rolled Louie. New: accentuates Pig's lisp, e.g., from (1) "'Blind guys are the best to deal.'" to (2) "'Blind guys are the betht to deal.'" New: "'Keep your muscles in your pockets,' Sparrow suggested from Louie's side." New: Louie has never felt unluckier, even in the long barracks at Buchenwald, than he does now as Frankie and Sparrow leave w ith his good luck piece.

48 33 Changes speaker from Sparrow to Frankie, who says, "'I didn't even hear him fa ll, Sparrow.'" Omits paragraph in which Frankie realizes that he had run after the murder. Change: Frankie now needs two beers, not one. Changes a little dialogue. Adds that "Frankie's hand, for th|e[first time in his life , tremblefjdjas he brought it to his 1 ips." Stops short of 33. Omits Sparrow's assertion to Frankie that they were having coffee at the time of the murder. Omits Kinsella's warning that they may lose their jo b s.

49 New: "So Frankie sat, on the bed's hard edge, thinking of the lucky cats of the Kitten Klub, and all strange lucky cats everywhere, until it was time for him to go upstairs and pretend he d id n 't have the skid row shakes to Zosh." 121)

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50 3^ Changes record Dovie plays from (1) "Oh my sugar is so refined/ Shefs the really high-class kind." to f2) "The blues that I got on my mind/ are the very meanest kind." This second song is marked "elsewhere." Sophie says that she cannot get a job because she must care fo r Zosh and the dog; in sec. 3k, for only Sophie. Changes in these sections are minimal.

51 35 Changes Mr. Big Stinkin' T'ing to Umbrella Man. Adds that Mr. Floor-Show brings a marked deck of cards for Sparrow. Adds Big Stinkin* TJing's fear of deportat ion. Expands Bruno's (Antek's) crying episode. New: Meter-Reader s till tries to explain a 16—1 loss by his ball team to the General Paint and Varnish club. Mr. Floor-Show, as Owner Budzban, telephones to f i r e Meter-Reader. Next, a Mexican at the door offers Meter-Reader a job in Veracruz. "Budzban" c a lls again to say that Meter-Reader can have his coaching job back if he gives up coachingi Change: Not every drunk, just one drunk corners Frankie to tell him that he did right in k i 11ing Louie. Alters list of party guests. New: Vi, drunk, suggestively sings to Sparrow: "'Let me be your little sweetheart/ I'll be much obliged to you.”" Changes description of Dovie's melancholy. Adds, e.g., her thoughts about her second­ hand stove.

52 35 New: answering Sophie's question, Frankie says that he has v is ite d a "d o c k e r" to get a tip on tomorrow's race. Crosses out the paragraph, "'W hat's the m atter, Zosh?' he asked c a re fu lly . 'Excitement been too much fo r you?'" New: notation in ink, "Reverse roles." Therefore, with the reversal, Sophie sees Frankie's eyes bloodshot, he asks her to rub his back, and she asks i f he has seen Pig. 12?

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52 cont'd. 35 cont'd. After the reversal, she tells Frankie that a g ir l must have a "charge," Feeling lik e a pallbearer, Frankie wheels her home. Reversing roles again: she asks him how long he has been on drugs. Answer: two months, or, truthfully, since he was in the army hospital. A little of this dialogue is crossed out. (Algren's original intent was to have Sophie addicted. The note to reverse roles must have been added a fte r the completion of the second d r a f t .)

53 36 Only the end of one paragraph and one other in which Sophie mocks Frankie, calling him "d octor," Omits Frankie's urging her not to take drugs.

5k Only Antek himself cashes checks, according to a sign in the Tug & Maul. Another, which appears in sec. 38 , version 1, prohibits swearing. He does not allow strong-arming on the premises. He hits brawling patrons on the heads with a plunger.

55 37 Because o f a missing page, version 2 omits the information that Antek uses a bucket of ammonia water to break up more serious fights. This method was not successful in stopping two women fighting one Easter morning. Changes person in Tug & Maul from Frankie to Sparrow. Algren did not appropriately alter subsequent references. Hence, the single change does not make sense. Shortens headlines Frankie imagines himself making. Names woman and her drunken boyfriend Mol l i e and Drunkie John. Adds paragraph about the heroism at the bottom of a shot glass. Particularizes Frankie's notions of acting as though he were in the movies to acting as though he were Ray Mil land or James Cagney. Adds Frankie's speech to Sparrow, " 'I think you're still in the junkin' stage . . . spyin' fo r dimes along the b a r - r a i l , '" 123

Relates to Version 2 Vers ion J_ Remarks Section Section Adds "'I'd like to have a cam'ra 'n just 55 co n t'd . 37 cont'd. go around so I'll get the picture when somethin' big happens,' Sparrow day-dreamed aloud. "'Quit racin' your motor,' Frankie suggested, to keep the business a t hand in mind." Changes and crosses out Frankie's accusing Pig of giving Sophie morphine. A lte rs and adds to P ig's asking Frankie and Sparrow if they will break his neck, too. Crosses out altered paragraph about Frankie's and Sparrow's fe a r. New: concludes with Sparrow's wish that he were a wind blowing up a woman's s k ir t .

56 38 Begins after 38, omitting Frankie's loss of desire for Dovie and the pursuit of his guilty conscience. Adds Frankie's wish that he had died in Germany. Omits sign about drinking gracefully. Changes Chester-from-the-Conveyor to Meter-Reader Emi4-from-Endless-Belt-&-Leather. Expands conversation about Jews. Adds four paragraphs about Sparrow's liking girls at the start of a passage in which he and Frankie imagine that they have women aboard th e ir yacht. Dialogue here changes somewhat. Adds, e.g., Sparrow's concern about the girls' hearing the lions' roar. Alters Sparrow's speech to Frankie about Pig's trying to get Sophie to turn in Frankie and Sparrow to even the score for Frankie's affair with a Negress. Sparrow s till defends Frankie with the same excuses, however. A large question mark, in pencil, labels this passage. Omits Frankie's questioning Sparrow about Louie's money and Sparrow's giving Frankie half of it. Omits more dialogue about Fran kie's a f f a i r .

57 38 Changes Pixley 'n Ellers, the name of a real restaurant, to Hixley 'n Pellers. Adds Sparrow's suggestion to Frankie that they go to the Nort' Avenue Beach to see Mol 1ie S p lit s . 12^

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57 cont'd. 38 cont'd. Adds Sparrow's fear of being jailed for Louie's murder. Adds Sparrow's suggestion that they go to the Rye-awlto. At the end of the section, adds two short paragraphs about Sparrow's wanting help.

58 Theft of irons from Nieboldt's. Concludes w ith the decision o f Frankie and Sparrow to walk down the stairs, rather than to take an elevator, after stealing the i rons.

59 ^fO Omits Frankie's dream in jail, his observation of the play of light and shadow, his thoughts of Dovie, Louie, and others including a Negro asleep nearby.

60 "Show-up night" a t the p o lice s ta tio n means that a holiday air is pervasive. Second paragraph of 60, in which there are only two, is a speech by a man in line-up about his hitting another man who insulted his w ife . Money ju s t happened to f a l l from the victim's pocket.

61 Page 355 is curious, for the recto is typed and the verso is longhand. Both contain much of the same material, a description of the evening sights and Sophie's thoughts of being in a h o s p ita l. She thinks of the people she knows. She believes that somewhere here lives a faceless man. Frankie is in ja il, working at the Bride­ well laundry's sheet-rol1ing machine. Description of ja il and its inhabitants, including addicts, and their behavior. Description of inmates who are neither very good nor very bad. De&dription of deadlock.

62 k7 A single page about Antek's being teased about his broken glasses, about his deaf and dumb c a t, and its escape from a hound, and about Frankie's rebuff to Sparrow. Obviously much missing from 62, for b7 is more extensive. 125

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63 Little Lester, a prisoner, boasts long and loudly to the " ‘stinkin* squeala.*"

64 Lester plays cards with Frankie, Later when he sees F rankie, he s t i l l does not sound worried, although he faces the electric chair. Frankie watches Lester and three others exercising in the prison yard. Frankie has a fixation about Lester's tennis shoe laces. Frankie identifies with Lester; he feels that he should be getting the chair. A short passage about Lester's arrest. Bonarue Mac talks to Frankie about Lester.

65 4-3 New: paragraph about Lester's lawyer's telephoning him. New: paragraph about the execution: no one o f the fo u r men who push buttons knows who pushes the liv e one. Page 386 repeats a paragraph begun a t the bottom o f page 385. Typical of rewriting: from (1) "The single shoulder button had been loosened over the seared heart and six doctors, in turn, had pronounced the heart something that meant, fo r a ll human purposes, i t was as much use as a charred lump of spoiled meat dumped into the nearest container." to (2) "The single shoulder button had been stripped off taking the shirt down to expose the poor seared heart. Six doctors, in turn, had pronounced the heart as dead as a h u s tle r's heart can get: a charred lump o f spoiled meat sagged where the liv in g heart had burned, ready for the nearest ash can." New: not u n til a f t e r he had been released does Frankie learn that Lester did not die in the chair. He died in his bunk from a heart attack or from poison, "All depending upon whom you asked."

66 44 Follows 44 rather closely; e.g., in 44 Frankie dreams th a t he is imprisoned fo r electric irons stealing tee-epeera-bars; in 66, for stealing i rons. As in 44, Frankie wonders about Dovie. 126

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67 44 New: continuation of a paragraph at top of page 389 , the f i r s t page o f 6 7 , and a paragraph following the continuation. Clearer here than in 44 that Frankie dreams about being executed in Lester's stead and about being buried beneath home plate. He dreams that he is paroled but that the parole will be revoked if ever he is caught in a dealer's slot. Change: Captain Kvorka's desk becomes Bednar's. Captain KafezA9. Change: Here Frankie also dreams of both Father Novak and Zygmunt. In 44, o f only Novak. Change: Whereas Frankie recovers and leaves Bridewell "hospital" after three weeks in 44, he dreams o f someone's fo ld in g bundles of newspapers a t the conclusion of 67.

68 bS Paragraph two of 68 relates to paragraph one of 45. Omits dialogue among Frankie, Sophie and Vi. 46 Continues without a break. New: paragraph about the son of the J a ile r who pushes a r t i f i c i a l flowers between stairtreads to try to make them grow. Elaborates 46, making more e x p lic it the Jailer's lure to Vi. Expands th e ir dialogue about hammering. A portion of 68, designated "earlier," starts with a paragraph beginning, "Frankie came down D ivision S treet . . . ." Paragraphed differently from 46. Frankie returns, is complimented for his crime by Jailer and goes to his door labeled "29" in red p a in t. (46 has "27" in black crayon). 45 Inserts here dialogue among Frankie, Sophie, and Vi in 45, labeled "earlier." Finally Frankie wheels Sophie, hoping she w i11 sleep.

69 46, 47 Obvious revisio n , including expansion of details. For example, from (1) "Once, during a lull in the game, he went to the window he stood on the fire escape which overlooked the neighborhood roofs and saw the lights of the loop re flec te d in the night sky as of from 12ft

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69 co n t'd . 46, 47 some gigantic forge. The lights the reflection c o n t'd . flickered and pulsed, like heat thrown off by the city's enormous heart, being in suppressed panic on the other side of the river; his own heart caught the infection and contracted a bit." to (2) "Once, during a lulu [sic] in the game, he went ontot [sic] the fire-escap e which overlooked the neighborhood's roofs and saw the lights of the loop reflected in the night sky like light from some gigantic forge. Like heat thrown off by the city's enormous h e art, fehefe-eRermeus-heepfc beating fo rever in a suppressed panic there caught at his own heart and contracted in suppressed panic all his own." Sec. 69 ends before 47. Omits Sparrow's returning money for flashlight pencil to K in s e lla .

70 47 The portion of this section about Antek's broken glasses and crippled cat pursued by a dog appears to be a rewriting of 62 of this draft. Sec. 70 also ends before 47. Omits Frankie's rebuff to Sparrow. Much of 70 crossed out in red pencil.

71 The preceding, missing page may concern the warning of the lights to Frankie. Contains Frankie's morbid thoughts, e.g., "'Sometimes I think I'll never shine again . . . . ' "

72 47 Concerns the change in Oovie. Missing page may continue about Oovie and about Frankie's fingers' losing their touch.

73 49 New; Frankie spits on Antek's bar mirror. Antek hits Frankie in the face with a towel.

74 First paragraph, concerning talk about Dovie's expected baby, is marked "next page." Vi and Schautzy the Carpenter (Jailer) talk about the sex determination of a child by his fa th e r. 12$

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75 50 Crosses out Frankie's reminiscences about a variety of subjects including nights of poker a t K in s e lla 's and in the army w ith buddies who f e l t a sense o f u n ity . Wonders why men in uniform have confidence in each other when men out of uniform do not. Realizes that he needs Sparrow and Sparrow needs him. Because of this quality of sharing, Frankie's days in the army were his happiest. G reatly expands 50, e .g ., in the s a tire on forgetting the war dead. Adds description of Frankie's physical deterioration. Recalls the old man in ja il who wanted to be remembered. Adds thoughts of Sophie and of Antek's grey cat who meows when the casual drinker becomes a lush.

76 51 Begins after 51, omitting a paragraph t e llin g th a t Dovie's baby boy was born fe e t f i r s t and th a t she had gone to Dr. O'Konski, the Smiling Psychiatrist and second-hand car dealer. S lig h t change in d ic tio n when Sophie questions Pig about the color of Dovie's baby. New, a t end o f section: a sco ffin g speech by Sophie about Frankie and Sparrow.

77 52 Change: Frankie now in Tug & Maul, not the Safari. Crosses out Sparrow's recollection of having pride in stealing Louie's roll of money. Typical change: from Frankie, embarrassed when seen by Sparrow, (l) "then scraped the deck up and stuffed it in his pocket as if suddenly ashamed to be caught fooling with a deck." to ( 2) "then scraped the deck up and stuffed it in his pocket like a husband almost caught with obscene pictures by his wife." New: Sparrow's greeting to Frankie Becomes more s p e c ific ; e .g ., from (1) "'Well the guy who own this place strong-armed a couple of you millionaires 'n passed it around to his friends. Now he's winnin* it all back 'n having fun doin' it.'" to (2) "'Well, the guy who runs th is game strongarmed a 129

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77 cont'd. 52 cont'd. gin-rummy game on Roosevelt Road. Now he's got the Roosevelt Road hoods workin' for him, the joint's doin' such a business they're gettin* to be m illio n a ire s too— even the stickmen is millionaires in Stickney,"1 Adds a few more speeches about the stickman. Continues past 52 with an account of drunken Big Stinkin' T'ing. 53 Precedes most of 53 w ith an account of Drunkie John's hurting Mol 1ie in bar, Frankie's giving her a dime to sing, John's h u m iliatin g him, and Antek's holding back John to give Mol l ie a head s ta r t away from him.

78 54 Designated "earlier," a paragraph about Sparrow's unhappiness at sleeping with hot­ handed V io le t. New: paragraph about Vi's insatiability and Sparrow's desire to leave. New: long passage about Sparrow's affinity with alleys since he was a child searching for t i n f o i l in ash cans and la te r saving beer corks found there. New: paragraph about horse's disdainful reaction to Sparrow's feeding him. (Version 1 has notes for this paragraph.) Note: "insert P. 428" [and part of 429j , an account of Sparrow's unsuccessful attempt to steal a terrier. New: Sparrow's sleeping on a pool table before going to a movie. (Notes for this passage in version 1.) Change in d e ta ils about the k it e suspended on ut i 1i ty wi res. Continues past 54 with account of Polish and Jewish card players, for Kippel's players were Jews, yet Sparrow did not seem to belong. 55 Change: Sparrow goes not to the Kit Kat club but to the Tug & Maul , sees not Kid S p lits but Mol 1ie. Transfers some of dialogue between Sparrow and Splits to Sparrow and Mol lie. Expands Sparrow's f la t t e r y o f her. 130

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78 co n t'd . 55 cont'd. Continues past 55, with Sparrow's request to Pig fo r money. Pig reminds him of the time he refused the blind peddler. Sparrow acknowledges that now he is through with Frankie. Pig hires him to deliver "medicine for a friend."

79 Sparrow's reminiscences about his past "occupations" and his regret that he will be caught at this one. Crosses out paragraph about his wanting to turn back. Makes delivery to Mol lie. As she begins to get sick, he takes the payment, $20, from her purse and hastily leaves. Outside, he realizes that he has not given her the morphine, which he then throws down the alley. Now he feels cocky, clean. He stops in a bar. He overpays for a paper. He plans a speech to Pig which includes, " 'I'll put you where i put Fomorowski . . . . ' "

80 Sparrow and Ju-ju, from Kippel's, now a buddy, at Antek's. There Sparrow is picked up as a dope-peddler and is taken to ja il.

8) Account of the query room that no one has ever seen. Description of its light. Description of policemen. More description of the room. Changes Apple-Eyes to Record-Head, written over i t . Includes the significant paragraph: "It was here that guilt was fashioned, like a cross, out of the handiest material: a stolen electric iron, a deck of greasy cards, a little brown drugstore bottle, or a blind man's word." Sparrow in the query room. Crosses out his offering a policeman five dollars for freedom. Thrown in same j a i l block th a t he and Frankie had shared. Thinking it is that night, he talks to the "cabbie." Thinks he is in a Turkish bath. Feels he wants to do all untried things. Recalls Pig's betraying him. Nursing a hangover, he asks fo r coffee and a s p irin . Claims that he gave the desk man $5; now it is gone. Inmate "Harry" boasts that "She came" to see him. 13®

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82 Bednar grills Sparrow. Tells him to confess who was with him when Louie was killed in exchange for the captain's forgetting about the dope peddling charge. W ith an e le c tio n coming up, the Sikowicz Boys are suggesting that one of the captain's own men killed Louie and, therefore, that the murder is not yet solved. Although quite shaken, Sparrow refuses. He will take the rap himself before implicating someone else.

83 Sparrow, still in jail, is lonely. He has only a talkative, pseudo-pious preacher, Rev. Easterman, fo r company. The preacher rejects Sparrow's deal to become a partner in a stray- dog farm fo r $300. They carry on a "Can you top th is? " conversation about people and cases they have known. F in a lly , a f t e r re a liz in g the seriousness of his predicament, Sparrow asks the Pokey fo r a nickel to c a ll a lawyer.

8*f Zygmunt visits Sparrow in jail, tells him that his wife w ill pay his bond. Of course Sparrow has no wife and no intention of returning to V i . Designated "earlier": account of Zygmunt's background, which includes a long-standing dread of the kind of bartender's life his father led, law school, law practice chiefly for married men who pay exorbitant fees to keep confidential their extra-marital affairs. Note on top of page ^84: "change: from Zygmunt-The-Runner to Zygmunt-The-Prospector.11 Zygmunt tries to get Sparrow to sign a statement naming Frankie as accomplice. He tr ie s a v a rie ty o f sales p itc h e s . The outcome is not revealed until later.

85 F ran kie's dream of being pursued, perhaps by a German. A note in pencil a t the end o f the section reads: "Perhaps F. goes on the stuff after S. Js taken away. This would cancel his flight to W. Madison; it would leave him in the deserted f l a t w ith the hypo & P ig ."

86 Little Stinker comes to the apartment to warn Frankie th a t Sparrow has turned him in and that the police are on their way to get him. 13?

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86 co n t'd . Frankie leaves Sophie, ostensibly to get her custard rolls, then remembers a song Dovie sang, goes looking for her at the address she gave him but there she is unknown. Pig visits Sophie, tells her that the p o lic e , who had been th e re , had been looking for a hypodermic needle.

87 Sophie believes that she hears voices talking insultingly about Frankie and her.

88 29 Changes Safari Club to Kitten Klub. Adds another customer's spilling beer on Frankie. Adds contrast between Sunday listen e rs and midweek lis te n e rs . Changes Miss Suzanne to Miss Dinah Mite. Adds band's playing "Naughty Angeline." Adds dedication of song to Me C0 Adds Frankie's asking a Negress to go elsewhere to drink beer with him. She refuses. This passage is designated "Mol l ie 's e a r lie r ." Adds another stripper's singing, "'When your mind makes a contract . . . . ' " Omits Frankie's fear that Sparrow will know about Dovie. Changes juke box song from "Lay that pistol down, Babe" to "Painted lip s , painted eyes . . . ." Omits antics of woman in white hat. Omits Frankie's remorse at two-timing Sophie.

89 29 New: " in s e rt1:1 (a noseless woman in an antiquated blue-lace dress with a blue veil over the dent where the nose had been; like dent made by a pincers-and the heavy shadows under the eyes, and the eye-ipouge above them. With a rag, for no reason at a ll, wrapped about her neck.)" A note in margin says that this woman is Mol lie , but Frankie does not recognize her. She tries unsuccessfully to get credit from the bartender and then to get 50$ from an uninterested customer. She claims she was a beauty once, when she came from East St. Louis. Omits two paragraphs in which Frankie t e lls Dovie to "Go back to Lake Street." 133

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89 cont'd. 29 cont'd. Omits Frankie's fear of Pig's learning about Oovie and Frankie's concern why the girls do not respond to P ig 0 New: Frankie thinks he sees Pig t e llin g jokes to uninterested girls. Pig also tries to become friendly with Frankie. Some of this passage is crossed out in crayon. Dialogue between Frankie and Pig in secs. 89 and 29 is different. Sec. 89 omits some of Frankie's attempts to "brush off" Pig and his warningto Pig not to comenear his room. Adds more entertainm ent. Again, some of this passage is crossed out. Adds Frankie's asking Pig to leave after Pig again shows Frankie his neck, taftpoed lik e a hangman's noose. Omits Frankie's wish to kill Sophie's former boyfriends. Omits Frankie's drunkenly performing on stage. Omits Frankie's drunken conversation, perhaps with Mr. Floor-Show.

90 31 Adds other people Frankie sees in the chapel. Adds Frankie's counting lights and trying to understand the priest. Adds Frankie's not paying for holy-water. Adds an usher's wakening Frankie. Omits Frankie's thoughts that everyone except Dovie would be angry w ith him fo r getting drunk rather than working tonight. Adds Frankie's having walked in a circle rather than home. Places here the more detailed account of Frankie's going to an animal shelter, where a woman refuses him admittance. In 31 he passes by a shelter before going to the chapel. Omits the scene at the end of 31 between Frankie and Dovie and then Frankie and Sophie.

91 Sophie, determined to find where Frankie is hiding, searches for the gas jet in the hall. Then she re c a lls th a t i t was in the h all of her girlhood home, not in this one. 1 #

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91 cont1d. Sophie goes to next-door room to investigate card-playing there. She imagines that Frankie is returning. She wanders onto fire escape, is brought back by neighbors, and is taken to a hospital (or asylum). She hears Drunkie John beating Mol lie .

92 Account of Sophie in hospital: her A&ughing, rocking, eating without protest, thinking that she is introducing the doctor to the walls and the nurse to the floor. The nurse comes to cut her nails. Sophie tells her and the doctor that "'the whole business is a lie ," 1 after the nurse has said, '"Oh yes, she has a good heart,1" and the doctor has re p lie d , "'T h e re 's no demand for good hearts.'" The nurse brings Sophie a new deck of cards. She thinks th a t when she has them sorted correctly she can go home to a proud Frankie. Sophie tells the doctor that if he Is the precinct captain he must tell Frankie where she is .

93 This section is published as the short story, "The Captain is impaled." Description of night. Captain Bednar remembers an underaged girl who twenty-two months ago committed s u icid e . Description of Bednar's sweating and of the heat. Bednar: -wonders about the noise, the murmur of inmates. He, too, wishes to laugh, but he cannot, for something has happened to his lip s and h eart, -dare not pity himself or a prisoner, for pity is woman's work. -cannot decode the arrest slips to fill out the charge sheet. No longer can he to le ra te women. Kvorka says that Bednar w ill be writing his own name on the sheet i f he does not change his mood soon. He writes "Guilty" on the charge sheet, accusing himself. -r e c a lls rogues th a t he has handled. -recalls underaged girl. This paragraph is crossed out.

133

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89 co n t'd . 29 cont'd. Omits Frankie's fe a r of P ig 's learning about Dovie and Frankie's concern why the girls do not respond to Pig. New: Frankie thinks he sees Pig te llin g jokes to uninterested girls. Pig also tries to become friendly with Frankie. Some of this passage is crossed out in crayon. Dialogue between Frankie and Pig in secs. 89 and 29 is different. Sec. 89 omits some of Frankie's attempts to "brush off" Pig and his warning to Pig not to comenear his room. Adds more entertainm ent. Again, some of this passage is crossed out. Adds Frankie's asking Pig to leave after Pig again shows Frankie his neck, tattooed lik e a hangman's noose. Omits Frankie's wish to kill Sophie's former boyfriends. Omits Frankie's drunkenly performing on stage. Omits Frankie's drunken conversation, perhaps with Mr. Floor-Show.

90 31 Adds other people Frankie sees in the chapel. Adds Frankie's counting lights and trying to understand the priest. Adds Frankie's not paying for holy-water. Adds an usher's wakening Frankie. Omits Frankie's thoughts th a t everyone except Dovie would be angry with him for getting drunk rather than working tonight. Adds Frankie's having walked in a circle rather than home. Places here the more detailed account of Frankie's going to an animal shelter, where a woman refuses him admittance. In 31 he passes by a shelter before going to the chapel. Omits the scene a t the end o f 31 between Frankie and Dovie and then Frankie and Sophie.

91 Sophie, determined to find where Frankie is hiding, searches for the gas jet in the hall. Then she re c a lls that i t was in the h all of her girlhood home, not in this one. ]yb

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91 cont'd. Sophie goes to next-door room to investigate card-playing there. She imagines that Frankie is returning. She wanders onto fire escape, is brought back by neighbors, and is taken to a hospital (or asylum). She hears Drunkie John beating Mol lie .

92 Account of Sophie in hospital: her laughing, rocking, eating without protest, thinking that she is introducing the doctor to the walls and the nurse to the floor. The nurse comes to cut her nails. Sophie tells her and the doctor that '"the whole business is a lie,'" after the nurse has said , Ml0h yes, she has a good h e a r t ,"1 and the doctor has replied, "'There's no demand for good hearts."' The nurse brings Sophie a new deck of cards. She thinks th at when she has them sorted c o rrec tly she can go home to a proud Frankie. Sophie tells the doctor that if he is the precinct captain he must tell Frankie where she is .

93 This section is published as the short story, "The Captain Is Impaled." Description of night. Captain Bednar remembers an underaged girl who twenty-two months ago committed suicide. Description of Bednar's sweating and of the heat. Bednar: -wonders about the noise, the murmur of inmates. He, too, wishes to laugh, but he cannot, for something has happened to his lip s and heart, -dare not pity himself or a prisoner, for pity is woman's work. -cannot decode the arrest slips to fill out the charge sheet. No longer can he tolerate women. Kvorka says that Bednar w ill be writing his own name on the sheet i f he does not change his mood soon. He writes "Guilty" on the charge sheet, accusing himself. -re c a lls rogues th at he has handled. -recalls underaged girl. This paragraph is crossed out. 13$

Relates to Version 2 Vers ion J, Remarks Section Section

93 cont'd. -reminds him self th a t he has done only his duty; yet the "dark bird of guilt" still perches on his spirit. -envisions the girl again, whom he feels that he has betrayed. This paragraph, too, is crossed out. -recalls the defrocked priest's saying, "'We are all members of one another.'" -wonders who are "his own" to care for. -is self-conscious that the men in jail will see him in this condition. -wonders what is the "Society" that he is always protecting. -has never hated a single person but has never loved one, e ith e r . What good would love have done? -has rejected the innocent. Now he feels that he has hated the persons he has handled simply for their being men and women other than himself, who, alone, is worth saving. -feels himself lost. -wishes that the unusually silent prisoners would be noisy and complaining. -wishes ttoado^bomething conspicuous, e .g ., to be so insulted in front of prisoners that he can make no rep ly. -recalls that he has given away money to c h arity and th at he has never been hard on a fam ily man, but he gets no dividend fo r these a c ts . -wonders if the inmates are now praying for him to be forgiven for being a copy for cjoing his duty. -wonders if they care less for respectability than he does. Now he fe e ls alone, a p a rt. They have each o th er. Only he can judge him self and he is powerless to judge. His guilt has to go unatoned. There can be no verdict. -sobs: "The captain wept.' "Dry tears." CHAPTER I I I

VERSION 3

The Ohio State University library collection includes both the

original and a substantially complete carbon copy of version 3. All pages measure &§■ inches by 11 inches. Hyphens usually precede and follow page

numbers centered at the top. The kk] pages of the o rig in a l version are

white; the kOS of the carbon are yellow. The original version is a

relatively clean, typed copy of the second draft that incorporates its

revisions. A few changes in the original itself are typed after an erasure

or above a word deleted with X*s. The original, however, contains new

sections that clearly distinguish its content from that of version 2.

The carbon copy represents more accurately the third step in the genesis of the novel; it is the copy that Algren thoroughly revised. He made the many changes in longhand, usually in ink. My analysis of version 3,

therefore, is almost totally an analysis of the carbon copy. Because it

is incomplete, however, I have drawn from the original to fill gaps. In a few instances, both the carbon copy and the original omit the same page.

The th ird d ra ft begins w ith page 1, ju s t as the second does; however, the firs t page of version 3 begins with an exposition of Captain

Bednar's guilt complex, not with a dialogue between Frankie Machine and

Bednar. The exposition precedes the captainis conversation with the

136 13?

dealer and then with Sparrow. Here in the introduction, therefore, version

3 is moving appreciably closer to the book. This affinity accurately predicts the closer parallel between all of version 3 and the book than between version 2 and the book. Like version 2 but unlike the published volume, the third draft concludes with "The Captain Is Impaled" section.

This conclusion is curious since both version 3 and the book also contain the "Witness Sheet," but tiie book places the "Witness Sheet" long after

"The Captain Is Impaled" portion.

The chief innovation in draft 3 is Frankie's narcoticism, perhaps the single most remembered aspect of his behavior. His identification as an expert card dealer now recedes in importance as he becomes ensnared by

"the thirty-five-pound monkey," his term for the morphine habit. Pursued by the "monkey," he is caught; then he escapes for a brief respite, only to be caught again. By investing Frankie with this problem Algren complicated his character and the plot of the novel. It is a convenient device; it seems sincere because drug addicts are at home in the Damen and Division area and because the irrevocable course of addiction can represent the more encompassing, environmental determinism that pursues

Frankie and his compatriots.

Additions to previous sections, as well as newly-composed sections, chronicle Frankie's battle with the "monkey." Sec. 6 adds both Frankie's vow to "kick the habit" and Blind Pig's realistic reaction to the dealer's optimism. In the next section Frankie dreams that a man carrying a monkey is at the foot of his bed, ready to snatch him. In sec. 8 Frankie forsakes

Sparrow to jo in Louie and Pig, who head for the room above the Safari, where they practice their morphine racket. In sec. 2k Louie implies that he got 13 &

the stained silver dollar from Frankie as payment for a "fix." Frankie

admits to Sophie in sec. 29 that he has been "on dope" since Louie's death.

In sec. 39 he confesses his addiction to a doctor in j a i l . The doctor

agrees to cure Frankie, who resolves never again to get "hookedo" Sec. kk

adds Frankie's persistent refusal to succumb to the narcotics temptation,

here represented by Frantic McGantic, the man with the monkey. Algren

changed Frankie's recurrent dream of the German soldier's pursuit to a

dream of the monkey's return in sec. 5**.

Four new sections particularly dramatize Frankie's involvement

with narcotics. Part of the fourth section relates Frankie's dream of a

fellow soldier who appeals to him for help in removing a monkey from his

back. The typescript specifies that this is Frankie's first dream about

drugs. After the dealer joins Louie and Pig rather than Sparrow, Louie

gives him a "fix " in the l i t t l e room above the Safari. Here, in sec. 9,

Frankie's weakness and coldness are graphically portrayed. Louie's preparation of the morphine, his administration, and Frankie's re lie f are

detailed. Frankie is here characteristic of many users, for he believes

that the "charge" is his last; he is not yet "hooked" and he does not want

to be. New sec. 50 contains a further reference to the habit: Frankie

sees a toy monkey in Sophie's bed. The monkey here may symbolize what he

himself has become, for now he realizes that he is addicted. Finally,

having had to fle e from both the police and the rising need for a dose of morphine, Frankie escapes to a hotel in sec. 60, Glimpsing McGantic with

the monkey at the door, he knows that he can endure only one more hour without becoming sick. Although he had successfully broken the habit once, he does not feel strong enough to break it again. Now he recalls the advice of Bonarue Mac, a former ja il mate: "'There's just one way a junkie kicks the habit— at the end of a rope.'" Frankie Machine, the man with the arm and the habit, accepts this advice.

The other most significant alteration appearing in version 3 is the change in Dovie. No longer is she a Negress. She is now a white striptease a rtis t named Mol lie . Algren combined the characters Dovie and

Mol lie , Drunkie John's g irlfrien d , of the second draft to form Mol lie of the third and subsequent versions. Like Dovie, she is Frankie's mistress who becomes increasingly involved in the plot as it grows more complex.

The change becomes e xp lic it in sec. 7. Here she is fir s t named

Mol lie. Sophie refers to her as "'that stripper from the Safari."1 She lives in the same building as Frankie and Sophie; it is her dog that Franki kicks when he angrily leaves Sophie. Hereafter a ll allusions to her color, her people, and white folks are deleted. This Mollie becomes identified further as abandoned by Drunkie John for the bottle in sec. 20. She is particular!ized by her Scotch-1rish, Italian and Polish ancestry, and her interest in classical music and "intellectual sex books." Attempting in sec. 23 to assuage Frankie's loneliness as well as her own, she probes

Frankie's problem with Sophie and its disturbing effects on him.

Mollie and Frankie change each other. Her attitude alters when she becomes pregnant. In sec. 28 her thoughts center more upon the baby than upon Frankie. She is so despondent that she does not answer the door when Frankie knocks. S#c. 50 indicates that M ollie, although not the drug addict of the second version, becomes a prostitute after Frankie goes to 1^0 j a i l . Released after serving time for the Nieboldt robbery, Frankie

changes, too, when he cannot find M ollie. His dependence upon her to s tab ilize his love-starved life is clear in secs. and 45. Later, he finds her in a bar (sec. 54) and recognizes her again in the floor show at the Kitten Club (sec. 56).

Reunited, Frankie and Mollie live together while he hides from the police. More cautious than he, she sadly realizes that the drummer's practice board which she has brought him cannot fend off forever his growing restlessness. Although she locks him in her room, he bribes the cleaning woman to let him out. Returning from a stealthy visit to Antek,

Frankie discovers Drunkie John again beating Mollie because she has no money to pay him to be quiet about Frankie's refuge. After John leaves she hurriedly packs to escape with Frankie. Her escape is unsuccessful, however. The last we know of her is that, at Frankie's insistence, she

returns to her room, where he hopes that she can delay the advancing police long enough to permit his getaway.

Besides adding to already established sections, Algren expanded the second draft by adding complete sections. First appearing in the third version are 4, 5, 9» 34-38, 40, 49, 50, 58, 60, and 61. We have already seen how some of these make Frankie an addict and transform the character of Dovie. Rather than developing or altering one aspect of the plot, the others contribute a variety of details that add both humorous and serious elements to the story. Sec. 4, for example, introduces a taxicab driver, a ja il mate of Frankie and Sparrow who is a compulsive talker. In the cell adjacent to theirs, he unwittingly betrays his i£:i

absurdity by expatiating on random subjects, including the root of his

trouble, paying a gas b i l l . Altering its tone, the section then describes

the j a i l 's shadows.

Sec. 5 forcefully presents Algren the social critic. His

description of the prisoners is both pathetic and satiric. It stresses

their humanity and the injustice of their ostracism. It becomes especially

v it r io lic in depicting their probable death and burial as paupers. A

habitual drunkard, a former watchman who wanders in and out of the scene

seeking recognition, is a typical Algren character, at the same time

humorous and pitiful. Algren reintroduced his satiric verve in the

conversation between Frankie and Sparrow about the number of tips,

actually bribes, received by a jailer and a policeman. Undoubtedly for

contrast, sec. 5 next shows Sparrow befriending the cabbie although they

are almost strangers and although the cabbie is an irrita tin g sort of

person.

A police show-up f i l l s new secs. 3^-38. It portrays the novice and the experienced criminals who are Frankie's neighbors both in and out of ja il. They are the lying, wise-cracking dregs of society who make

the police captain feel guilty of his austere, official position. Much of the banter between the captain and the prisoners comes directly from

Algren's notes taken at show-ups in Chicago.

After Frankie is arrested for stealing irons from Nieboldt's department store, Violet v is its him in j a i l . In sec. kO she announces

Stash's death and implies that it may not have been entirely accidental.

Stash fe ll from a window when leaning out to read the thermometer. Perhaps 142

she did not hold his legs securely. She reports, further, that Sophie is

gaining weight and that Sparrow is now remorseful for leaving Frankie to

get caught by a Nieboldt house detective.

The addition of sec, 49 further complicates the plot. A fter Frankie

and Sparrow have been caught with narcotics in the hotel room, Zygmunt

obtains Frankie's release on $1 ,000 bond. Aware that Sparrow is not a practicing drug peddler, Bednar nonetheless detains him. Bednar's motive

has little to do with smashing the morphine trade. As later sections

reveal, he wants Sparrow to te s tify about Louie's murder. He overlooks

the narcotics racket and, p a rticu la rly, Blind Pig's prominent position

in i t .

Frankie's depression and uncertainty about his future form a major portion of sec. 50. He feels that life has betrayed him. He ponders whether to start running from the police, although he does not yet know whether Sparrow has implicated him.

The addition, fin a lly , of the “Witness Sheet," sec. 61, shows

Algren's conscious attention to accurate detail and dramatizes the final

impersonality of the story. Algren conspicuously used an actual court

record for the “Witness Sheet." He changed names but s lig h tly . Portions of the fictional court record are nearly identical to passages in the actual record. The use of the “Witness Sheet," with its cold, legal jargon, near the end of the story emphasizes the lack of feeling shared by fellow human beings. A suicide victim becomes a s ta tis tic . The a

The third draft, furthermore, contains passages that do not relate to any incident in the finished book. In sec. 21, for example, Sophie 143

imagines that Frankie's friends from Schwiefka's are playing poker in the

room next to hers. She thinks that Captain Bednar is present to nab one

of them and that each, in his own way, is secretly diseased. At the

conclusion of sec. 55, she compares herself with Christ on a wall crucifix,

for she believes that she shares both His madness and His wisdom. In

discarding these scenes Algren apparently reasoned that other sections

could perform their function of dramatizing Sophie's mental meanderings

and Frankie's wanderings and fears. These omissions document the ready

assertion that Algren pruned entire sections, as well as limited details,

to present a forceful, compressed story. He did not dismiss incidents

necessary either to tone or to plot, but usually he did not p ile up

scenes which duplicate each other in function.

Many sections in version 2 do not reappear in version 3. A few may be lost, but since the pagination of version 3 is nearly continuous,

they must have come in the path of Algren's cutting shears. They are

16, 17, 26, 32 , 34, 35, 40, 44-46, 49, 53, 62, 69-77, 80, 84, 89, and 90.

Mol lie 's baby is not born in version 3, for example (see secs. 45, 74,

and 76, version 2). The dismissal of several of these sections, however,

is curious. Gone is the scene in which Sophie goes into a tantrum a fte r

Vi slaps her for whining about Frankie's not helping her up the steps.

This scene, sec. 26, seems to me to be a valuable index of Sophie's

emotional immaturity or illness. The omission of sec. 32, which concerns

Sophie's insatiable appetite when she cannot have drugs, is significant because it represents an almost total change in Algren's handling of the

narcotics element in the novel. Hereafter he chose to underplay Sophie's ]W

addiction to make Frankie the prime user. The drug problem becomes his,

not Sophie's. It spells a part of his ruin, not hers. In the third

draft he sees a toy monkey in bed with Sophie (sec. 50); he does not see

a Negro doll which shames him (sec. 44, version 2) „ Because he shifted

the narcotics emphasis to Frankie, Algren omitted sec. 53 in which

reality for Sophie is the memory of having a “fix ."

Version 3 omits sec. 73, a section that the published book

includes. Trying to learn who robbed Louie, Frankie questions Sparrow about his present income. When Antek intervenes, Frankie spits on his barroom m irror. After returning the insult, Antek assures Frankiethat

Sparrow had not "rol&ed" Louie. Frankie reasons that Pig, then, must have robbed Louie. Omission of Antek's assurance and Frankie's conclusion may have been an error since this information partially untangles the plot and, hence, reappears. It more probably represents a tinkering with plot, since in sec. 47 of this version Sparrow admits the th eft.

Also missing is sec. 75, which largely concerns Frankie's

reminiscences including a reappraisal of his war experience. Because they—'and Algren's pungent use of them to condemn a lack of brotherhood among non-soldiers—are alien to the key elements of The Man with the

Golden Arm. it is easy to see why Algren pruned them from this version.

The absence of sec. 80 suggests that its inclusion in version 2 was a mistake. It pictures Sparrow and Ju-ju, a card player from Kippel's, as friends. An e arlie r scene showing Sparrow at Kippel's depicts Ju-ju forcing Sparrow's expulsion from the game. The la tte r part of the section, however, is more plausible, for in it Sparrow is picked up for peddling.

In version 3, of course, he is apprehended with Frankie in a hotel room. 145

Sec. 84, omitted from the third d ra ft, provides background information about Zygmunt which is valuable in understanding him but which is, at the same time, an unnecessary digression about a minor figure.

His part in wringing a confession from Sparrow seems more validly included.

Algren may have thought that this section violates a part of the code by which the social outcasts seem to live. Theirs is a loyalty which neither laws nor middle-class ethics alters. To portray Zygmunt as a heartless victimizer of the poor and ignorant and as a shrewd politician who places self above friend may have been too alien to Algren's vision of Zygmunt's society. Although each man must himself fight to survive in that world, nonetheless, he can usually depend on similarly rejected individuals.

The omission of sec. 89 is more understandable, I believe, than is that of sec. 90. Sec. 89 extends Frankie's experiences at the Kitten

Club, experiences which in themselves or in context do not warrant the time devoted to them. Sec. 90 is curious, however, since it depicts Frankie's v is its to a mission and an animal shelter. This section, of course, is not essential to the plot. As I have suggested earlier, it rather dramatizes Frankie's plight and, for that reason, I believe, merits i nclus ion.

With few exceptions the book follows version 3* It does, however, contain four sections not a part of the third d raft. Three of them appear in slightly different form in the first two versions. These sections are relatively insignificant and do not appreciably a lte r the close connection between version 3 and the book. Sec. I 8 (sec. 4-3, version 1; sec. 77» version 2) portrays Molly as the victim of John's cruelty in Antek's bar, 146 where he kicks and further humiliates her before they fin a lly leave.

Sec. II 8 (sec. 34, version I; sec. 66, version 2) te lls of Frankie's

becoming fevered after playing ball, shirtless, in the county jail prison yard. Next, IS 11 (sec. 49, version 1; sec. 73, version 2)

illustrates Frankie's declining prowess as a dealer. Schwiefka suggests

that he get a drink to steady himself. At the Tug & Maul he refuses to be reconciled with Sparrow and insults Antek. None of the first three versions contains "Epitaph," the poem that concludes the book.

The plot of version 3 again marks an expansion in Algren's concept of the story. The most conspicuous addition is, of course, Frankie's narcoticism. The introduction of this problem broadens the scope of the plot and complicates the narrative. Frankie's b attle with the "monkey" becomes the focal point of the novel. It usurps the former prominence of his incompatibility with both Sophie and the law. These other problems remain substantial elements in the plot, but now their resolution is inextricably linked with Frankie's drug habit. Indeed, these problems become so intertwined that Frankie can solve none of them separately.

He cannot be the victor over even one. His escape by suicide annihilates the problems; it does not solve them positively.

The plot changes in other ways, too. Additions to sec. 10 document Frankie's gross carelessness during his courtship and, hence, further support Sophie's compulsive desire for vengeance. Although together they celebrate religious observances and together collect spilled beer from malt and hops trucks, nevertheless, Frankie is aloof from Sophie at crucial times. When she pretends that she is pregnant, he shows no concern but rather suggests that she see an abortionist*. On th eir wedding 14? night he not only plays cards but also plays the drums. These incidents are isolated, but they are substantial insertions into a plot that chronicles the corruption of love by Frankie's air of superiority and

Sophie's vengeful compulsion to possess him en tirely.

Another significant change is the prominence given the theft of

Louie's roll of money. Here Frankie questions and then threatens Sparrow about it (sec. 30). That Sparrow is the thief later becomes clear when he muses that he did not expect that roll to be spent as quickly as it was (sec. 47).

in this version, too, Stash meets an accidental death. Before

Violet actually reports the mishap to Frankie (sec. 40), she worries that

Stash w ill lean from the window so far that he w ill fa ll to his death.

She expresses concern that she may not be able to hold his legs steady when he stretches out to look at the thermometer, one of his favorite pastimes.

The plot gains authenticity with the addition of the police show-up in secs. 34-38. By demonstrating what happens to Frankie afte r the theft of the irons, the show-up sections align Frankie with other criminal s.

In this version the conclusion of the story broadens more than any other portion. After finding Mollie in the Kitten Club, Frankie lives with her to hide from the police. He more completely frees himself from the "monkey's" snare; his hands grow more steady. Confinement makes him restless, however, and he secretly wanders to Antek's. Returning to Mol lie 's , he finds John beating her for bribery money. When John leaves without any money, both Frankie and Mollie know that they must 14S flee; John w ill turn them in to the police. They nearly make a successful getaway, but M ollie is trapped in the rooming house and Frankie is wounded in a heel as he runs down the alley and hops a tro lley to the Loop (sec. 58).

Two sections later Frankie is in a cheap hotel room where he fights the ache in his heel, the progressive gnawing in his stomach, and the impending doom of the police officers. His first attempt at hanging fails. The section concludes without explicitly stating that another try is successful; it says only "And there was the rope. And there was the chickenwire." The final section, "The Captain is Impaled," portrays the captain's remembering Frankie three weeks after his death. This conclusion more clearly reveals the catastrophe than the final sections in versions

1 or 2. The last we hear of Frankie in the fir s t draft is his rebuff to

Sparrow, who had advised him not to interfere with a drunken man (John) and his "wife" (Mollie). We last see Frankie in the second draft being refused a night's lodging in an animal shelter. It is d iffic u lt to conceive that Algren planned the saga of Frankie to end in either of these ways. The addition of the suicide section, therefore, completes the story in a plausible manner. It culminates the tragedy that has been

Frankie Machine's life .

The "Witness Sheet" extends the plot beyond the lif e span of

Frankie. Like the show-up, the "Witness Sheet" is based on an actual case and, hence, rings true. Although this extension is not necessary to the story, it functions as a postscript that terminates emphatically all that has gone before, terminates even more emphatically than does the suicide or the captain's pricks of guilt. ]kg

Version 3 expands not only plot but also character delineation.

The J aile r becomes a more eccentric figure. Sec. 7 expands the account

of his obsession against open doors and quiet occupants. His fervor for

Violet is less passionately portrayed, however. Violet grows either more

generous or more bizarre, for in this draft she reveals that she married

old Stash not because she loved him or his weekly pay envelope, but because

when married to Stash she would have time to boost Sparrow’s ego by making

love to himj " 'I call it cashin1 a poor man's pennies,1" she says in

sec. 14. When Stash returns from serving a ja i l sentence a fte r the

Great Sandwich Battle, he is a changed man. Now he is the boss of the

house, no longer subservient either to Vi or to Sparrow. He refuses to

wash th eir dishes. He refuses to go to work. He refuses to eat stale

food, one of his former delights. He refuses to sleep on the couch. He

is even audacious enough to expect Sparrow to pay boardl Sec. 26, in short,

shows Stash "gone a b it s tir-c razy ." Blind Pig changes in this d ra ft, too.

After Louie's murder, all of Pig's humility is gone. "He talked like a man in the driver's seat." Sec. 18 tells us that Bird Dog, a middle-aged

ex-convict, once had been rich but now searches the streets for cheap,

broken-down cars from which to salvage salable parts; that Umbrellas,

brother of Kworka, walks the street with an old-fashioned school bell and

a battered umbrella; and that Meter Reader considers himself both a

prospective big league baseball coach and a ventriloquist.

The portrayal of Frankie in this draft is similar to that in

version 2, with the already noted exception of his addiction. He becomes more optimistic, too. Not only does he believe that he can break the

narcotics habit but also does he think that he w ill become a big-name i$o drummer. Both at home and at Mol lie 's he plays on a practice board. When he gets out of ja i l the second time he determines to get "'a real jo b ," 1 one "'Beatin' the tubs."1 His wish can hardly be called ambition, however, for he does not pursue this goal in any concrete way. It is more an idle fancy, a dream, than a seriously sought objective.

New details develop Sophie's character more than any other's.

Frankie's drumming sets her mind wandering incoherently (sec. 7)0 For no logical reason she likes beer, the Great Lakes, the navy, movie actors, and dancing. She rambles about birthmarks: a Gertie Michalek has a mark like a potato on her wrist; another woman has a strawberry and another, a rat (sec. 7). She imagines that each of Schwiefka's card players, assembled next door to her, is secretly diseased (sec. 21). In this draft is a description of her "Scrap-Book of Fatal Accidence," with its clippings of violent events and movie captions. As she traces the word

"Perdition" on the wall, she hears fire sirens. She is disappointed that only the Fish Furniture Store basement, not the entire Loop, has burned

(sec. *t6). She broods and drdams about Frankie and about her own weariness (sec. 55). She believes that she shares both the wisdom and the madness of the Christ on a wall crucifix (sec. 55). She throws a radio down a stairway in a f i t of anger (sec. 57). In the hospital her lack of interest in a deck of cards and the physical evidence of her illness denote her final collapse (sec. 59). All of this data strengthens Algren's presentation of Sophie. The manifestations of her breakdown at once make her more understandable and sympathetic.

The themes of the story do not change in this d raft. The expansion and refinement of detail substantiate them. As the provisions of Bednar's proposal to Sparrow become more e x p lic it, for example, so does the portrayal

of justice gone corrupt (sec, 52). An appeal for a more finely sensitized

social awareness lodges in the graphic account of the ja i l mates, the

description of their probably death and burial as unnamed paupers, and the

plea of a former watchman, a habitual drunkard, who begs to be remembered

by someone (secs. 5 and 39). The socially unacceptable are the subject

of secs. 34-38. In a police show-up, they run the gamut from a s e lf-

styled preacher to a sexual pervert. The captain's guilty conscience

bothers him here just as it does in "The Captain is Impaled" section in

the novel. He feels one with them but can neither express nor assuage

his g u ilt. The theme of love receives a l i t t l e different treatment with

the addition of a few episodes to the plot. More pointedly does Frankie

question Sparrow's friendship, despite Sparrow's loyalty even a fte r

delivering morphine to Frankie and giving him a "fix," The transformation

from Dovie to Mollie and the extension of the plot elaborate the relation­

ship between Frankie and his mistress. Now she harbors him from the law

and, when flig h t is mandatory, attempts to escape with him. These themes

remain interwoven; that of complicity, foremost.

in developing not only the themes but also the other elements of

the novel, Algren was more deliberate in the third draft than in either

of the previous two versions. He greatly augmented interest in the plot with the addition of major scenes like the suicide one, with the trans­

formation and expansion of Mol lie's role, and with the dramatic portrayal of Frankie's addiction; he also tightened what he had already composed and had transferred from version 2 to version 3. Tightening often meant pruning parts of sections and, less frequently but sometimes curiously, 152

entire sections. Algren also rearranged the order of scenes or parts of

them. His manipulation was cautious.

The care with which he composed this version is perhaps best

illustrated by his tinkering, which sometimes lead nowhere. For example,

he changed "enthusiasm grew" in the second draft to "seemed to grow"

and, then, back to "grew." When he did decide upon a change, however,

he sometimes was firm enough about it to trace with ink over the tentative

change in pencil.

The chief interest in this version, other than the alteration in

plot and character, is Algren's handling of d etail. Although he usually

added more than he subtracted, here he exercised a type of compression

that subsequently characterizes one aspect of his rewriting. One may

consider, for example, these two passages.

Version 2 Version 3

He wondered how he was, once more, He grew restless for the sight to face Dovie on the f ir s t floor, of Mollie and was troubled by Zosh on his second and the same needing the sound of her voice. old circle of suckers again night And fe lt he didn't care whether a fte r night. He wondered how he ever dealt another hand of he'd ever done it before. He stud in his life . (sec. kk) fe lt that he'd forgotten how to deal with other people. And f e lt as if he didn't care whether he ever dealt another hand of seven-card stud in his life. (sec. 66)

Here Algren intended the implications in version 3 to convey what is

exp lic it in version 2. Frankie grows restless for the temporary peace

he finds with M ollie, the peace that annihilates his bewilderment at facing

Dovie, Zosh, and the "suckers." His lif e seems disjointed except when his

love for Mollie erases a ll his cares. 153

Besides compressing, Algren also deleted. He omitted, for instance,

the premonitory comment after Frankie's and Sparrow's argument with Pig

and Louie immediately before Louie's murder, " It was a bad time for the

steerer and the dealer to be going down for coffee" (sec. 2k ) . In the same

scene Algren omitted Louie's questioning Frankie about the stained silver

dol1ar.

Besides compressing, Algren also expanded his use of details by

adding particu1 a r 1izing data that strengthen the impact of the subject.

For example, sec. 30, version 2, reads, "All night, each night, waiting

for Frankie sat watching the steady v ig il lights fa ith fu lly

guarding a right of way in a night gone faithless and false." Its

counterpart in the third draft says, "All night, each night, waiting for

Frankie in dry weather or wet, whether the moon held to the far crosslights

or the el or the near- xxxx [sic] green-and-red signal tower, the vig il

lights burned faithfully to guard a night gone false" (sec. 17). The

additions, I believe, are significant since they imply Sophie's devotion

to Frankie, although she does not admit it to him. Algren sometimes

elaborated the dialogue. When Frankie's hand shakes in the second

version, Sparrow says, " 'H e ll,'. . . 'that's the last sign [of insanity]'"

(sec. 38). In the third draft, however, Frankie announces "'Hell, it's

the last sign,'. . . 'I blew my stack a long time ago, sittin' right here watchin' westside gamblers tryin' to make ap [sic] pair of bullets out of one little acey'" (sec. 19). Some additions contribute both humor and insight

into character. When Vi leaves sleeping Stash to find Sparrow in the Tug

& Maul shortly before the Great Sandwich B attle, for example, she teases his 15k

nose "with a strand of her shoulder-length hair for a moment just for the

devil of it . . (sec. 22). Sometimes the new details contribute to

setting or tone as well as to the humorous effect. One may compare these

passages:

Version 2 Version 3

Once, drowsing contentedl/ on the Once, drowsing contentedly on the can, (Sparrow] failed to hear can beside the l i t t l e 5~watt [Vi's] tiptoed approach, and bulb which burned above the almost went into shock when she paper-holder in the tiny darkened rattled the board above his cavern, ef-the-tes-fet, he under­ head. (sec. 78) stood, dreamily, Old Stash's love of the broom-closet and failed to hear her tiptoed approach-when she rattled the boards above his head he almost went into shock, (sec. k~])

This description of Sparrow's location and his understanding of Stash's

predicament assuredly heightens the ribaldry of this scene.

Often the additions increase the precision of an event. The

absence of a speaker and the vagueness of "the fir s t thing" are conspicuous

in this passage: "And if, without realizing that [Sophie'd] sacrificed

the strength of her legs just to bind [Frankie] to her so irrevocably, out of a long fear of losing him altogether, yet she would have refuted

such an idea fiercely, with all her fevered pride. If she'd been told

that she'd actually traded her health for fu ll possession of him, she would have thrown the first thing at hand into the accuser's face"

(sec. 20, version 2). The third version becomes more specific: "And

if that Vi ever tried to te ll Sophie again that given up the strenth

[sic] of her legs just to make Frankie devote himself to her and to no one else, she'd pick up the nearest beer bottle and let that jealous henna-headed thing have it" (sec. 21). The insertion of Vi, the accuser, and the beer bottle makes this passage emphatic in a way that the former passage is not.

Some of the new details reveal an imaginative treatment of the subject. Sec. 6, which relates to sec. 8, version 2, particularly demonstrates thiselement of Algren’s style. "A big old man in a greasy black coat" becomes "a paunch draped in a penci1-striped shirt and a greasy black su it."

"His head tilte d darkly forward on the ageing neck in the black, grease- covered coat . . . ." becomes "his head with the twisted look in its eyes tilte d darkly forward from the dark and twisted lapels." "The old man

Schwiefka announced . . . ." becomes "the Heavy-Belly one apologized . .

. ." Elsewhere Algren added imaginative description that is characteristic of his polished, poetic prose. Sec. 32 recounts Frankie's experience in ja i l a fte r the theft of irons. Part of the section reads,

Beyond the bars light and shadow played ceaselessly. Somewhere up there the steel moon shone, with equal grandeur, on alley and boulevard, flophouse and penthouse, Michigan Boulevard and West Division Street. And a ll who had lain here before him: the young and the ageing, the carefree and the careless, the crippled and maimed, the foolhardly [sicl and the bitter rebels: a ll had gone, each his separate way, to become a part of the ceaseless play of light and shadow beneath the same steel moon.

This passage illustrates Algren's typical prose. When he did not have to be bothered with dialogue or event, he could create this kind of poetry that achieves its effect by its unique union of rhythmical balance, imaginative treatment of the subject, and participation of a rebel populace. Some readers may consider a passage of this sort too contrived, too conscious to be admissible in a novel that attempts to be re a lis tic . 156

I believe that these qualities, inherent in the bulk of Algren's writing

(consider Chicago: City on the Make, for instance), are usually handled inoffensively. At least in The Man with the Golden Arm they contribute immensely to the tone of the novel. That they become more obvious in the third version shows that they are not the result of hasty inclusion in an early e ffo rt. Rather, they indicate the author's emotional response translated into his s ty lis tic grasp of the subject. "Around and around and around, on a whitewashed merry-go-round, ceiling to floor and back again, till the heart grew sick and the sick brain wheeled, around and around and around" (sec. 57). Who can deny that this kind of sentence powerfully vivifies both subject and style?

As the foregoing discussion suggests, no clear pattern of change distinguishes the third version. Whereas Algren sometimes compressed details, so he often expanded th eir use. Whereas some sections, e .g ., sec. 54, contain a considerable amount of rewriting, others indicate little . Sec. 1 has only slight revisions, e.g., from "The dealer edged back" (sec. 1, version 2) to "The dealer edged back an inch" (version 3; cf. also sec. 3, version 2, with sec. 2, version 3; and sec. 11, version 2, with sec. 7, version 3)« Although diction usually becomes more concrete, occasionally it becomes more abstract, as, for instance, in sec. 21.

A large number of changes in this draft defy description. They neither improve nor impair this version. For instance, Algren tells us that after the dish-breaking episode, Sophie "could have cried then except for the strange satisfaction she felt in the sight of the littered room"

(sec. 13, version 2). He revised this sentence to read, "And yet her eyes took a dry satisfaction at sight of the littered pottery" (sec. 7, version 3). 157

Changing "fortoise-shel led indifference" (sec. 14, version 2) to "bespectacled indifference" (sec. 8, version 3) and "the deliberate gait of any half­ stewed gumshoe" (sec. 23, version 2) to "the deliberate gait of the righteous flatfoot" (sec. 11, version 3) makes no particular improvement.

It merely shows Algren trying to find the expression which best suits him

(see also sec. 29 , version 2, and sec. 15, version 3; sec. 36, version 2, and sec. 18, version 3; sec. 42, version 2, and sec. 22, version 3; sec. 87, version 2, and sec. 55, version 3; sec. 47, version 2, and sec. 24, version 3; and sec. 50, version 2, and sec. 2 7 , version 3).

Despite Algren’s more deliberate construction, this draft is not well-written throughout. Many revisions are of little consequence either to the immediate context or to the entire novel. Those of compression and particularization, however, show Algren's growing a b ility to mold this material into a smooth pattern. The numerous additions to plot detail both strengthen the narrative and enrich its texture. The numerous stylistic improvements dramatize Algren's increasing power over both the content and the form of The Man wi th the Golden Arm. This draft gives evidence of a w riter's technique judiciously applied to inchoate data.

The page numbers of all extant pages of the third version follow.

Original typescript: 1-16; 18-55 IIAJ, 55 [JO- 60, 60A, 60B, 61-118;

120-155; 158-174, 174A-174H, 175-221; 223-265; unnumbered page; 266-271;

291-454. (I have supplied distinguishing letters in square brackets.)

Carbon copy: 2-28; 30; 32-50; 50v-60, 60A, 60B, 61, 6lv-79, 79v-8l;

83-102; 104-134; 136-147; 149-151; 156-174, 174A-174H (misnumbered 1741),

175-182; 184-221; 223-244; 246-253; 255-256; 258 - 263; 265-271; 275-2556;

280-282; 284-285; 287-301, 301v-303; 305-315; 317-318; 320-324; 326; 158

328-353; 355-362; 364-367; 371-396; 399-401; 403; 411-415, 4l5v-426;

429-430, 430v-434; 441-454, Omitted from both copies, therefore, are

pages 222, 272, 273, 274, 277, 278 , 279 , 283, and 286,

Many carbon pages of version 3 contain more than one number.

Only one of the numerals, however, correctly places the pages in this draft.

Sorted by any of the other numbers, furthermore, they do not f i t into any

extant draft. Carbon pages labeled "Mol 1te-2-" through 4 and 6 through 9

are actually pages 174B-174H, Pages correctly numbered 201 through 206

in typewriting are additionally numbered 246 through 251 in pen, 241

through 246 in pencil, and 238 through 243 in pencil. The page sorted with the typed numeral 249 also bears a number 302 in red pencil. Type­ written numbers are not always those by which to sort. Pages with typed numerals 4 and 5 are renumbered 439 and 440 in pencil, then 339 and 340

in ink, and, finally the numbers by which they fit into this draft, 275 and 276 in ink. Similarly, pages 9, 10, and 11 are changed to 444, 445, and 446, then 344, 345, and 346, and, last, 280, 281, and 282. Pages 13 and 14 become 448 and 449, 348 and 349, and 284 and 285. Pages 16, 1 7 , and 18 become 451, 452, and 453, then 351, 352, and 353, and, fin a lly ,

287, 288, and 289. The page with typed number 354 is sorted as 290, in pen; the typed 355, not the 353 in pencil, fits this page into this draft.

Pages sorted by typed numbers 385 and 386 contain numbers 463 and 464 in

ink over pencil. Page 387 also has in typewriting numeral 388 , followed by 465 in wine-colored crayon. Pages sorted by typewritten 411 through

415 are changed in pencil to 412 through 416, with only the last digit altered. Pages with typed numbers 436 through 449 are changed to read,

in ink, 441 through 454. I have sorted these pages by the la tte r sequence 159 of numbers. In addition, the page originally numbered 442 and changed to

447 also bears the number 454 in pencil. Similarly does the next page,

443 changed to 448, have 445 6 in pencil. F inally, the page originally numbered 445 and changed to 450 has also the pencil number 48 9. This

renumbering signifies that at some time Algren must have tried these pages

in a draft or drafts not represented in the Ohio State collection. The numbers by which I have sorted these pages, however, clearly place them

in version 3.

All but seven carbon pages of this draft contain The Man with the

Golden Arm copy on only one side of the page. The versos of carbon pages

50, 61, 79, 301, 415, 430, and 450, however, also contain copy for the novel. The verso of page 50 continues a penned addition begun on the

recto. Half of the verso of 61 contains a rewritten part of a paragraph begun on the recto. Half of the verso of 79 consists of a rewritten continuation from the recto. Seven lines, the continuation of an addition to the recto of page 301, appear on its verso. The entire verso of 4 l5 is filled with a continuation from the recto. The verso of page 430 has four lines that continue an addition to the recto. The information on these versos obviously makes them an integral part of version 3» I have dis­ cussed them, therefore, in the same manner as I have the rectos. The verso of page 450, however, is renumbered 525. Its copy belongs to the novel but does not follow any part of page 450.

I have assigned section numbers to pages of version 3 as follows:

J_; 1-6 4: 19-24

2: 6-13 £: 24-35

2 : 13-19 6: 35-43 160

1 ’ 43-60B 12: 266-271

8: 60B-79 11: 271

! ’■ 79-85 14: 275-276

JO: 85-94 H : 280-282

1 ± : 94-100 16: 284-285

100-108 1 1 : 1Z: 285

1 1 : 108-114 18: 287-290

I k : 115-123 12,: 291-298

1 1 : 123-132 40: 299-300

1 1 : 132-133 41.: 300-304

1 1 : 134-143 42: 304-311

18: 143-163 41: 311-312

1 1 : 163-174 44: 312-317

20: 1 74A-174H* 317-324

11: 174H-182 46: 324-330

182-208 12: 4Z: 330-349

H : 208-213 48; 349-354

24: 213-221 354-355

21: 221-224 20: 356-365

26: 225-230 21: 365-372

1Z: 230-234 22: 372-378

234-244 28: 21: 378-387 244-247 12: 21: 388-395

10: 248-257 12: 395-399

11: 257-265 2 6 : 400-408 isnumbered as 1741 In carbon copy 16?

£Z 408-415 60 432-435

58 415-^27 61 435-440

52 428-432 62 441-454

Relates to Version £ Vers ion 2 Remarks Section Section

1 Begins with two paragraphs not in 2nd draft about the captain's g u ilt complex and name, Record Head. Slight additions; e.g., from (2) "The dealer edged back." to (3) "The dealer edged back an incho"

2 Adds to group of slogans that Frankie sees on ja il cel 1 walIs. Elaborates details given in 2nd; e .g ., from (2) "Offhand it might have appeared that a it was fehe Policemen's God who protected the Ward Super's boys. Yet, in fourteen years, while a hundred patrolmen and soft-clothes men had come and gone their appointed ways, hustlers the Super's ?ads had stayed oji^s^ | r after year, afe-fehe-same-e+d-sfcands, werk+ng the same old doors. They were in the Chief Hustler's hand; they had been chosen." Changes minimal. Frankie's left eye is weak in 2; his right is weak in 3, for example. Omits address of Tug & Maul.

3 Adds Sparrow's not knowing a Hebrew oath. Continues past 5. Adds Sparrow's swinging from prison bars like Tarzan.

A talkative taxi cabdriver in cell next to Frankie and Sparrow dominates this section. He talks incoherently about his wife and his trouble in paying a gas b i l l , for example. Description of ja il's shadows. Frankie's dream of a man, with a monkey on his back, who appeals to Frankie to help him remove it. Specifies that this is Frankie's f ir s t dream of the monkey. Marginal note says "rewri te." 162

Relates to Vers ton ^ Vers ion 2 Rema rks Section Sect ion

5 Description of inmates, who suffer from "The great, secret and special American guilt of owning nothing , . . Description of paupers' death and burial. Account of former watchman who wants to be remembered. J a ile r, "Pokey," questions the cabbie about the noise. He denies knowing anything about it. Frankie and Sparrow discuss the relative number of tips received by a turnkey and a patrolman. Frankie and Sparrow talk with the dejected cabb ie. 6 To the cabbie's claim that his wife is 100%, Frankie replies that his "stinks." Penned note on page 3^ of 3rd version: "Frankie is on a self-punishment kick because the accident was his fa u lt." Change: from (2) "'Maybe next time you won't try takin* things in your own hands when you're stewed to the g ills ,'" Sophie whines, to (3) "'A H your fa u lt, a ll your fa u lt. All your f a u l t . " 1 Continues past 6. Sparrow talks to the cabbie, still self-recriminating. 7 Incorporates penciled changes in 7.

6 8 Change: from (2) "a big old man in the greasy black coat" to (3) "a paunch draped in a penci1-striped shirt and a greasy black s u it." Change: Kinsella to Schwiefka. Change: from (2) "his head tilte d darkly forward on the ageing neck in the black, grease-covered coat . . . ." to (3) "his head with the twisted look in its eyes tilte d darkly forward from the dark and twisted lapels . . . ." Change: "a woman" to "a worn in." Typical of particularizing detail in 3rd version not in 2nd: from (2) "the old man [Schwiefka] announced . . . ." to (3) "the Heavy-Belly one apologized . . . ." Change: Lardass to Hoghead. Change: from (2) "*You'd put your mother on a meat-hook for a quarter.'" to (3) "'You're the guy put his mother on a meat-hook for a 163

Relates to Vers ion ^ Vers Ion 2 Remarks Section Section

6 cont'd. 8 cont'd. quarter one time, I heard all about It from your old man, he was sore you wouldn't s p lit w it' h im„ Inserts ille g ib le line in pen. Change: from (2) " ‘ I don't even ask how come you're in: I just come 'n get you o u t,' the old man complained to Frankie. "'Couldnt tell you if you did ask,' Frankie admitted candidly: 'Just picked us up ‘cause they know we hustle the suckers that's a ll . General principles the call it now.' "'With Zero workin' on it they'll prob'ly hang us,' Sparrow decided moodily. 11'We' re 1 ay i n' 1ow a coup 1e days,' Kinsella told Frankie, "Till I get the tables moved back to the alley jo in t. We ought to get a loose crowd up there Saturday night. What time you cornin' around?'" to (3) " ’ I don't even ask how come you're in ,' Schwiefka complained, ''1 ju st come to get you out - what's the big squawk?' "'You know alright why we're in, that's the big squawk,' Frankie let Schwiefka know: 'Every time you duck Kvorka for his double- sawbuck he cruises down Division t i l l he sees me or the punk 'n pulls us in on general principles. This time he caught us together. The next time it happens you're payin' o ff me 'n the punk too,' "'Next time is the time th e y 'll hang us,' Sparrow put in moodily. "'We're lay in' low a couple days,' Schwiefka went on, sidestepping the accusation, ' t i l l I get the tables moved back to the alley jo in t. We ought to get a loose crowd up there Saturday night. What time you be around?'" The changes in these parallel passages indicate the number and kind of changes between these two sections and between much of these two vers ions. Continues past 8 with passage that Schwiefka is accustomed to receiving a back turned upon him. Continues past 9. Gives background on Louie and on Pig's peddling. Adds Frankie's vow that he is "kicking the habit" and Pig's 164

Relates to Version Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

6 cont'd. 9 cont'd. reaction to Frankie's optimism. Adds card game between Frankie and Sparrow, who always loses.

10 Adds to Frankie's remorse at not helping the drowned roach: "'It's all my fault again."1 Change: from (2) "'Why don't I go to work on the legit . . . to (3) "'Why don't I get a broom in my ta il 'n go to work on the legit . . . .'"

7 11 Change: Taterka the Jailer to Schwabatski the Jailer. Adds paragraph at beginning to introduce Schwabatski, his uniform and hammer. Expands Schwabatski's obsession against open doors. Change: from (2) "Hardly a day passed . . . ." to (3) "Hardly a week passed . . . ." Adds paragraph about occupants of apart­ ments seeing policemen coming and then te llin g Jailer that he is getting company again. Expands passage about J ailer's worry for quiet occupants, not noisy ones like Frankie and Sophie. Change: Now not Louie but Pig te lls Sophie that Frankie is in j a i l . Omits description of Frankie. Adds his playing on drummer's practice board. Change in interpretation of Sophie's mind. In 2nd it becomes "derailed" by an object she sees, in 3rd, Frankie's drumming causes her incoherency. Adds four paragraphs of Sophie's mental wanderings about Gertie Michalek, who has a birthmark like a potato on her w rist. Change: Frankie has not a deck of cards but the practice board. In addition, Sophie has a flashlight pencil. Details of exposition and speech, consequently, d iffe r between 2nd and 3rd. Sophie realizes that Frankie wants to get into a band but she feels that he is tricking her by this wish. Later, Frankie gets a deck. 165

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7 cont'd. 11 cont'd. Change: Frankie's mother becomes his step-mother. Crosses out in pencil: "'My name is Rumpelsti1tskin,' she was thinking irrelevantly, 'I weave gold where there is no g o ld ." 1 Change: Not Louie but Pig told Sophie about thought transference. Penned note in margin of page 50: "She wasn't no 'step mother' Frankie contended here with genuine resentment." Frankie maintains that she was a foster mother. (Note continues on verso.) Sophie taunts Frankie about her. Omits paragraph about Sophie's b elief that Louie is smarter than anyone else: he had taught her thought transference, which she now practices on Frankie. Uses many of these details in a later paragraph. Omits description of Sophie's hair. Change: '"your face-powderto "'your Saturday-Night-in-A-Who rehouse face-powder. Change: from (2) " ' I t ' s ju st you ' n that greasy deck that counts.'" to (3) " ' I t ' s just you ‘n that second-hand drum-box that counts."1 Continues past 11. Adds Sophie's liking beer, the Great Lakes, the navy, movie actors and dancing. Adds Frankie's recollection of seeing a supposedly dead German during the war (a soldier who shot at the truck in which Frankie was a passenger?). That night he dreamed that the German private was trying to get into his hospital room. He was given a shot to quiet him. Crossed out with a red X: fiftee n months later at home, Frankie, for the first time, saw a man at the foot of his bed. The man had a monkey on his back. Frankie awoke, shaking, needing another shot. 12 Omits that the stranger returned from time to time and that he was in Frankie's mind. Adds that Frankie feels like letting the whole world, everything go. This paragraph is marked to go elsewhere. 13 Begins one sentence before 13. Some of the paragraph on previous page, marked to go elsewhere, is placed here. Omits card playing. 166

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7 cont'd. 13 cont'd. Omits Sophie's watching the tr a ffic lights change. Adds description of babushka Frankie wishes Sophie would change. Adds Sophie's talk about a girl with "'the strawberry {birthmark] on her behind.'" She talks about another who has a mark shaped like a rat. Omits Sophie's jealousy of the married women who play cards with men at Schwiefka's. Typical of change in details: from (2) "She could have cried then except for the strange satisfaction she felt in the sight of the littered room." to (3')! "And yet her eyes took a dry satisfaction at sight of the littered pottery," Expands the details of Frankie's kicking a dog after the dish-breaking episode. Adds Sophie's singing, "'I'm jealous of the birdies/ I'm even gettin* jealous of myself.'" Sophie refers to the owner of the dog kicked by Frankie as "'th at stripper from the S a fa ri, the one whose old man slapped her around too much."1 She must be referring to Mollie. Change in conversation between Frankie and dog's owner. In 2nd she is "the trimmest l i t t l e high yellow item he'd seen since North A frica, brown as the Algerienne he had known there." In 3rd she is "The dark-haired, dark­ eyed little stripper." Here she is called Mol 1i e. Omits Frankie's statement that Sophie w ill be able to do nothing about Dovie's moving into the buiIding. Omits his resolution to get Sophie a dog. Omits his wondering how many Negroes live in the building.

8 14 Adds that Louie patronizes the Club Safari. The verso of page 61 te lls more about Antek's not serving mixed drinks. Adds five paragraphs on Antek's not having telev is ion. Omits description of Safari. 167

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8 cont‘d. 14 cont'd. Typical of change: from (2) "'Maybe if [PigJ tried washin' yourself once in a while somebody1d s it down next to you,' Antek suggested, and passed on in his clean-shaven, bald and tortoise-shelled indifference." to (3) "'Maybe if you tried washin' yourself once in a while somebody'd set down in reachin' distance,1 Owner suggested, and passed on in his clean-shaven, bald and bespectacled indifference," Changes Pig's age from th irty , while looking like fo rty, to fo rty, while looking 1 ike s ixty. Changes description of Louie. Omits Pig's 1isp. Adds that Pig became blind on a night when he watched burlesque. After the shock of blindness wore o ff, he saw an imaginary burlesque of clowns. Continues past 14. Frankie enters bar and stops Sparrow from giving a sleeping drunk, Shooie, a "hot foot." Frankie asks Sparrow for a dog. Sparrow suggests Rumdum, a mongrel who thrives on beer. Adds passage about Sparrow's old dog-stealing racket and specifically about Rumdum. Frankie te lls Sparrow to take the dog to Sophie, while he crosses the street to the Safari with Louie and Pig.

9 Verso of page 79 has a short, crossed out section on time. Page 80 is labeled "Rewrite." Description of room, of Frankie's weakness, of Louie's administering the "fix," and then of Frankie's reaction. He believes that this is his last "fix." He sleeps.

10 Sophie recalls their courtship and their participation in religious rituals. Note in pen designates an insert from page 179 about God's measuring out reward and punishment as they are deserved. 21 Adds that as twelve-year-olds Frankie and Sophie followed malt and hops trucks to collect sp i 11ed beer. More detailed about her pretended pregnancy, Frankie's lack of concern, and his suggestion that she see an abortionist. 168

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10 cont'd. 21 cont'd. Omits his stopping on way to movie to see if any of her family wants to join him. 22 Change: Mollie Splits to Minnie Splits. Transfers Sophie's attempt to choke Frankie and then her submission to him from e a rlie r in the section to here. Adds his playing drums, as well as cards, on their wedding night. Continues past 22. Sophie's resolution to make a man of Frankie and her lack of success. Only the accident had married them at last. Passage about "the disease of his crippled joy."

11 23 Changes Frankie's jacket from an Eisenhower jacket to a faded combat jacket. Other changes in d e ta il, e .g ., from (2) "with the deliberate gait of any half-stewed gumshoe" to (3) "with the deliberate gait of the righteous fla tfo o t." Expands Sophie's feeling that the accident is not over.

12 23 Changes some descriptive details and quotations, e .g ., from (2) "'Do you need anything?'" asks Zygmunt, to (3) "'You've got damages coming, la d y ." 1 Omits Zygmunt's giving Christmas gifts to patients. Omits the racket's hierarchy: a lawyer pays a runner who pays a tip s te r, who may be a policeman, doctor, or hospital attendant. 2k Changes a few details in this section about Sophie and the doctor.

13 25 Changes slogans about Doc Domanowski. Adds Sophie's telling him that Frankie takes care of "the sex angle." Rea rranges deta i 1s. Changes Gene Autry to Perry Como, Sophie's mov i e i do 1.

14 25 Puts here V iolet's explanation to Sophie of her marrying old Stash: she wanted time to keep Sparrow out of trouble. This reason occurs later in 2nd. 169

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14 cont'd 27 Extends beyond 27: Vi te lls Sophie that she was just trying to show Sparrow that he was somebody, in the natural way. " 'I call it cashin' a poor man's pennies."1

15 28 Omits short paragraph about Chmura who was "mushin"' Vi when she met Sparrow. Changes Barney to Nort1 Western milkman's horse to Szalapski the Milkman's horse. Continues past 28: Sparrow is remorseful a fte r serving a ja il sentence and costing Vi much of Stash's money. 29 Changes Sparrow's time in j a i l from ninety to th irty days. _ Typical change: from (2) '" [jSparrow] went in there to try on a topcoat for weddjng, because 1 wanted to look real nice for t v ij. I took the gun along fo." pertection was a l l . ' " to (3) '"Because I wanted to look nice for you. I took the gun o ff that old man because he got a grudge against me since ! was in short pants.

16 29 Expands V i's description of Stash. Rearranges d etails.

17 15 Begins before and extends beyond 15. Adds Louie's bragging to Pig about his profession, "informin' Adds description of kitchen sounds that Sophie hears. Adds description of shadows. Adds description of Sophie's room, of the hound beneath the dresser, and of the remnants from the dish-breaking scene. Omits Sophie's thought, "'The guys are goin' scrooly faster than the dames.'" Changes song, from (2) "'I'm jealous of the b irdies/ I'm even jealous of myself'" to (3) " ' I t ' s only a paper moon/ Under a cardboard sky.'" Adds note to delete the passage about Sophie's calling herself Rumpelsti1tskin, for she has said it earlier. Typical expansion: from (2) "All night, each night, waiting for Frankie she sat watching the steady v ig il lights fa ith fu lly guarding a right of way in a night gone faithless and false." 170

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17 cont'd. 30 cont'd. to (3) "All night, each night, waiting for Frankie in dry weather or wet, whether the moon held to the far cross lights of the el or the near- xxxx (jsicj green-and-red signal tower, the vigil lights burned faithfully to guard a night gone false." Continues past 30. Describes Sophie after the seduction and now.

31 Uses the portion of 31 about the mousetrap's clicking shut. It is now in the closet, not under the dresser.

18 36 Change in some d etails, e .g ., from (2) "They hadn't played short-cards here for almost as long as they hadn't shot pool." to (3) "No one had played short-cards here since Pearl Harbor." Continues past 36. Louie te lls of his harsh background. Some of it marked "delete." 37 Omits that portion of 37 in which Sparrow degrades himself a fte r Frankie crushes the candy he is eating like a dog. Continues past 37» Describes backgrounds of Bird Dog, Umbrellas, and Meter Reader. Dialogue between Louie and Sparrow: Louie, sensitive about deportation, warns Sparrow not to come to Schwiefka's with stolen goods from the dime store. Sparrow tries to sell Louie a stolen flashlight pencil. Tense banter about the battery's lasting longer than Louie. He is haunted about the past, about the times he threw money away that he now needs, the time he escaped from "A lte rie's boys" who, he f e lt , s t ill prowled for him although they were actually dead, and the time he came near winning a big gambling stake. He believes that he still could make a fortune by selling morphi ne. 38 Changes again from Frankie's thinking of the deck of cards to his thinking of the practice board. Last part of 18 differs from 38 by including Sparrow's te llin g a dubious card prospect that "'Nothin' like that going on in here, Mister.'" A few lines of section 33, version 2, conclude section 18, version 3. i n

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19 33 Concerns Frankie's expose of Louie in a card trick played on Umbrella Man at Schwiefka's. 38 Typical example of elaboration of detail and change of speakers: (concerning the meaning of a dealer's shaky hands) from (2) “ 'H e ll,' Sparrow jadded, 'that's the last sign [of in s an ity ).111 to (3) “ 'H ell, it's the last sign,' Frankie threw them both o ff - 'I blew my stack a long time ago, s ittin ' right here watchin' westside gamblers tryin' to make ap [sic] pair of bullets out of one little acey."' Adds two paragraphs about suckers' philosophy. Continues past 38. Frankie compares the coughing of a train engine to that of a man with a thirty-five-pound monkey on his back. Frankie, needing a “fix ," becomes il l and te lls Sparrow to “case out.11

20 39 Changes Dovie to Mol lie . Adds that Drunkie John had le ft Mol lie for the bottle. Omits references to pressing oil and poade, to posters of Negroes, to “white fo lks.“ Both expands and deletes parts of 39, e .g ., about Sophie, Dovie says, (2) '" I seen her. Such a shame. She's so p u rty.'" Mol lie says, (3) “ 'I remember her from before your accident. I seen her at dances lots of times, Such a shame. Omits Dovie's identification of a daguerrotype of her grandmother and Frankie's closing the door to avoid being seen. Change: Dovie says she is Cherokee, Irish and Negro. Mol lie says she is Scotch- Irish, Italian and Polish. Omits Dovie's question whether Sophie was in a wheelchair when married and Frankie's negative reply. Continues past 39. Mol lie plays classical music on rainy days. She also reads intellectual sex books. Frankie says that he is dreaming about getting a new g ir l. Mol lie says that she is lonely. 172

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21 Description of Sophie's reaction to night. She believes that she is now in a hospital. 19 Changes Sophie's song from (2) '"My heart is wrapped in pink cellophane/ All on account of you.'" to (3) "'Happy birthday to you/ Happy birthday to you/ Happy birthday dear Sophie.'" Expands description of Louie. Becomes more abstract, e .g ., from (2) "his tie was egg-stained" to (3) "his tie was stained with something." Continues beyond 19. Sophie realizes that everyone wants "all he can get." She imagines that "the boys" are playing cards beyond the walls and that Bednar is there to finger one of them. She believes that each person at the imagined table is secretly diseased. Adds paragraph about time marked " e a rlie r." Adds another paragraph about time vaguely related to page 98v of 2nd. Adds paragraph about God's rewards and punishments that is labeled "e a rlie r, to her childhood, to precede feeling that 'God has forgotten us a ll.'" Omits Sophie's lament that she cannot bear a chi Id. Omits Sophie's thought that many of her friends would be in purgatory to keep Frankie company. Becomes more e x p lic it, e .g ., from (2) "and if, without realizing that she'd sacrificed the strength of her legs just to bind him to her so irrevocably, out of a long fear of losing him altogether, yet she would have refuted such an idea fie rce ly, with a ll her fevered pride. If she'd been told that she'd actually traded her health for fu ll possession of him, she would have thrown the f ir s t thing at hand into the accuser's face." to (3) And if that Vi ever tried to tell her again that given up the strenth [sicj of her legs just to make Frankie devote himself to her and to no one else, she'd pick up the nearest beer bottle and let that jealous henna-headed thing have it ." Continues past 20. Sophie dreams of cousin Olga in hospital. 173

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21 cont'd. 20 cont'd. Pathetic description of Sophie, e.g., "Why did it suddenly feel that the all-night movies all had emptied and showed nothing but broken reels to empty seats . . . ?"

22 41 Adds Vi's punishing Stash by not letting him pull the daily page off the calendar until he handed her his pay envelope. Adds paragraph about Stash's wanting the temperature reading and date of the month to be even numbers. Typical change in detail: from (2) "And making no particular effort to keep from waking him, crawled across him and out of bed, shoved her feet into slippers, slung her spring coat over her shoulders, switched o ff the bedlight and tightened the coat modestly over her nightgown." to (3) "And making no particular effo rt to keep from waking him, crawled across him, teasing his nose with a strand of her shoulder-length hair for a moment just for the devil of it; then shoved her feet into slippers and tightened her coat modestly over her n ightgown." 42 Passage about Stash's last night in the broom closet marked "earlier to avoid reminiscences and interruption of movement." Omits Stash's promise to shampoo Vi's hai r. Typical change: from "just as [The light] had filtered into Riverview's Tunnel of Love, the afternoon after their first night together, when the roller coaster was the th r ill of the month, before the whole twisted world went wrong , . . ." to (3) "just as it had filte red across the Humboldt Park lagoon on their fir s t mornings together, when the lagoon was the t h r ill of a honeymoon month, before the world started acting so oddly."

23 43 Omits fir s t two pages of 43 in which Sophie asks Frankie to have the Negro living in the building investigated. 1i ttle Changes the dark girl to darkhatreel Mol lie. 17*

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23 cont'd. ^3 cont'd. Omits, of course, reference to Dovie's "own people" and to the difference between her flesh and Frankie's. Omits Dovie's account of her background, her insistence that Frankie look at her when he talks, her question about his reason for coming to her, and her assurance that he w ill not get far with her if he lies. Replaces these omissions with Frankie's and Mol lie 's dialogue about Sophie's effect on F ranki e. Expands discussion of Frankie's wish to be trusted.

2k k7 Adds, "'Thanks, Louie,' Sparrow said, 'I was just wonderin' what you were holdin'— Which alley you go home by? I ' l l walk you down.1" Changes Louie's destination from the Rock Garden to Stickney. Changes Big Stinkin' T'ing to Umbrella Man. Deletes a few details, e.g., "it was a bad time for the steerer and the dealer to be going down for coffee jj , e . , a fte r the argument with Pig and Louie]." Changes origin of stained silver dollar: from (2) the fir s t dollar Louie made as a c h ild ;1 to (3) the dollar that had stopped a police slug for him in the '20s. Omits Louie's asking Frankie if he remembers seeing the stained dollar and Frankie's denial. Omits Louie's lie that he got it from Sophie. In 3rd he gets it from Frankie, " that way." Expands dialogue between Frankie and Louie. Frankie says that Louie should be knocked in the head. Change in description, e .g ., from (2) "The nape cracked like a walnut . . . ." to (3) "The throat made a startled gurgle . . . ."

25 kS Extends beyond k&. Frankie and Sparrow, passing by the huddled form of Louie, return to Schwiefka's. 175

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26 50 Adds much e .g ., how Stash has "gone a b it stir-crazy," returning from jail the boss of the house. He refuses to wash the dishes for Sparrow and Vi and to sleep on the couch. He wants Sparrow to pay board, does not go to work, and does not eat stale food. Omits paragraph about Stash being treated better, and about Dovie (one of which is marked "elsewhere"). Omits Sparrow's decision not to sleep with Vi while Stash is in the house.

27 50 Typical change: from (2) '" I found dishes in the dresser, they must of been there a mont1. " 1 to (3) " ! i found dishes in the drawer, they must of been there since summer.'" Adds Violet's fear that Stash will fall out of the window when she is holding his legs as he leans to read the thermometer.

28 51 Change: Mr. Floor-Show to Mr. Bird Dog. Adds paragraph about someone's te llin g that Violet and Stash were divorced and that Violet and Sparrow are to be married. Change: Big St ink in' T'ing to Umbrella Man. Crosses out Antek's crying for Louie. Changes loss of Meter Reader's ball club to General paint & Varnish from 16-1 to 19-1. Expands details of that defeat. Change: Not Meter Reader's wife but his g irlfrien d telephones him. Omits Sophie's reaction to events at the party. Slightly changes lis t of people at party. Change: liquor runs out not twice but three times. Adds, in pen, Frankie's playing the drums when the orchestra gets drunk. Change in location: Dovie's room is on the fir s t floor rear; Mol lie 's is on the fir s t floor front. Changes, of course, talk about a black girl to talk about a hustling g ir l. Omits talk about Dovie's no longer using skin lightener and her plan to return home. 17fc

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28 cont'd. 51 cont'd. Note thatMol lie, like Dovie, ispregnant. Expands Mol lie's refusal to let Frankie v is it. Much of this passage is crossed out with a penned X. Marginal note: "Here they ought to sea 1 their relationship--decide to mappy run^ away with her."

29 52 Omits Sophie's te llin g Frankie that he saw Pig. Adds Frankie's asking Sophie not to lean hard against him. Typical of extensive expansion from (2) "He put his hands on the chair to wheel her back in , for the entrance was damp and windy; and as he did so she bent forward and she saw his eyes were bloodshot and his face strangely peaked." to (3) "A cold damp wind hurried past them through the open door, one of the drunks fe ll to his knees within, as though to pray, and his partner hauled him by the collar across the floor and out of sight. Frankie bent across the chair to tuck the blanket in about her legs and the glare of the light showed her his eyes: they had sunk to pinpoints and his face was peaked and paste- colored despite the cold." Change: Frankie acknowledges that he has been "on dope" since Louie died. In 2nd, (without reversing roles) Sophie has been on dope a year and a half. She admits quitting when Frankie returned from the war and beginning again a fte r the accident. Adds Sophie's threat to poison Rumdum.

30 5^ Extends beyond 5^. Antek uses ammonia water to stop fights. Once, however, the water did not stop women fighters in his bar. Omits Frankie's decision to expose Pig. Change: g irl in bar with drunken man whom Antek asks to leave is unnamed. In 2nd she is Mol 1ie. Omits Frankie's dream of what he would say to reporters asking how he was wounded. Adds Frankie's belief that Pig was telling Sophie that Sparrow had taken Louie's money. 17.r7

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30 cont'd. 5^ cont'd. Omits more of Frankie's dramatization of how his entanglements would unravel, leaving him a hero, and then of how he actually is i nvolved. 55 Omits some of the conversation among Frankie, Sparrow, and Pig. Part of it concerns Pig's recognizing them as Louie's murderers and Frankie's threatening Pig for giving narcotics to Sophie. Adds Frankie's asking Sparrow if he took Louie's bank rol1. Adds paragraph revealing character change in Pig: "All his accusomted [sic] humility was gone. He talked like a man in the driver's seat." Adds another threat by Frankie to Sparrow.

31 56 Change in kind of girls Frankie and Sparrow dream to have on "their" yacht: from Nort'western coeds to Rye-a 1 to chorus g irls . Omits Sparrow's te llin g Frankie that Pig has told Sophie about him and Dovie. Adds Sparrow's te llin g Frankie that Mol lie is pregnant. Frankie pretends to be uninterested. 57 Changes include deletions, e.g., of paragraph about Frankie watching Sparrow eat and then not pay the b i l l . Omits Sparrow's suggestion that they see Mol lie Splits. Changes name of theatre from Chopin to Pulaski. Change: Frankie decides that taking the escalator, not the stairway, is the best method of escape from Nieboldt's. Adds dialogue between Frankie and Sparrow about the murder. 58 Continues past 58 to include Frankie's apprehension a fte r the theft of irons.

32 Poetic description of Frankie, moonlight, shadows, and a Negro sleeping near Frankie in jail. 59 Change in ja il wall legend from brother- in-law's to wife's cheating the prisoner. Crosses out: "M^; downfa 11 another had inscribed obscurely." Relates to Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion

59 cont'd. Adds in pen that Frankie is now caught between "a wheelchair and the first floor front Change: His problem is solved not for "a month or two" but for six months while he is in j a i 1.

60 Two short, similar paragraphs.

A police show-up, with much crossed out i n red penci1. One of the men in the show-up has as aliases, "O'Reilly, O'Kelly, Mclnerney, O'Connor, McKee." These names are taken directly from Algren's notes.

Continuation of show-up. Those in show-up include a self-styled preacher. The passage about a man accused of raping a thirty-seven- year-old "child" who "volunteered her services" is also taken from Algren's notes.

Continuation of show-up.

Continuation of show-up.

Continuation of show-up. The last page of 38 resembles the conclusion of sec. 93 in 2nd, "The Captain Is Impaled" section. Both stress the captain's feeling of guilt.

61 Omits Sophie's reflections on the people she knows as she imagines herself in a hospital. Typical expansion: from (2) "through dreams of the dealer's s lo t." to (3) "through dreams where he dealt N ifty Louie hand after hand while Mol lie watched all night." Adds Frankie's dialogue with doctor who hears him confess his addiction and agrees "to taper him off." Frankie vows not to get "hooked" again. Changes a few details, e.g., Frankie gets sick now on the eleventh morning, not on the f if t h . He lies eight hours, not twelve, before the doctor "pulled him out." He was back at work two days later, not three. 179

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39 cont'd. 61 cont'd. Adds mention of The Green Hornet, a "graduate" of "Deadlock." Continues past 61. Adds the song of an inmate, a description of d ifferent kinds of "punks," and an account of stopped clocks. Frankie goes to Mass and gradually "beats the habit."

40 Violet's visit to Frankie in jail. She reports that Stash is dead: he leaned too far out the window. Sophie is getting fa tte r. Sparrow is sorry for running, for letting Frankie get caught with the irons.

41 63 Adds at beginning Frankie's and Bonarue Katz's scrubbing the tie r of cells above theirs, which houses the "heavies." They are warned against talking with Little Lester. Continues beyond 63 to te ll of L ittle Lester's father.

42 64 Change of season: from (2) "The snow was almost gone now, and a crane, looking as if it had been waiting for the f ir s t load of spring all winter, reared above the farthest w all." to (3) " It was early October and a great crane, looking skyward as though for the f ir s t sign of snow, reared above the farthest w all." Changes Bonarue Mac to Bonarue Katz.

43 65 Omits fir s t paragraph of 65 about Lester's lawyer speaking to him. Typical change in detail: from (2) "as dead as a hustler's heart can get: a charred lump of spoiled meat sagged where the living heart had burned, ready for the nearest ash-can." to (3) "as dead as a hustler's heart can get: a charred lump of spoiled meat that sagged where the living heart had burned." eight Change: Not fourteen but stx hours before his scheduled execution, Lester was found dead.

44 66 Again, change in season from spring to autumn. 180

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kk con t 1d 66 cont'd. Compresses: from (2) "He wondered how he was, once more, to face Dovie on the fir s t flo o r, Zosh on his second and the same old circle of suckers again night after night. He wondered how he'd ever done it before. He fe lt that he'd forgotten how to deal with other people. And fe lt as if he didn't care whether he ever dealt another hand of seven-card stud in his life ." to (3) "he grew restless for the sight of Mol lie and was troubled by needing the sound of her voice. And felt he didn't care whether he ever dealt another hand of stud in his 1ife ." Continues past 66. Adds Frankie's feeling of re lie f about not having to worry again, his hearing Sgt. McGantic, his not yielding to him, and his being, for the f ir s t time in his life , "wholly happy." 67 Omits second attempt of McGantic to claim Frankie. Adds details about his feeling strapped into the electric chair. Omits Frankie's delirious recollection of being on a naval transport and then on a train en route home. Novotny Omits his confession to Father Nevak.

k5 68 Begins by relating to the portion of 68 designated "e a rlie r." Continues with the portion that begins 68. Change: Frankie walks past Safari, not Tug & Maul. Note "Use this somewhere" written through paragraph about the Jailer's sign, "Q. U I E T/ or out you go too." Changes Schautzy the Carpenter to Jailer Schwabatski. Omits description of kitchen sounds and account of Schautzy's interest in Vi. (Places it in 17.) Omits dialogue between Frankie and Jailer in which the Jailer tells Frankie, returning from j a i l , that Louie's death served him right. Changes Sophie's f ir s t speech, supposedly to Violet, when Frankie returns. 181

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45 cont'd 68 cont'd. Changes dialogue between Frankie and Violet from talk about her being a bride and divorcee to her interceding for Sparrow. Frankie rebuffs her plea. Adds Frankie's resolution to get "'A real job,"1 "'Beatin' the tubs."1 Adds Frankie's realization that he needs Mol lie. As Sophie falls asleep, he leaves.

h6 Frankie's life now is quite the same as it was before his ja i l term except that he does not know where Mol lie is. Extremely lonely, he blames Sparrow for a ll that has happened. He feels the return of McGantic. Description of Sophie's "Scrap-Book of Fatal Accidence," with its clippings of violent events and movie captions. Account of Sophie's disappointment that a fire, signaled by sirens as she traced the word "Perdition" on the w all, burned only the Fish Furniture store basement instead of the entire Loop. She talks to Frankie about a dead love. Then she imagines that she is a Hawaiian dancer, next a vocalist with an all-girl band, and, finally, a violinist. Frankie leaves, "wondering how he could make i t , without a charge, t i l l dawn."

78 Expands 78 , e .g ., from (2) "Once, drowsing contentedly on the can, he failed to hear her tiptoed arproach, and almost went into shock when she rattled the board above his head." to (3) "Once, drowsing contentedly on the can beside the l i t t l e 5~watt bulb which burned above the paper-holder in the tiny darkened cavern, ef-fehe-feet+efc, he understood, dreamily, Old Stash's love of the broom-closet and failed to hear her tiptoed approach- when she rattled the boards above his head he almost went into shock." Changes time Sparrow and Vi lived together from three weeks to six weeks. Adds Sparrow's thinking that he never expected Louie's roll to be spent so fa r. Expands dialogue between Sparrow and Pig. 182

Relates to Version ^ Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

47 cont'd. 78 cont'd. Adds a sign about credit which Sparrow sees in the Tug & Maul. Reuses another one that is crossed out in 2nd. Omits Sparrow's seeing Mol lie . Instead he sees Umbrella Man. Some of this section is marked "Redundant."

4 8 79 Top of page 350 reads, " t it le : One Moon orAnother/ title: Frantic McGantic Comes to Cal1 ." Change: Sparrow does not make delivery to Mol lie . He goes to a hotel. As he tries hiding the small vial in a sand-filled container for cigarette butts, Frankie taps him on the shoulder. Although Sparrow did not know that the delivery was for Frankie, he now helps to give him a "fix." Frankie realizes that they both are being trapped by Pig who w ill send the policemen to get them. Opening the door to leave, Sparrow sees Sergeant Kvorka and Captain Bednar. Changes November to September.

49 Zygmunt gets Frankie released from ja il on $1,000 bond; Zygmunt then takes him home. Bednar w ill not release Sparrow, however. Apparently he does not want the real peddler, for he knows who that is.

50 Page 356 has a penned note at top: "Cut Dream Here Omit." Frankie dreams of seeing a toy monkey in Sophie's bed. At Antek's he dreams of seeing an aging prostitute who tells him that the sounds he hears from the next room are Mol lie 's . There she takes a beating from anyone who comes to her. Part of this passage is designated to be used later. Frankie's thoughts about life's betraying him and about his now being hooked. Fearful that Sparrow might implicate him and certain that Bednar is detaining Sparrow to learn of Louie's murderer, Frankie considers running. He decides to wait until he hears that Sparrow has named him. 183 Relates to Vers ion 2. Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

51 81 Adds and crosses out a passage about the city's having entered the query room. Changes song written on query room wall from (2) " It's a Barnum & Bai1ev Wor1d/ Just as phoney as it can be" to (3) "This is my first affair/ So please be kind." Omits Sparrow's thoughts in his c e ll. Omits his begging for coffee, aspirin, and money. Changes Harry to Emil, "She" to Gracie. Expands description of Sparrow's lack of encouragement.

52 82 Emphasizes Sparrow's hunger. Becomes more straight-forward in presenting Bednar's bargain to Sparrow. Changes Sikowicz Boys to Republicans. Changes city and federal courts to county and federa1. Adds paragraph at end in which the captain falls asleep.

53 83 Changes Easterman to Easter. Adds some of his sayings. Change: Sparrow's o ffer of partnership in the stray dog farm for not $300 but $200. Omits Sparrow's te llin g that he left Vi. Change: Doctor who operates on Chessy does not have a hangover but instead mixes the identification cards on the bed feet. Changes Schwabatski to Danjiewicz. Omits Sparrow's realization of the seriousness of his predicament and his request to make a telephone c a ll.

5^ 85 1st page is curiously short. Considerable rewriting: from (2) " It was in such a dream that, sleeping too heavily, he was yet aware of himself tossing uneasily and trying, not so much to waken as to rise into shallower waters. Hfs-s+eep-was-a-eentest: to get the weight of those waters off his head. He struggled, all head, a few everlasting moments upward, only to be drowned times without number by the tides of sleep: fee-be forever reawakened tossed by a low, dull, deep-sea pounding, like the farthest echo 184

Relates to Vers ion \ Vers ion 2 Remarks Section Section

54 cont'd. 85 cont'd. on a sandy sea-bottom of a surf beating far above. A 4-ew, perstsfeenfe, fu rtive measured pounding, a-peund+ng like a knocking, like a knocking at a door: a low and fu rtive knocking at someone's hallway door." to (3) "There was a weight as of moving waters upon his head and the struggle to waken, heap+ng-a-d+sfcanfe-petmdfng abeve-ht9-head7-as-ef-a-surf-apart-seme-u net fcafneb+e ahere. He tried to waken from the very pit of his stomach--he fe lt the touch of the monkey's paw and then, above his eyes, with its lips seeking his own monkey bent toward him, with Sparrow Saltskin's pointed face to kiss him and be kissed and he wakened with a bounding leap of the heart— the window was open and the curtain blowing and someone was knocking softly and steadily at his own hallway door." Adds Frankie's finding Mollie in a bar, the Cave, changed to the Kitten Klub. Omits Pig's v is it to Sophie. 86 Adds a few details, e.g., the trembling of Frankie's hand. Changes L ittle Stinker to Kvorka. Changes Prager beer sign to Nectar beer s ign. Adds Frankie's illness and plan to go to Cloud land. Omits song Frankie remembers Dovie singing. Omits explicit hunt for Dovie. Adds Frankie's burning his identification cards.

55 Description of Sophie's brooding and dreaming about Frankie and of Sophie's present weariness. 87 She believes that Schwiefka is running his game next door and that the players are gossiping about Frankie and her. Typical change: from (2) "They drew circles about their temples to show each other who it was that was listening. And then, as plain as day, one of them had the nerve to say aloud: 'That one aint worth penny-one.' And the door shook with the passing of the El and under its roar they a ll took the chance to laugh, good and loud, for a moment." to (3) "She drew a c irc le about her temple to show them what she 185

Relates to Vers ion j[ Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

55 cont'd. 87 cont'd. thought of them all and then as plain as day, one said: 'That one aint worth a d irty dime,' and the door shook with the long e l's passing— under its roar they all took their chance to laugh, good and loud, t i l l it passed." Continues past 87 . Sophie feels that she shares the madness and wisdom of the Christ of the crucifix on the w all.

56 88 Begins with a paragraph description of the pall hanging over the Kitten Klub. This paragraph appears later in 88. Omits paragraph about the difference between Sunday and midweek listeners. Omits a stripper's song. Omits description of a stripper. Adds Frankie's seeing Mol lie and heading for her dressing room. Secs. 56 and 88 contain most of the same incidents arranged in different orders.

57 91 Adds Sophie's throwing radio down the stairs in a fit of anger. Adds description of night. Omits her decision to look for Frankie. Changes song Mol lie plays from (2) "I want a paper d o ll/ That I can call my own" to (3) "This is a great big city/ There's a m illion things to see." Adds Sophie's speech about being locked out of her hospital room. Adds many minor details. Typical writing of this section: "Around and around and around, on a white­ washed merry-go-round, ceiling to floor and back again, till the heart grew sick and the sick brain wheeled, around and around and around." A penned note: "Here make clear that what goes on is all in Sophie's mind. At times reader isn't sure whether he's in or out of it." Continues past 91. Sophie recounts the names of people she knows, saying more tenderly that any other, "The sorrowful name of Frankie Machi ne." 186

Relates to Vers ion Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

58 Discusses the places where the police had searched for him while he stayed at Mol lie 's . Mol lie brings Frankie a drummer's practice board, which he uses therapeutically to "kick the habit." His hands grow more steady. He wants to leave town; she does not because of the hope that John w ill take her back. Frankie grows restless. Goes to see Antek. Learns that Sophie is in a mental hospital, that Sparrow has had two continuances while the police look for Frankie, that Zygmunt got Sparrow out on bond, and that V iolet has moved in with Schwabatski, the J a ile r. Antek advises Frankie to be careful until after election. He returns to find John again beating Mol lie for money; however, she is broke. Dialogue between Frankie and Mol lie after Drunkie John has left them, presumably to reveal Frankie's hideout to the police since Mol lie has refused to continue bribing him. Frankie and Mol lie make their way to the alley before hearing the screech of tire s. He sends her back into the building. Then he goes into the basement, hoping that she can stall the police inside. Frankie escapes into the a lle y , where he is shot in a heel, and onto a Loop-bound el.

59 92 Omits the hospital's taking Sophie's clothes. Adds her being given a deck of cards, which she counts and scatters. This passage is marked " la te r." Crosses out a paragraph of her thoughts, e .g ., of introducing the doctor to the walls and the nurse to the floor. Adds short description of Sophie's face, puffed with suffering. Adds her counting, sorting, and then throwing the cards. Adds her rocking and playing with the cards. When they are fin a lly taken away, she does not miss them; her mind is gone.

60 Frankie, in a hotel room, recalls having dragged newspapers from a newsstand to use as a bandage for his wounded ankle. He recalls having paid one dollar for his room. 187

Relates to Vers ion Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Section

60 cont'd. Someone at the door asks if he is w ell. He replies that he w ill be out the next morning. He catches a glimpse of McGantic at the door. He realizes that he can hold out for an hour without a "fix." Then the police station wagon w ill arrive and he w ill face months with never a charge. He has kicked the habit once; twice w ill be too d iffic u lt. He remembers Bonarue Mac's advice: "'There's just one way a junkie kicks the habit— at the end of a rope.'" He sees a piece of twine. Why wait? He cannot hoist himself high enough to swing, however; he just goes to sleep. When he awakens he feels stronger. This section does not e x p lic itly state that Frankie commits suicide. It concludes, "And there was the rope. And there was the chickenwi re."

61 The "Witness Sheet," based on the actual court record of an inquest upon the body of Chester M. Witwicki. Changes Deputy Coroner Louis Nadherny to fic titio u s Herman Friedman. Changes jury impaneled at "1006 North Western Avenue, Chicago, Wednesday, March 14, 1945, 11 a.m." to jury impaneled at "1001 North Halsted Street, Chicago, Wednesday, Apri 1 Mareh 28, 1949, 11 a.m." Changes "Holleb Reporting Service, Herbert C. Lawrence--373" to "Goetz Reporting Agency, Norman C. Hollander— 044." Changes witnesses Joseph V/itwicki, Officer Edward Russell, and Mrs. Bessie Czarnak to fic titio u s Antony Witwicki and Sgt. McCullough. Antony Witwicki testifies about Frankie's employment, his ambition to be a drummer, and his heavy drinking. Sgt. McCullough testifies about finding Frankie at the King Hotel, 1103 West Madison, where the desk clerk called him. He found Frankie on a stairway, just as Officer Russell found Chester Witwicki. Frankie was identified at the Norwegian American hospital, where Chester V/itwicki was taken, as the man who escaped from police in an alley 188

Relates to Vers ion 2 Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

61 cont'd. between Lake and Maypole Streets. Frankie was pronounced dead by Dr. Sundstedt, Chester Witwicki by Dr. Isenstedt. Verdicts on the deaths of Witwicki and Frankie Machine are nearly identical. Deputy Nadherny says, "'The verdict of the Coroner's jury w ill read as follows: That Chester Witicki Hie] came to his death on the 13th day of March, A. D. 19^5, in his home located on at 2836 West Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, from asphyxiation by strangulation, with a rope around his neck extended from a door, put on with his own hands with suicidal intent, at the above mentioned location, on March 13, A. D. 19^5, at about ten o'clock p.m. while temporarily insane, due to ill health.'" Deputy Friedman similarly reports, "'The verdict of the Coroner's jury w ill be read as follows: That Francis Majcinek, alias Frank Machine, came to his death on the 18th day of A p ril, A.D. 19^+9 in the hotel located at 1101 W. Madison Street, Chicago, Illin o is , from asphyxiation by strangulation, with a rope around his neck extended from a door, put on with his own hands with suicidal intent, at the above mentioned location, on April 18, 19^+9 at about ten o'clock p.m. while temporarily insane.'"

62 93 Change: Captain remembers not an under­ aged g irl but Frankie Machine, not twenty-two months after her death but three weeks after his. Change: Again, the captain later recalls not the girl but Frankie, whom he feels that he had betrayed. Crosses out paragraphs about the inmates' silence and his wish that they were noisy. Adds that only he could judge himself; yet, he is powerless to judge. His g u ilt must go unatoned. There can be no verdict for him. CHAPTER IV

VERSION 32

The Ohio State collection has, in addition to the four major versions, 388 pages that belong to none of these drafts. These miscellaneous pages are extremely varied. Some are originals; some are carbon copies.

They come from both early and late stages in the composition. They come from beginning, middle, and concluding sections of the novel. They add a great amount of specific evidence supporting my assertion that Algren was a careful craftsman in composing The Man with the Golden Arm.

These pages may be classed in three categories: those which cohere to form short units or fragmentary versions; those which form units too short to be considered versions (the longest is twenty-one pages); and those which are single pages having no relation to any other of the miscellaneous pages.

Chapters IV, VI and VII discuss the three fragmentary versions that deserve special description because of their a ffin ity to extant major typescript versions and to the book. Chapter V III treats the miscellaneous pages.'

Fragmentary version 32 is so close to the fourth draft that the chief distinction between them is the clarity of typing. The typing of version 3 is generally clear; that of k is faint. Because the portion

'Typescript version 3 ' is part of the Illinois Institute of Technology collection. For a description of it see p. 280-288. 189 190

of version 3 at Ohio State consists of scenes at the end of the novel,

it could easily conclude version 4, which lacks many final sections. To

perform this kind of grafting, the last nine pages of the fourth draft

would have to be cut to make way for the addition. The faintness of the

typing on these nine pages places them, rather than version 3^, however,

at the end of the fourth d raft, since the pages of the fourth draft

immediately preceding the last nine are also typed fa in tly . The type- 2 writing of version 3 , on the other hand, begins much darker. Fragment p 3 , therefore, is a separate version, similar to, but different from,

both versions 3 and

The Illinois Institute of Technology collection contains additional pages of this draft. They are similar to those in the Ohio State collection and do not a lte r the story in any way unrepresented in the Ohio State

typescripts (see p. 288-289).

Like version k, fragment 3^ incorporates changes made in version

3. It is, therefore, much closer to version k than to version 3. However,

it must have been composed before version k. Presumably the book follows the latest typescript, and it often more closely follows version k than p version 3 . For example, sec. 59 precedes sec. 60 of version k, just as do their counterparts in the book, II 21 and II 22. In fragment 3^, however, these scenes are in the reverse order. The section relating to sec. 60 of version k precedes the section relating to sec. 59 of version k.

Furthermore, sometimes the diction and syntax of the book more closely parallel draft k than 3^. One may consider these excerpts: 191

Vers ion

"Ask fer me on Wabash 'n Harrison," the next cell began inviting everyone suddenly, for no apparent reason. With one tattooed forearm wrapped about the bars and the tongue s t ill burdened by a dying jag: "I'm the guy w it1 the right connections." (sec. 4)

Vers ion 3^

"Ask fer me on Wabash 'n Harrison," he began inviting everyone late that night, and his tongue s t ill sounded burdened to Sparrow. "I'm the guy w it' the right connections." (sec. 2)

Vers ion 4

"Ask fer me on Wabash 'n Harrison," he began inviting everyone late one night, his tongue s t ill sounding burdened to Sparrow. "I'm the guy w it1 the right connections." (sec. 60)

Book

"Ask fer me on Wabash 'n Harrison," he began inviting everyone late one night, his tongue s t ill sounding burdened to Sparrow. "I'm the guy w it' the right connections." (II 22)

The closer sim ilarity between the book and version 4 than between the book 2 o and fragment 3 suggests, again, that version 3 precedes 4. The closer

sim ilarity between the book and 32 than between the book and 3 demonstrates

2 2 that 3 precedes 3 . Therefore, fragment 3 must have been composed between versions 3 and 4. These passages make evident the a ffin ity between versions

32 and 4.

Version 32 consists of 87 pages, numbered 460-462, 465-546, and

548-549. All carbon copies, they measure 8^ inches by 11 inches and are yellow copy paper. Unlike the originals at the Illin o is Institute, they contain no corrections. Page numbers, centered at the top of each page, are followed by a period, e .g ., 498. All versos are blank except that of page 473; its six-lin e description of the Christmas season is nearly

identical to that which begins page 473. Page 504 is mistakenly numbered 192

540, but is corrected in pencil. Page 546 is also numbered 547. This page immediately precedes page 548.

I have assigned section numbers to pages of version 3^ as follows:

u 460 1 ' 500-502

2: 460-462 JO: 503-512

l : 465-468 UL: 512-519

1- 469-473 ±2: 520-528

1 ’ 473-482 1 1 ’ 529-535

6: 482-486 J4: 536-540

I- 486-494 1 1 ’ 541-549

8: 494-500

Because this fragment presumably follows version 3, most of its sections relate to scenes in the third d raft. Sec. 1 does not, however.

It consists of two paragraphs in which Sparrow asks the sleeping Bednar for coffee. The last two paragraphs of sec. 57, version 4, relate to sec. 1.

Sec. 2 relates to secs. 53 and 4, version 3. It begins like sec. 53, in which Sparrow feels lonely in jail without Frankie. Sec. 2 quickly changes to parallel sec. 4, in which Frankie and Sparrow converse with the talkative cabbie and in which Frankie dreams of McGantic.

Sec. 2 shortens the cabbie's speeches and omits Frankie's dream.

Sec. 3 is close to sec. 5, version 3- It begins after sec. 5; lost pages apparently discuss the prisoners and their probable burial.

Missing, too, is the old "wino" who wishes to be remembered by some of the prisoners. In both sections the jailer tries to quiet the cabbie.

Then, only in sec. 5, Frankie and Sparrow discuss the relative merits of 193

a ja ile r and a patrolman and the cabbie becomes depressed because of a

misunderstanding with his brother-in-law. In both the cabbie decides

that he is a "nobody" and Sparrow consoles him. In sec. 5 Frankie insults

Sophie and refuses to save a roach drowning in a bucket of water. Sec. 3

extends beyond sec. 5. After the new woman prisoner asks, "'A int anybody

on m>£ side?"1 then (in sec. 3 only) Sparrow answers her, someone insults

the ja ile r 's wife, and Sparrow agrees to make the one phone call to which,

as a prisoner, he is entitled.

Sec. 4 does not relate to any part of the third draft. In this

scene Frankie both pities and fears himself. His former friends at

Schwiefka's ostracize him. He now needs a nightly "fix." He meditates

on the significance of traffic lights and on each man's desire to be

d iffe re n t. Sec. 4 does relate to sec. 58, version 4, which omits the

final paragraph of sec. 4: "For now, in this season when Christmas trees were on sale in every corner-lot, the green light its e lf had turned

tra ito r."

Sec. 5 begins with a description of the bleak Christmas and New

Year's Eve s p irit of Frankie and Sophie. Then, as in sec. 54, version 3>

it dramatizes the approach of the "monkey." Kvorka next warns Frankie

that the police are en route to arrest him. He flees to a bar, designated

in sec. 5 as the Widow Wieczorek's. This section, which adds specific

d e ta il, also expands the account of drug tr a ffic around the Cloudland

restaurant where Sgt. Dugan nabs addicts for "the cure." Frankie looks for Mollie and, after destroying his identification cards, strolls into

the Kitten Klub.

Sec. 6 considerably rewrites sec. 55, version 3, an account of

Sophie's brooding melancholy. It omits her notion that Schwiefka's "boys" are playing cards in an adjacent room. 19^

Sec. 7 depicts Frankie at the Kitten Klub. The account of the

floor-show is sim ilar to that in sec. 56, version 3, but sec. 7 more fu lly

develops Frankie's approaching illness, as well as his reaction to seeing

M olly.

Sec. 8 is an account of Sophie's expectations of Frankie's return,

of her going to the fir e escape to meet him, and then of her being taken

to a hospital. This account revises that in sec. 57, version 3°

Sec. 9 begins after a wide space in the typescript which denotes

a new section. This division does not occur in version 3; hence, sec. 9

continues to relate to sec. 57. It portrays Sophie in the hospital,

recounting her wandering thoughts about the room, about Drunkie John and

Molly, and about Frankie.

Sec. 10 expands the account of the police search for Frankie given

in sec. 58, version 3. Frankieeludes the officers by staying in Molly's

apartment, where a Negro housekeeper is named Dovie. In sec. 10 he tells

Molly about the murder, he begins to "kick the habit" with Molly's help,

and he thinks about getting a job. She, of course, shows him the fo lly of appearing in public and she admits that John is extorting money from

her. Sec. 10 appreciably rewrites sec. 58, for instance, by expanding the

passages about Frankie's addiction and his desire for a job.

Sec. 11, which begins after a division not in version 3, s t ill

relates to sec. 58, version 3. Sec. 11 broadens the introductory account

in sec. 58 of Frankie's growing restlessness. His v is it to Antek is more

fully developed, with particular attention paid to Frankie's explicitly explaining Sparrow's role in the "frame-up." Sec. 11 also expands development of Frankie's return to Molly's past Anderson School, the scene of his boyhood games. 195

Sec. 12 chronicles Frankie's discovery of John's beating Molly

for bribery money, the police's coming for Frankie, and his escape to a

hotel near the Cloudland restaurant. Sec. 12 extends beyond sec, 58, version 3, to which it relates. It adds an account of Frankie's ride on the e l .

Sec. 13 is similar to sec. 59. version 3, in a way that illustrates

the relationship between the entire fragment and the third d raft. One may

see this relationship by comparing these two passages: 2 Vers ion 2 Vers ion 3

[The hospital attendants] had [The hospital attendants] had taken [Sophie's] garters, they taken [Sophie's] garters, they had taken her purse, they had had taken her purse, they had taken her hand-mirror and her taken her hand-mirror and locked pride. "How do they expect a her door. They had taken her girl to look neat without even a dark, loose-fitting dress and her little mirror to peak into?" white right-fitting pride. "How she'd ask the doctor when he do you expect a person to look came again. How would it be neat without even a little mirror if she suddenly had company and to peak into?" she asked the doctor. hadn't even combed her hair? "How am I supposed to comb my hair?" Cpming so close to him that he held her hands to her sides, not seeming to trust her at a l l , though she liked the touch of the hands. Then before he had time to say a word, got one finger loose, pointed it at the l i t t l e mustache and laughed in his face right out loud: "Look at the cookie-duster, g irls!"

Sec. 13 portrays Sophie in the hospital. It rearranges and adds a few details of sec. 59.

Sec. 14 relates to sec. 60, version 3, but differs considerably from it. In the hotel room Frankie now envisions a poker session in which he is both dealer and "sucker" receiving the fatal, stained dollar. He also envisions McGantic, who comes to call with a piece of twine. He does 196

not talk himself into the suicide as he does in sec. 60, but proceeds

confidently even as he hears the police siren nearby. He thinks of Molly

and then of Sophie in words that are blown "on a dead-cold wind blowing up

from some 1ong-darkened hall, into a strangled whimpering. And then no whimper at a ll." The suicide is here made obvious as it is not in sec. 60.

Sec. 15 is a "Witness Sheet" slightly different from that of sec.

61, version 3- For example, the deputy coroner in version 3 is William

Hassell, whereas the deputy in version 3 is Herman Friedman. More

significantly, the jury is impaneled April 1, 19^8, in version 3^5 the

o date is April 28, 19^9, in version 3. The witnesses in 3 are Anthony

Witwicki (Antek the Owner), Sgt. L. H. Fallon, and Molly; in 3 they are

Witwicki and Sgt. McCullough. Molly does not appear in sec. 61. The witnesses' testimonies are quite sim ilar, although Witwicki's responses

in the fragment compress certain statements and expand others made in version 3. Molly's testimony te lls of her last seeing Frankie and, generally, of her relationship with him. Deputy Coroner Blue, another examining o fficer, warns her of the seriousness of being an "accessory after the fact."

Fragment 3^ is highly significant for two reasons. Because it relates to both versions 3 and k, it must be the end of an intermediary d raft, the bulk of which is not at Ohio State. Internal evidence reveals

its greater affinity with the fourth draft than with the third; therefore, we can be certain that it follows the third draft in the chronology of composition. It is significant, furthermore, because most of it is nearly identical to the book. Even when paragraphing is different, the diction often is the same. Among the typescripts in the Ohio State collection, this fragment is the closest thing to the copy text for the last portion of the novel. CHAPTER V

VERSION 4

The fourth version consists of 408 pages, all of which are carbon

copies measuring 8^ inches by 11 inches. All are yellow copy paper. A period usually follows page numbers, at top center, e .g ., 12. Page numbers are thus distinguishable from those of the first three drafts, which are preceded and followed by hyphens. The fourth draft is a fa ir copy con­ taining no corrections in pen or pencil. The typescript incorporates

revisions indicated in the third draft and adds others of its own.

Conspicuous additions as well as gaps mark this draft which relates closely to the book. Several sections of the published book are nearly

identical to those in version 4.

This version is the only one that begins as the book does, with the sentence, "The captain never drank." Version 3, for example, begins with an account of the captain's guilt, exposition that in both version 4 and the book appears in the second paragraph. Version 4, however, concludes with Sparrow's decision to telephone a lawyer. Jailed ostensibly for drug peddling, he realizes his need for legal help. This section does not seem to complete the story of Sparrow or of Frankie and Sophie.

It is surprising that in a version as stylistically sound as the fourth— it far surpasses any of its predecessors in this respect— the conclusion is curiously inadequate. Because of the care evident in this d raft, it is doubtful that Algren lost his grip on the story. Like many

197 198 other sections in the typescripts, these final sections, too, must be lost,

for the last page of version 4 ends with the direction "(usual space)," a term that Algren frequently used to separate sections. More sections, p therefore, were to follow. Furthermore, since version 4 (see pages 241 f f . and pages 291 f f . ) contains a conclusion similar to that in versions 3 p and 3 , we find it impossible to think that in an intermediary version, especially one as late as the fourth, Algren would change the plot to this drastic extent. We believe, therefore, that the final sections of version

4 were composed to read quite like those of version 3 but that they are now lost.

To form version 4 Algren expanded the third draft by adding five sections: 9, 33, 50, 51, and 59. Sec. 9 recounts how irascible Drunkie

John, a former wrestler of sorts and now nothing but a d r ifte r , humiliates

Molly Novotny, his young mistress who later is Frankie's. When John gets drunk in Antek's bar, he wants her to sing, since she once had entertained the customers by singing with her skirt pinned to the back of her blouse.

Against Sparrow's advice, Frankie tosses Molly a dime to urge her to sing.

Infuriated that Molly might pick up the coin, Johnny kicks her in his habitual way. When she leaves, Antek restrains John until she gets a head s ta rt. This section includes a lengthy description of John and

Antek's delineation of Molly, "'A guy can walk into her heart with army boots o n .'"

Rather than adding significant information to the plot, the two-page sec. 33 depicts Frankie's mood. Frankie dreamily realizes that Antek's barroom cat knows about him, perhaps about his addiction and Louie's murder. He dreams that Molly is calling for him. He dreams of "rain that 199

beat, like long-forgotten tears against some small room's single pane:

the rain of that far-off night, that far-off year, that far-off time when

his name would be the name of nobody at all save in the memory of Molly-0.

Like the name of someone who had never lived at all." Still sleeping, he mumbles that '"Sophie knows"1 about his affair with Molly, but not about

everything, "'Cause the cat wont purr . . .

Secs„ 50 and 51 are fragmentary. The former contrasts the happy,

healthy people in beer advertisements with the real people of the Tug &

Maul. In the latter Frankie spits on the pictures of Antek's wife, daughter, and mother placed in a mirror above the bar. Antek returns the

insult by hittin g Frankie's face with a wet towel. Antek then assures

Frankie that he is wrong in believing that Sparrow robbed Louie.

Sec. 59 is an account of Frankie the outcast. Aware that the police are searching for him, that he is taking morphine, and that he is

losing his touch as a dealer, his former friends ostracize him even at

Schwiefka's. For instance, Schwiefka himself inquires whether Frankie has asked for a job at Kippel's, a Jewish poker club. Physically and emotionally deteriorating, Frankie goes nightly to Pig for a "fix." He fears that

Sparrow w ill implicate him in Louie's murder. He meditates, for example, on each man's desire to be what he is not, and on the meaning of street

lights. These five sections, together with the others that compose the fourth draft, relate directly to parallel sections in the finished book.

The fourth draft at Ohio States does, however, omit twelve sections of version 3: 10, 11, 33, and 5^-62. Sec. 10 concerns the courtship of

Sophie and Frankie. They participate in religious rituals; they follow malt and hops trucks to collect spilled beer; they sleep together. 200

Frankie is generally indifferent to her, even when she pretends to be pregnant and, later, when he plays cards on their wedding night. The section concludes with Sophie's realization that she has failed to make a man of Frankie and that only the accident has united them. The loss of this section seems to me to weaken the story for the Ohio State researcher, since this data clearly develops the character of Frankie and Sophie and contributes significantly to an understanding of their present relationship.

A few pages in the Illin o is Institute of Technology collection, however, chronicle Sophie's remembrance of her courtship (see p. 200).

The omission of sec. 31 is even more unfortunate, since this section is the fu ll account of the automobile accident that precipitates

Sophie's physical and mental decline. For the Ohio State analyst, the omission of this important episode mars the continuity of the plot and

leaves unanswered relevant questions about Sophie. This section was neither cut nor lost, however; it is among the Illinois typescripts

(see p. 200).

Sec. 33 is a two-paragraph introduction to the show-up. I have considered it an independent section only because the three pages immediately following it are lost. Sec. 3k, which is represented in version k, continues the show-up.

The principal portion of draft 3 omitted from version k consists of the last nine sections, 5^-62, which I believe to have been lost rather than cut. Sec. 5k chronicles Frankie's dream of the monkey, Kvorka's warning him that the police are en route to pick him up, and the beginning of his flig h t. The next section concerns Sophie's brooding about Frankie and her­ self, her thinking that Schwiefka's players are next door to her, and her 201

conviction that she shares the madness and wisdom of Christ. Sec. 56

te lls of Frankie's v is it to the Kitten Club. Sec. 57 te lls of Sophie's breaking the radio, again imagining that the players are next door, and

looking for Frankie on the fir e escape. Then she is taken to a hospital where she reminisces about the people she knows.

Sec. 58 contains the important information that Frankie is hiding out at Mol lie 's while the police search for him. There he gains strength but grows restless. When he returns from a secret v is it to Antek he discovers Drunkie John beating Mol lie for bribery money. After John

leaves, Frankie and Mol lie try to escape, but only Frankie evades the police.

In sec. 59 Sophie is in the mental hospital, where her deterioration seems complete.

Frankie's short-lived refuge in the hotel room is the subject of the next section, which concludes with the strong implication that his second suicide attempt will be successful. The following section reveals that it is, for the "Witness Sheet" composes sec. 61. The final section

is "The Captain Is Impaled" account.

With the possible exception of sec. 56, all of these late sections are crucial to the plot. Their omission violates the completeness of the story, because in the fourth draft there is no plausible explanation of what fin a lly becomes of Frankie, Sophie, and Sparrow, around whom the entire story has pivoted. Since these sections seem essential, I assume that Algren did intend to reuse them, although their revised versions, which would form a part of the fourth draft, are missing. (It would be uncharacteristic of Algren to consider them sufficiently polished in the third draft to be used in toto in the fourth version. These sections in 202

version 3 do contain many corrections in pen which Algren certainly would

have typed in the relatively clean copy of the fourth d raft.)

The sections from the published book that directly relate to these

twelve sections are, consequently, not represented in the Ohio State fourth

draft. In I 12, which relates to sec. 10, version 3, Sophie remembers

Frankie's indifference during their courtship and marriage. Sec. I 13,

which relates to sec. 11, reports the automobile accident. The beginning

of I 35 relates to sec. 33, the opening of the police show-up. The

importance of these sections in the book is comparable to their significance

in the third version.

The chief differences between version k and the book, of course,

is the presence of the last eleven scenes in the book, 11 25~36, which do

not relate to any sections in version k. Sec. II 25, which relates to

sec. 62, version 3, portrays the impaled captain. Sophie sits alone in

reverie in II 26, which relates to sec. 55. Frankie visits the Kitten

Klub, where he sees Molly, in II 27, which relates to sec. 56. In II 28, which relates to sec. 57, Sophie thinks that Frankie is returning. She

goes to the fir e escape to meet him, but, a fte r wandering out of her wheelchair, she is taken to a mental hospital. There, in II 29, which

also relates to sec. 57, Sophie feels a dread of the white, white walls.

Secs. II 30, 31, and 32, which all relate to sec. 58, te ll of Frankie's

growing stronger as he hides out at M olly's. After he visits Antek and

after Molly can no longer bribe John, Frankie and Molly try to escape.

He succeeds fin a lly in making his way to a hotel for men. Sec. II 33, which relates to sec. 59, presents Sophie's demented thoughts and actions

in the hospital. The next section II 3^» is more explicit in dramatizing 203

Frankie's suicide than is sec. 60. The “Witness Sheet" forms II 35, which

relates to sec. 61, and "Epitaph," which appears as a poem in none of the

four major versions, is li 36. That these late sections appear in version 3 and in the published book suggests the importance of their omission from version *i. Their absence may be due to loss or to Algren's tinkering, since he did not consider the story in the fourth draft a complete account of

"the man with the golden arm." He freely culled from e arlie r drafts what profitably could be remolded for the final tale of the fa ll of Frankie

Mach i ne.

The plot of the fourth version does not noticeably expand in the way that it does in each of the other drafts. The new sections add no major episodes or developments. Additions to already established sections, however, do contribute significantly to the action of the story. In sec. 30

Kvorka te lls Frankie that Louie has been found with his neck broken.

Kvorka intends to give Frankie advance warning because Frankie protects

Umbrella Man, Kvorka's younger brother who is often the butt of card- players' chicanery. Still cocky and confident, Frankie, however, rebuffs

Kvorka's favor by expressing little interest in Louie's murder and by admitting no knowledge of it. In the same section Molly yearns to have a child. There is no indication that, unlike Dovie or Mol lie , she is pregnant.

We learn only that the one thing that she now wants is "a child of her own.

To nurse in the silver evening light and tend in the gilded morning. That was all she had ever wanted. Or ever would want again."

The amount of attention given to Frankie's distrust of Sparrow increases in the fourth version. Having heard from Molly (sec. 3*0 that

"the punk" is spending money conspicuously, Frankie g rills Sparrow, since 20^

Louie, at the time of his murder, was known to have been carrying a roll of b ills . Sparrow's free spending nearly identifies him and Frankie as

the murderers. Sparrow acquits himself; in version b he is not the thief of Louie's " r o ll." He te lls Frankie (sec. 35) that Louie was in debt to many men who, by Sparrow's implication, were more logical suspects. When

Sparrow leaves Vi (sec. 53) he wishes that he had rolled Louie, for now he could use the money. More passionately, however, he wishes that Frankie would believe him innocent. He does not recollect the speed with which

Louie's "roll" was spent, as he does in version 3. Instead he thinks about spending Stash's Christmas bonus and insurance money. (Sec. 53 also depicts Pig, not Sparrow, wearing Louie's two-toned shoes. Pig, then, is the th ie f.) In sec. 5b Sparrow again te lls Frankie that he did not rob Louie.

In version b Molly, not Vi, visits Frankie in jail after the theft of irons. Her v is it is the more probable one, although she does not convey

Sparrow's remorse at leaving Frankie to be caught. Much of the conversation between Molly and Frankie is the same as that between Vi and Frankie.

Only Molly, however, admits that she now is not living on the " fir s t floor front" that Frankie knew; she is "'just livin' around."1

The plot of this draft places more emphasis upon Frankie's narcoticism than does that of the third version. Sec. 13 adds a paragraph about Louie's liking to watch a dose of morphine " h it." It adds a graphic description of a "junkie" really "hooked." It expands Louie's account of

"kicking the habit." Sec. 27 reveals that Frankie is becoming more addicted, for, once again, he is having his last "fix." Sec. 5b particularly emphasizes the drug element in the story. Much more is made here than in 205 the third version of Sparrow's regret and frig h t at delivering the morphine.

Reluctantly he prepares and administers the "fix " for Frankie according to the dealer's specifications, which this version elaborates. In an extended passage Frankie's surrender to the "monkey" seems nearly complete, for he now considers himself Sgt. McGantic. He te lls Sparrow in a long monologue what being a "junkie" means. Throughout this section appear in detail the effects of addiction.

The omission of secs. 10, 11, and 3*+ of the third draft from the fourth version does not measurably alter the course of the story. The chief function of the fir s t three of these sections is to furnish back™ ground information, essential to a complete understanding of the characters, but, nonetheless, information that does not chronicle present happenings.

Sec. 10 reveals the rigors of Frankie's and Sophie's courtship. Sec. 11 is an account of the accident that ostensibly makes an invalid out of

Sophie. (These two sections are, of course, at the Illin o is In stitu te.)

Sec. 3k is simply the introduction to the show-up section which is included in the fourth d raft. The plot line, therefore, is generally unaffected by the absence of these scenes.

The chief distinction of the plot of the fourth draft, however, is its unexpected abbreviation. Minus the concluding nine sections from the third draft, it ends without meaningfully terminating the tragedy. It does conclude, however, with Frankie's and Sparrow's both feeling isolated. A police suspect, a drug addict, a now unskillful dealer,

Frankie is an outcast from even the camaraderie of Schwiefka's. The type­ script ends with Sparrow's feeling deserted, too. Preoccupied with worry, he knows that this time he cannot shrug off his confinement with the 206 certainty that someone, probably Frankie, would come to His rescue. When an unnamed girl is ja ile d , she cries, '"A int anybody on m^ side?"1 The lost and fallen - Sparrow answers that no one is. No one is on his side, either; "no man was on the side of men."

Version k does not substantially a lte r the characters, although we gain new insights into some of them and lose developing details about others. With the omission of part of Frankie's early brashness especially with Sophie, he becomes more melancholy. Although he boasts of his a b ility with cards (sec. 3)» he also mocks himself as a "big man" in the army

(sec. 8); his career was singularly undistinguished. His feeling of g u ilt increases: he crawls to pick up the fragments of broken china and then humbly begs laughing Sophie not to taunt him (sec. 20); he blames himself for Sophie's illness and for his dishonesty in having an a ffa ir with Molly (sec. 2k). He acknowledges his narcoticism when he identifies himself as Sgt. McGantic and when he te lls Sparrow in detail what being a

"junkie" means (sec. 5^). Finally, his transformation from a leader to an outcast seems almost complete when he considers himself ostracized even from his own society at Schwiefka's. He now depends upon a nightly

"fix," and anxiously fears that Sparrow will implicate him in Louie's murder. He becomes more contemplative: he sees evidence that each man tries to be something that he is not; he believes that all life has betrayed him.

Although Sparrow remains the dim-witted friend of Frankie, version k does present a few new character tra its about him. He fears being caged; he dreads the prison bars and walls (sec. 1). He is his own severest c r itic . Whereas others accept his appearance, he chastizes his 207

ugliness (sec. 4). Yet he feels superior to Frankie in handling women

(sec. 5*0. His loyalty to Frankie, too, seems stronger in this draft, for against his w ill he witnesses Frankie's sickness and gives him a dose of morphine to relieve it . This version expands his reluctance to get

involved with Frankie's addiction. Despite his fear, disgust, and g u ilt,

Sparrow does remain with Frankie in the hotel room as long as the dealer wants him (sec. 5*0. This version, however, does omit a lengthy, humorous account of the lies Sparrow told Vi to inflate his ego. This version concludes with his serious side again dominant; he is aware that he is

"on his own" to chart his future.

Unfortunately the fourth draft omits some of the major passages characterizing minor figures. Descriptive detail about Bird Dog, Meter-

Reader, and, especially, Louie is cut from sec. 21, for example. Version k, however, expands our knowledge of the personality of Drunkie John and

Applejack Katz. Sec. 9 portrays John as a sadistic, uncontrollable, unpredictable boor. He has a certain pride: his hair is precisely combed; and, claiming to provide for Molly, he is enraged that another man would offer her money. Yet, he does not mind his being called a dog, although he would not allow Molly to be called one. He treats Molly cruelly, but calls her a queen. A youthful wrestler now nearing a drunken forty years, "He was simply a man who didn't know what to do with himself, for he didn't yet know who he was. It's sometimes easier to find a job than to find oneself and John hadn't gotten around to doing the fir s t . .

. . He was many men and no man at a ll: he was an hysterical l i t t l e bundle of possibilities that could never come true." 208

Applejack Katz (he was called Bona rue Katz In version 3) becomes

individualized in this version. He is patient and stealthy: he makes beer in his cell (sec. 4 l) . He has endured punishment: he te lls Frankie of his time in deadlock (sec. 42). He is alternately optimistic and pessimistic: at one time he expects to be released from ja i l someday

(sec. 42); at another he never expects to "make the street" (sec. 44).

He is experienced: he warns Frankie against using nembutol and te lls him how gage works; he recognizes L ittle Lester's v is ito r as a newspaper reporter (sec. 44). He seems to be genuinely interested in helping

Frankie: he encourages Frankie to "kick the habit" and does not smuggle him any drugs (sec. 48). Frankie trusts him, for Frankie confides to

Applejack that "'the second paw QisJ off'" (sec. 42).

The omission in the fourth draft of the final nine sections of version 3 somewhat changes the reader's final impression of Frankie,

Sophie, and Captain Bednar. Gone is Frankie's desperate search for security and his temporary solace in Molly's hideaway. Gone are his fin a l, harried hours in the hotel room that show him defeated beyond even the modicum of hope that existence provides. In version 4 the future is much less e x p lic it. He is gripped by uncertainty, not by the certainty of disaster.

In version 4, too, the reader leaves Sophie mentally incoherent. She asks Frankie what he thinks of the A. F. of L. She traces the word

"perdition" on a windowpane. She is despondent because the entire Chicago

Loop is not in flames. Her final brooding and breakdown and her behavior in the hospital, which precludes any hope for her recovery, all are gone.

Finally, Captain Bednar's g u ilt complex is not as fu lly dramatized in the fourth version as in the third because "The Captain Is Impaled" section, 209 which concludes the third d raft, is omitted from the fourth. In it Bednar counts himself blameworthy for not identifying with the humanity that he

is persecuting. In the fourth draft, therefore, his sensitivity to ju stice is not as fu lly documented as it is in version 3.

There is l i t t l e about the fourth draft that alters the themes of the e a rlie r versions. Chicago "justice" again gets rapped, although in sec. 37 rather than sec. 2. P olitical injustice is further satirized in

Bednar's elaboration of the effect of an unsolved murder during an election year (sec. 58). The expanded description of the prisoners (sec. k\) and

Sparrow's assertion that each man must fend for himself (sec. 61) seem to underscore the novel's second theme, social injustice. Are not we outsiders p a rtia lly responsible for these prisoners' caring nothing about the future, which is, in essence, caring nothing about life? Must a man like Sparrow, ill-equipped to face life and ill-guided in the way to live it, be alone, with no one "on his side"? With these additions, it is curious that the fourth draft then omits "The Captain Is Impaled" section that more pointedly than these portrays the theme of complicity. The loss of two sections particularly lessens the impact of the third theme, love. The account of

Frankie's and Sophie's early love a ffa ir and the portrayal of Molly's fin a l, tested love for Frankie are not included in version k (secs. 10 and 59, version 3)• It does, however, add the strange love relationship between Drunkie John and Molly. Despite his bestial cruelty, she sacrifices herself to him in an inexplicable manner (sec. 9). These three themes, therefore, continue to underlie the novel, but Algren's cry for human understanding and compassion seems to me to be dominant. 210

A study of version 4 emphatically demonstrates that Algren had become more certain of his literary technique than he had been in any previous draft. The writing is finely polished; it gives evidence of having been carefully evaluated. More rarely did Algren now tinker. His changes are usually more directly related to the obvious intent of increasing concreteness or c la rity .

Much of the detail is the most specific it has ever been. Frankie keeps a hypodermic needle in a bag in Louie“s room above the Safari

(sec. 2), not merely in "a veteran's room" (sec. 2, version 3). Frankie's age is revealed by his having "seen some bad ones in his twenty-nine years"

(sec. 7) rather than "in his time" (sec. 5, version 3). Instead of merely not spending "penny-one" for Christmas presents for the poor people

(sec. 12, version 3) , the insurance adjusters in sec. 14 of the fourth draft "send greeting-cards in unsealed envelopes bearing half-rate postage."

Algren's description of locations grows more precise, too. For instance,

" I t was cold in the l i t t l e room" (sec. 29, version 3) becomes "In the icy dark the streetlamp's frosty glow lay like hoar across bed and dresser and wheelchair" (sec. 32). Although the language of the previous draft is relatively concrete, Algren was usually not content to permit even the slightest vagueness. He grasped at nearly every opportunity to p a rticu la r1iz e , even if the addition was only a single word.

In version 4 Algren concentrated more upon revising previously- composed sections than upon adding new ones. The revisions are often expansions of details. For example, "'|_Frankie and Sparrow} were pinched together 'n that's double-jeopardy 'r somethin' '" (sec. 1, version 3) is changed to '"We were pinched together, so if the punk makes the street I 21 1 do too. Otherwise it's double jeopardy 'r somethin' '" (sec. 1). The additional detail clarifies why Frankie is concerned with "double jeopardy."

One may compare these parallel passages: "With his own eyes each had seen every other American choose a broad stone stairway to success and climb it surely and swiftly: he alone, it seemed, was left, without even a ladder, sittin g on a State Street curb" (sec. 5, version 3); and "With his own eyes each had seen the true American mount the broad stone stairways to success surely and sw iftly and unaided by others; he was the one le ft alone, it seemed at last, without enough sense of honor le ft to climb off a West Madison Street Keep-Our-City-C1ean box and not enough ambition left to raise his eyes to back to j_sicj the billboards" (sec. 7). Or he may compare "And the beating of a single fan timed to the players' troubled hearts" (sec. 17, version 3) with "The dealer placed a new deck in front of Schwiefka for cutting and, while Schwiefka cut, took time to wind his wristwatch carefully; as if setting it to keep time, this whole long night to come, to the players' troubled hearts" (sec. 20). These comparisons illu s tra te the type of expansion that Algren used to c la rify his meaning

(see also sec. 19, version 3, and sec. 23, version sec. 23, version 3, and sec. 27, version k; sec. A8, version 3, and sec. 5^, version 4).

Even more extensive revision, including both expansion and deletion, occurs in several sections, e .g ., secs. 12, 37, and ^8.

Although the general absence of corrections indicates Algren's satisfaction with this draft, it still needs further work. Some sentences like this one are awkward: "But so fa in tly Jthe cry of a g irl in jaiTJ couldn't be heard by those on the streets from which she was taken at a ll"

(sec. 8). Algren was an amateur typist with only an average eye for 212 meticulous correctness. He was s till to juxtapose some scenes and parts of scenes before sending the typescript to the printer. This typescript version (a carbon copy to be sure) shows a few changes made in the original but not in the carbon, i.e ., words are typed on top of each other in the carbon, although the errors undoubtedly were erased in the original.

Many sentences in this version are propelled by their own motion, their onward drive reflected in lengthy and sometimes intricate constructions.

A relatively simple example is this sentence from sec. 6: "His name was

Pvt. McGantic, no one knew why, and he stood, stoopshouldered by his te rrib le burden, in a far and sunlit entrance to a ward tent where Frankie lay once more on his old army cot." On and on and on go the forces that capitalize on Frankie's surrender to Pvt. McGantic.

Despite the absence of a satisfactory conclusion, version 4 demonstrates such widespread improvement that it stands, among the type­ scripts at Ohio State, as the crowning testimony to Algren's technique.

Much of this draft represents Algren's final work. It is not quite yet the copy text, however; more revisions are to come; but it is a signal achievement in the development of the novel. If the plot were firmer, the development of The Man wi th the Golden Arm would now appear complete.

The page numbers of all extant pages of the fourth version follow.

1-14; 17-86; 99-105; 125-130[AJ „ 130[Bj-137; 139-161; 166-187; 190-204;

206-243; 248-256 jAJ, 256[B>382; 391; 399-466; 468-469. Two pages are numbered 130 and two are numbered 256. (I have supplied distinguishing letters in square brackets.) The fir s t page of each of these pairs is incomplete. The content on the second page of each pair directly follows that on the f ir s t . The duplicate numbering may indicate the incompleteness 213 of the earlier page or it may be a simple mistake. None of the pages of version 4 contains evidence of additional systems of pagination. All but six pages of this draft contain The Man with the Go 1 den Arm copy on only one side of the page. The versos of pages 232, 317. 319, 320, 322, and

323, however, also contain copy for the novel. The verso of page 232 is numbered 155; that of 317 is numbered 296; that of 319 , 270; that of 320,

282; that of 322, 212; and that of 323, 190. The content of these versos does not relate to the fourth d raft. Most of these versos contain l i t t l e copy. Usually they are pages discarded perhaps because of typing errors.

I have assigned section numbers to pages of version 4 as follows:

1-7 J6: 133-137

2: 7-12 11- 139-144

1' 12-14 J8: 144-157

17-23 12: 157-161

£: 24-27 20: 166-174

£: 28-29 21_: 174-187

I: 29-35 22: 190-199

8: 35-49 12: 199-204

2: 50-55 24: 206-211

JO.: 55-75 2£: 212-217

JJ_: 75-82 26: 217-248

J2: 83-86 1Z: 248-256[A]

12: 99-105 28: 256 Lb] -263

Jit: 125-130QQ 22: 263-266

!£: 130 [bJ -133 20: 267-274 214

U.: 274-289 46: 370-373

12: 289-291 hi- 373-375

11: 294-295 hl- 375-379

lit: 296-308 hi- 379-382

11: 308-314 50: 391

16: 314-316 51: 399

12: 316-324 52: 399-404

l i : 325-335 51: 404-424

11: 335-338 54: 425-440

40: 338-343 55: 440-442

hi- 344-350 56: 443-448

42: 350-356 52: 448-452

h l- 356-357 58: 452-460

44: 357-366 51: 460-464

hi- 366-370 60: 464-466

51: 468-469

Relates to Vers ion h Vers ion Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

1 i Adds opening paragraph and fir s t sentence of second. Although the captain never drinks, he sometimes feels weary but not from work. Particularizes time: "this windless fir s t week of December." Adds paragraph that "the pair of strays standing before [Bednar]" had already been file d in both his records and his hand. Adds Frankie's assertion that he got the purple heart with his discharge. New: Sparrow names Violet as his g i r l ­ friend. 215

Relates to Version 4 Vers ion j} Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

1 cont'd. 1 cont'd. Changes appellations occasionally, e.g., from Simple-Pimple to Solly, from the dealer to the veteran, and from the chinless wonder to the wayward 4F. Typical, occasional change: from (3) "Abruptly he recalled himself: 'If the punk makes the street I do to o ,1 he advised the captain confidently. 'We were pinched together 'n that's double-jeopardy 'r somethin'.'" to (4) "Then, feeling the law's eyes unwaveringly upon him he recalled himself and advised the captain confidently: 'We were pinched together, so if the punk makes the street I do too. Otherwise it's double jeopardy 'r somethin'.'" Adds Sparrow's fear of being caged.

2 2 Omits nearly three pages about j a i l wall legends and drawings, some of which satirize Chicago justice. Rearranges lines in precinct captains' song. Changes Bonkowski to Dunovatka. Becomes more specific, e.g., in version 4 Frankie keeps a hypodermic needle in a bag in Louie's room above the Safari; in 3, in "a veteran's room."

3 3 Adds Frankie's boast about his a b ility with cards.

4 3 Adds explanation of the name Machine. Adds to Frankie's dealing cards to Sparrow in cel I . Adds part of "Epitaph" as prose. Omits some of dialogue between Frankie and Sparrow about Sparrow's losing bank interest if he uses a tric k Frankie is to show him. Adds Sparrow's chastizing himself about being ugly.

5 4 Adds Frankie's hearing "a night squadrol" refueli ng. Adds cabbie's question, "'You guys remember Eddie Cicotte jji baseball playerj?'" Typical change: from (3) "as if to ju s tify himself before a humorless judge." to (4) "as though suddenly finding himself confronted by a teetotal ling judge." Changes unnamed cabbie to DeWitt. 210

Relates to Version k Vers ion jl Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

6 k Change: Frankie's dream of McGantic now labeled his second, not fir s t . Greatly rewrites and expands account of dream.

7 5 Becomes more specific, e .g ., from (3) "Frankie had seen some bad ones in his time." to (k) "Frankie Machine had seen some bad ones in his twenty-nine years." Expands s lig h tly , e .g ., from (3) "With his own eyes each had seen every other American choose a broad stone stairway to success and climb it surely and swiftly: he alone, it seemed, was left, without even a ladder, sitting on a State Street curb." to (*f) "With his own eyes each had seen the true Americans mount the broad stone stairways to success surely and sw iftly and unaided by others: he was the one left alone, it seemed at last, without enough sense of honor le ft to climb o ff a West Madison Street Keep-Our-City-Clean box and not enough ambition le ft to raise his eyes to back to the billboards."

8 5 Adds Frankie's and Sparrow's speeches about Kvorka's merits as a policeman. Adds speech attributed to either the cabbie or a girl prisoner, "'Hey! Pokey!' . . . Hey! Pokey! They just fished a Clark Street whore out of the river-go see if it's your w ife !'" Adds Frankie's speech mocking himself as a "big man" in the army. Paragraph changes from Pig's notion of a man saving money to Louie's notion of a man's being "hooked." Adds significance of the roach's death. Frankie would not save it from drowning until he, too, got out of j a i l . Then it is too late. "Too late for roaches or cabbies or old Skid-Row rumdums: it was even getting a l i t t l e late for cripples and junkies and punks too long on the same old hustle." Adds paragraph about street car's going dark.

Unpredictable Drunkie John, formerly a wrestler of sorts, now a drifter, humiliates young Molly Novotny in Antek's bar. She does not drink, but he becomes drunk and wants her 217

Relates to Version 4 Version Remarks Section Sect ion

9 cont'd. to sing. Against Sparrow's advice, Frankie gives her a dime. Infuriated, John kicks her, as is his habit. Finally she leaves; Antek holds John back until she gets a head start. This section contains a lengthy description of John and Antek's pointed explanation of Molly: "'A guy can walk into her heart with army boots on."' Frankie wishes that he were going home to Molly rather than to Sophie.

10 7 Inserts sign from sec. 45 of 3rd version, "Q U I E T / Or out you go too." Adds that the sign and the desk below it both seem lopsided. The Jailer is not a skilled carpenter. Adds that patient Schwabatski hopes to teach carpentry to his dim-witted son, who even more patiently hopes that paper daisies w ill grow on the stairway. Changes Sophie's rinse from platinum to ash-blonde. Adds Sophie's fear of being le ft alone. Inserts from sec. 46 an account of Sophie's making a scrapbook. Adds her asking Frankie to wheel her and an account of her loneliness that includes her song "Whiteheads, blackheads." Adds that Frankie plays his own version of "Song of the Islands" on drums. Deletes some explanation of the word "cute" to Sophie and Frankie's inability to comprehend her. Adds Sophie's account of the time a cabbie offered her a free ride which she refused; she had to walk home in a storm. Adds paragraph about the merry-go-round of Sophie's mind. Adds Frankie's announcement that he is looking for a real job playing the drums. Adds Frankie's speech to Sophie, "'My guess is your roof is le a k in '.'" Changes another of Frankie's speeches from (3) "'Your roof is leakin' a l i t t l e again, honey,1" to (4) "'There's only f if t y cards in your deck tonight, honey.'" Changes source of Sophie's knowledge of thought transference from Pig to Doc Dominowski. Omits Sophie's urging Frankie to look at her. 218

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10 cont'd. 7 cont'd. Changes Sophie's age from twenty-nine to twenty-six years. Omits Frankie's dream of a supposedly dead German soldier and his pursuit. Omits paragraph of description of Sophie's mental wanderings.

11 8 Expands description of Antek's poetry. Changes Everett Scott to Everett Somebody. Adds description of Pig's odor. Adds Antek's insults to Pig. Omits description of Pig's filth , his conversation with Louie, his lasciviously drinking beer, his liking g irls , the burlesque of his mind. Omits Frankie's preventing Sparrow from giving Shooie a hotfoot. Omits Frankie's asking Sparrow for a dog and Sparrow's sales talk and demonstration of Rumdum. Omits account of Sparrow's old dog- stealing racket.

12 8 Omits Sparrow's account of d ifferent kinds of dogs. Typical of the most extensive revision: from (3) "He cast one hasty glance back at the Tug & Maul as he turned up Frankie's stairs. Frankie was heading across the street toward the Safari with Louie, and Pig was standing on the curb behind them, waiting for someone to help him across." to (^t) "He waited in Frankie's doorway, with the hound whining against his legs, without knowing just what he was waiting for. Frankie had told him what to do, it was up to him to do it. "Just as he turned toward the stairs he saw Frankie heading across the street toward the S afari. "Behind him Blind Pig waited on the curb for someone, anyone, to help him across. "Inadvertently Sparrow looked around for Fomorowski."

13 9 Rewrites beginning of this section about the room above the Safari, McGantic, and Frankie's s i ckness. Adds paragraph about Louie's liking to watch morphine " h it." 219

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13 cont'd. 9 cont'd. Adds description of a "junkie" really "hooked." Expands Louie's account of "kicking the hab it." Omits Frankie's deep sleep after having the "charge."

14 12 Omits 1st paragraph. Adds that Zygmunt went to law school and practiced for three months before being disbarred. Typical of increased specificity: from (3) "while the sour looking insurance adjusters wouldn't spend penny-one" jj>n the poor for ChristmasJ to (4) "while the sour-looking insurance adjusters send greeting-cards in unsealed envelopes bearing half-rate postage." Omits paragraph of Zygmunt's advice to a patient still woozy from the anesthetic. Adds Zygmunt's charging Frankie $150 to get a drunken driving charge dismissed. Adds 'Tor the second time Zygmunt collected [Sophie-] was in the chair."

15 12 Adds description of Sophie, whose arms have grown flabby and legs, thin.

16 13 S imilar sect ions.

17 13 Page numbering is inaccurate, I believe, for there is no break between secs. 16 and 17. The content of 16 and 17 closely parallels that of 13. Reintroduces Sophie's tantrum at Frankie's not being present to help her upstairs. She tries and fa lls ; Vi then helps her. She longs for Frankie and is jealous of Vi, Frankie, and Sparrow. Adds Sophie's accusing Frankie of wishing that she had been killed rather than become crippled. Changes Sophie's favorite singer from Perry Como to Dick Haymes.

18 14 Omits V i's tale of Sparrow's lies to her, e .g ., that, from Kentucky, he is in Chicago to open a new race track. 220 Relates to Vers ion k Vers ion ^ Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

18 cont'd. ]k cont'd. Omits scene of Sparrow's being thrown out of a restaurant for not paying the b i l l. Changes speaker from Vi to Sophie of '"That's what they call syko-ology . . . .'" 15 Adds paragraph at end of section: "Yet inwardly had remained appalled by the precariousness of [Sparrow's] position. He began to sense that playing the clown for the Saloon Street aces might not always gain their leniency."

19 16 Adds passage about Stash's wish to sleep in the broom closet. 17 Adds Sophie's opinion of Molly: " 'I knew here [sic] when she was fourteen 'n goin' out with every Tom, Dick and Harry who'd ask her. 111 Omits J ailer's te llin g Drunkie John that Mol lie had not been around for two days and John's reply that he would stay at the J ailer's anyway. Adds paragraph of conversation in which John tells Molly all he wants is to kick her.

20 17 Changes some of the description of shadows to talk about the carnival of cars. Adds a record being played repeatedly: "Dream train please carry me back/ Dream tr a in , stay on the right track." Adds description of shadows. Adds Sophie's laughing at Frankie when he crawls to pick up china fragments. Adds his asking her not to laugh and her taunting reply. Expands description of the crippled city. Changes song Sophie sings from (3) "' It's only paper moon/ Under £ cardboard sky" 1 to (A) " 'Oh you crazy moon?/ Look what you done. "' Changes time from August to September.

18 Typical expansion: from (3) "And the beating of a single fan timed to the players' troubled hearts." to (4) "The dealer placed a new deck in front of Schwiefka for cutting and, while Schwiefka cut, took time to wind his wristwatch carefully; as if setting it to keep time, this whole long night to come, to the players' troubled hearts." Adds insults between Louie and Sparrow about their births. 221

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21 cont'd. 18 cont'd. Becomes more specific: Not "Someone" but Drunkie John has a bottle. Changes date when Louie was supposed to have been dead from 1931 to 1921 and the current date from 19^9 to 19^+7- He was shot in the head not nineteen but twenty-six years ago. As directed in 18, deletes some of Louie's remi n iscences. Changes Wardenga to Frank the Enforcer. Expanded speech about him made not by "somebody" but by Drunkie John. Omits paragraph giving background of Bird Dog. Omits Meter-Reader's notion of being a ventriloquist. Omits description of Blind Pig. Omits discussion about Louie's and Sparrow's lack of homelands. Omits Louie's speech that the flashlight pencil battery would not last ten minutes. Omits long passage about Louie's past. Changes Louie's singing " ' I used to work in Chicago/ In a_ big department store'" to Sparrow's discourse on businessmen. Omits some of the insults traded by Louie and Sparrow. Adds two short paragraphs from sec. 19 in 3rd draft about a new player's coming to Schwiefka's.

22 20 Adds opening paragraph, "The only time Frankie saw Drunkie John, of late, was at Schwiefka's table. For the Jailer had gotten rid of him at last and Mol lie-0 lived on alone in the room she had once shared." Adds Molly's giving money to John, who has now left her for the bottle, when the Jailer is not present to protect her. Adds Sparrow's scorn of Frankie's prowess with women. Omits M ollie's singing " 'This is a great big city/ There's a mi11ion things to see. •" Omits part of the song Mol lie plays on record-player: "better save your money/ ' cause everythin' is movin' too fa s t." Adds Molly's imitation of girls at the Safari. Adds love scenes between Frankie and Molly. Adds Frankie's consideration of going to Mass. 222

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23 19 Adds introductory paragraphs about Frankie's regaining health and confidence with Mo 11y 1s he 1p. Typical expansion: from (3) "Since that time there came a moment every night, right before the suckers started knocking, when Frankie looked uneasily at Louie and said: 'I call the hands. What I say goes. That's how it's always been 'n that's how it's goin' to stay 'n nobody's goin' to change i t . ' He sappesed that took the funny business out of the fix e r's head." to {k) "Since that time there came a moment every night, some time before the f ir s t suckers started knocking, when Frankie would look uneasily at Louie and say, 'I call the hands. What I say goes. That's how it's always been ‘n that's how it's gonna stay 'n nobody's gonna change i t . ' He told Louie that exactly like some sergeant had once told it to him when he'd questioned an order. It had worked on Private Majcinek. So ex-private Majcinek assumed it worked on the fix er's narrow head."

2k 19 Omits much of Frankie's nostalgic reminiscence about "the old days." Adds paragraph of Frankie's s e lf­ accusations about Sophie and his a ffa ir with Molly. Expands Frankie's comparison of train's cough to man's cough when he is burdened with the "monkey." Expands account of Frankie's approaching s i ckness.

25 21 Omits birthday song, Sophie's belief that Schwiefka's crowd is playing cards next to her, Sophie's description of Louie, and Sophie's belief that Bednar is coming for one of the players and that they are all diseased. Adds to Sophie's imagining that she lives in a "looney bin" and to her description of "patients." As directed, omits passage on time. Adds Sophie's assertion that Frankie is responsible for her not being able to bear a ch i 1d. 223 Relates to Vers ion k Vers ion ji Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

25 cont'd. 21 cont'd. Omits paragraph which says that Sophie would h it Vi if she said that Sophie lost the strength in her legs to make Frankie devote himself to her. Adds paragraph about the Jailer's te llin g someone he has no rooms available.

26 22 Omits Vi's hesitation at retrieving Stash from the open window. Adds from later in 22 Stash's bringing home stale food and his sleeping in the broom closet. Omits Stash's becoming drunk again and V i's determination to use these incidents as grounds for divorce. Adds Stash's sneaking to rip off calendar page. Changes date from Halloween to "pre- Christmas" time. Change: Vi teases Stash, now with her breast, not hai r. Changes Budweiser signs to High-Life signs. Expands Owner's conversation with Sparrow about being drunk and disorderly. Adds paragraph about Peter Schwabatski as night watchman at desk. Changes the approach of spring to the approach of Christmas. Changes some English words spoken by Stash to Polish ones: "grocer" and "butcher" to rzeznik and korzenny. Adds Peter's eyeing the Sandwich Battle ruckus. Adds last paragraph, "It was better than no love at a ll." ("Love" is written over "marriage.")

27 23 Adds introductory paragraph about Frankie's not stopping by Molly's for three days and about his again having his last " fix ." Adds Molly's accusing Frankie of having another "fix." Rewrites dialogue. Both expands and compresses ideas that remain essentially the same, e.g., those pertaining to Frankie's responsibility for Sophie's mental breakdown. Molly tries to convince Frankie that Sophie was unbalanced before the accident. Expands passage about no one's trusting Frankie. 224

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28 24 Changes Louie's age from fifty-o n e to f if t y and his behavior from that of a twenty-two- year-old to that of a twenty-one-year-old. Changes f r e e Corner Tap to Four Corner Tap. Changes Soltis to Red Laflin. Changes Racine Street Station to Saloon Street Station.

29 25 Changes details about Sparrow and Frankie a fte r the murder. In 29 they do not look at Louie's body. Adds Frankie's and Sparrow's conversation about the lucky dollar.

30 26 Change: Stash is in ja i l th irty days at 26th & Calif, in 3rd version; five days at 28th & C alif, in 4th. Changes Stash's refusal to sleep on couch to his refusal to eat day-old pumpernickel. Adds Sparrow's saying that he brought mattress for Stash. Omits Sparrow's speech that Stash says he is Vi's husband. Adds Vi's declaration that changes have to be made in the household. Stash agrees: she should get a job. Omits V i's fear that he would quit his job and his refusal to wash dishes. Omits passage in which Stash asserts that he is boss.

30 27 Omits conversation between Sparrow and Vi about Frankie's using paper plates since the dish-breaking episode and about Pig's visiting Frankie, Omits V i's opinion that Louie's death is good and that Pig's would be, too. Rearranges dialogue about Stash's tearing pages off the calendar and about getting him ready for the party. Slightly changes some content of the d ialogue. Adds final paragraph, "And that was as far as Violet and the punk ever did get in resolving the problem of having a husband in the home. Had it not been for chance and an icy pane, Old Stash might well have driven them both to work." ("Home" is typed over "house.") 225 Relates to Vers ion b Vers ion 2 Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

31 28 Changes Bird-Dog’s g ift to Meter-Reader1s. Omits paragraph, "And as it turned out [Umbrella Man] was about the only one who didn't make trouble for somebody that night." Omits Frankie's reminding Antek that Louie le ft an $18 bar b i l l. Omits Antek's loss of interest in Louie's death. Adds paragraph in which everyone except Stash gets congratulated. Change: Now Sparrow, not Bird-Dog, teases Meter-Reader. Omits paragraph in which a drunken man at the party says to Frankie, "'You done just right, Dealer. I would of done just the same."1 Omits the sentence Stash shouts when looking at the Christmas tree, " ' Gwizadka tarn niebue. '" P artially changes lis t of people at party. Changes V i's song to Sparrow from (3) 111 Let me be your l i t t l e sweetheart/ I ' l l be much obi iqed to you111 to (b) 111 Let me tel 1 you Laddy/ Though _l_ think you' re perfect ly swel 1 / My heart belongs to Daddy/ Da-a dee, da-a dee, da- adee. '" Adds passage in which Kvorka te lls Frankie that Louie has been found with his neck broken. Frankie rebuffs Kvorka's "favor." Changes time of party from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve. Omits paragraph in which Mol lie wishes either that she had a home or that someone would call her room home. Slight but important change: 28 talks about "the baby" (Mol lie 's and Frankie's); 31 about her wanting a child. There is no evidence here in version b that Molly is pregnant. Adds Frankie's visit to Molly, during which he te lls her that he is being chased by the police. He confesses the murder to her.

32 29 Changes race track from Monmou' to Santa An i ta . Adds Sophie's speech, " ' I t wasn't so good as te [sic] dances we used to go to, was it, Frankie?"' Omits his asking her to rub his back and her reply. 226

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32 cont'd. 29 cont'd. Changes Sophie's humming from (3) '“ It's on 1y £ paper moon/ Under £ cardboard sky'" to (4) "'You're gonna miss your big fat mamma one of these days.'" Example of typical elaboration and increasing specificity: from (3) " It was cold in the l i t t l e room." to (k) "In the icy dark the streetlamp's frosty glow lay like hoar across bed and dresser and wheelchair." Omits (because of missing page) Frankie's confession to Sophie that he takes morphine.

33 Frankie dreamily realizes that Antek's cat knows (about his addiction or the murder?). He hears Molly cry out in sleep. He believes that Sophie knows about Molly but not about everything.

3*f 30 Omits Frankie's feeling beaten by Sophie. Adds Antek's conversation with Meter-Reader about not letting "'th e same guy hook me twice in • • • • Adds Frankie's waiting for Sparrow. Adds Frankie's thoughts about Kvorka, Umbrella Man, Bednar, Louie, Molly, and Sparrow. He realizes that he must warn Sparrow about spending Louie's money conspicuously, as Molly said she heard that he had been doing. Changes some details of Frankie's imagining that all things would be all right. Omits Frankie's speech about changing himself and a paragraph of exposition about Sparrow's need for "straightening up." Adds Frankie's g rillin g Sparrow about having money, Sparrow's acquitting himself. Omits Frankie's talking to himself about "'getting in deeper . . . .'" Adds Frankie's te llin g Pig that the peddler has a good sense of direction some nights. Reverses order of topics in Frankie- Sparrow conversation about Frankie's threat to Sparrow and Sparrow's wish to be a wind blowing up a woman's s k irt.

35 31 Adds at beginning two paragraphs setting the mood for conversation between Frankie and Sparrow in the Tug & Maul. 227 Relates to Vers ion b Vers ion j} Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

35 cont'd. 31 cont'd. Dialogue referring to Molly changes s1i ghtly. Changes Biltmore to Pilsudski theater. Adds Sparrow's counseling Frankie that Louie did not have a relative but did have many men to whom he owed money.

36 31 Quite similar passages.

37 32 Completely rewrites most of f ir s t two pages about Frankie's fancies in ja il, the legends on the walls, and the other inmates. Nearly doubles the length of 32. Reintroduces Crash Kolkowski, Dago Mary, and the nude Chicago judge in picture and slogan. Rearranges the “All women are diseased" slogan. Inserts here some of the details at the beginning of 32. Adds at the end of section Frankie's assertion that he and Molly will always stick together.

38 3b Adds description of the holiday air that surrounds a show-up. Includes some prisoners not in 3^, e.g ., the cab thief and Betty Lou; omits some prisoners who are in 3b. Rearranges dialogue, e .g ., here uses passage about a young thief that appears at the beginning of 3b. Because some of 3^ is missing, adds several cases. 35 Omits fir s t ha If-page of 35° 36 Omits beginning of 36. Secs. 38 and 36 end differently: 38 omits the purse snatcher.

39 37 Uses only the last line of 37, “A tousled, square-faced blond with a tranquil air . . . ." in reference to Frankie. Continues with Bednar's g rillin g Frankie about the theft of irons and about being a drug addict. 38 Changes time Frankie has been out of army from six months to one year. 228

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39 cont'd. 38 cont'd. This section in version 4 ends before 38 of 3rd version. Ends with Bednar's not having heart to face more prisoners. In the 3rd he faces another criminal accused of pulling a f i reboxo

4o 37, 38 In all of these show-up sections, rewrites and rearranges much of version 3* Adds new cases more often than omits old ones. In 40, e .g ., adds the preacher who says, "'We are all members of one another.'" Sec. 40 expands the captain's feeling of guilt. Both 40 and 38 conclude, "The captain was impaled."

39 Changes Frankie's dream of dealing to Louie with Mol lie watching to a dream of dealing to Bednar with Louie watching. Slightly changes dialogue between Frankie and doctor about Frankie's "kicking the habit." Adds passage about Applejack Katz and his making beer in his c e ll. Adds response of inmates to exhibition by one of them who need a " fix ." Adds conversation between Applejack Katz and Frankie about the "applejack." Adds Frankie's desire to see Molly, to have a v is ito r. Expands description of prisoners who are neither good nor bad, those who have reason to care about the future.

42 39 Adds Applejack Katz's account of time in deadlock. Changes unnamed prisoner's song from (3) "How many times/ Have you said 'J_ love you' / How many times have you said: ' I ' l l be tru e 1?'" to (4) " 'Why must _l_ be to r-mented/ By just a dream of you?'" Adds paragraph about Applejack's singing and expecting to "beat the state." Adds Frankie's confession to Applejack that " 'I got the second paw o f f .'"

43 40 Molly, not Violet, visits Frankie. Much of the conversation in 43 and 40 is the same although Molly does not talk about Sparrow's remorse. She says that she is " 'ju s t liv in ' around.'" Sec. 43 is much shorter than 40. 229

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44 41 Changes Bonarue to Applejack. Adds Applejack's advice to Frankie not to take nembutol. He te lls how gage works, asks Frankie to get him some nutmeg, and says that he w ill never again "make the street." Adds a guard's directing Applejack and Frankie to Little Lester's cell. Adds introduction of Lester, emphasizing how he likes to make people hate him. Adds Lester's attempt to sell a pack of Bull Durham to Frankie and Applejack. Omits paragraph about Lester's date with the electric chair. Adds explanation of how Applejack knows that a visitor to Lester is a newspaper reporter. Adds Frankie's agreement with this explanation. Adds Frankie's calling Lester a "loudmouth." Changes time in which Frankie learned card tric k from twenty to ten years. Adds Frankie's wanting to show Lester another card trick. Changes time Frankie sees Lester with guards from September to A p ril. Omits Frankie's wishing Lester good luck.

45 42 Changes time when Lester exercises in prison yard from October to A p ril. Changes, therefore, description of season. Changes legend "Pulaski Coal" to "BUDNITZ COAL/ A A jjficj HOT BUY/ One Price to A il." Changes legend "Buy Delta Coal." to "RUSHMORE COAL/ Cheapest of A11." Adds three paragraphs about Terrible Tommy O'Connor, s t ill at large since 1920 when he was sentenced to hang. Adds two short paragraphs about the near completion of Applejack's brew.

46 42 At beginning of 46 expands part of 42 concerning Lester's shoelaces. Frankie wonders what would happen if they would break. Omits a paragraph describing Lester, "A man like any man . . . ." 230

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46 cont'd. 42 cont'd. Omits the prison doctor's feeling himself grow pale. Adds final paragraph to 46: "For each man knew the hour. And each man knew the day."

47 43 Adds Frankie's obsession about Lester's shoelaces. Had he tied them, e.g.? Frankie learns that he had not worn shoes under the t i ghts. After giving various accounts of Lester's death, adds final paragraph, "And on [sic] one would ever be able to prove a thing, under one moon or another, by flatnosed Frankie Machine."

48 44 Changes season from autumn to summer. Adds short paragraph, a typical Algren one, about Frankie's breaking the narcotics hab i t . Extensively rewrites 44, about Frankie's sickness after playing ball without wearing a sh irt. He has a nightmare about the monkey. The doctor warns Applejack against giving Frankie anything but water. Applejack encourages Frankie, who calls out for Molly and dreams of folding bundles of newspapers. Adds final conversation between Frankie and Applejack about Frankie's leaving and Applejack's beer. Now Frankie does not dream of Father Novotny, who wanted to give him a pair of bowling shoes.

49 45 Changes time from October to September. Adds that in jail Frankie defeated McGantic and the "monkey." Adds paragraph about his recovery. Changes Frankie's recollection from Louie's to someone's saying, "'When a cripple leads a cripple it doesn't amount to much.'" Expands passage on Peter Schwabatski. Because of missing pages, omits Jailer's conversation about Louie with Frankie, returned from j a i l . Omits Frankie's reunion with Sophie, Violet's plea for Frankie's reconciliation with Sparrow, Frankie's refusal, and his determination to look for a job playing drums. Omits Sophie's lie that she has poisoned Rumdum. Omits Frankie's need either to see Mol lie or to have a " fix ." 231 Relates to Vers ion 4 Vers ion £ Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

50 A fragmentary section that contrasts the healthy, happy people in advertisements with the real people of the Tug & Maul.

51 A fragmentary section in which Frankie spits on the pictures of Antek's wife, daughter, and mother. Antek returns the insult by hitting Frankie in the face with a towel. Antek tells Frankie that he is wrong in believing that Sparrow robbed Louie.

52 46 Omits passage supporting the generalization that "Outwardly everything was the same . . . ." Begins with Frankie's not te llin g Sophie that he would quit Schwiefka's to become a drummer but he has lost the feel of the drums. His loneliness increases. Omits Frankie's rebuff to Antek, who intercedes for Sparrow, who again wants his job at Schwiefka's. Omits much of the passage about Sophie's scrapbook. Change: Sophie wonders why Vi, not Pig, no longer comes to see her. Frankie answer her in 52. Adds that Sophie believes that against her are all of her friends, including a woman down the hall who repeatedly plays the record, "Oh you crazy moon/ Look what you done." Changes Sophie's song from (3) " ' Let me be your 1it t le sweetheart/ I ' l l be much ob1iged to you.'" to (4) " 'Toot- toot- toots ie , Goodbye/ Toot-toot-tootsie, Don't cry- . '" Adds Sophie's question to Frankie, " ‘What do you think of the A. F„ of L?'" Adds Frankie's reply. Places here from e arlie r in 46 the episode in which Sophie traces the word "Perdition" on the windowpane as sirens sound. Vi reports that the cause is only a short-circuit by the Fish Furniture Store's basement. Sophie is disappointed that the entire Loop is not burning.

53 4-7 Expands by adding bedposts' comment about Sparrow. Omits paragraph about V i's leaving her door open. 232

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53 cont'd. h~] cont'd. Adds V i's considering Sparrow an expensive toy and her missing Stash. Sparrow rebukes her. Adds V i's favorite tune: "All of me/ Why not take a l 1 of me." Changes time Sparrow lives with Vi from six to twelve weeks. Omits Sparrow's thought that Louie's roll had been spent rapidly. Adds that Vi hears Sparrow leave and is glad. Adds Sparrow's wish that he had rolled Louie and that Frankie would believe that he had not. Changes newspaper from The Sun-Times to the Tribune. Replaces old sign in the Tug & Maul, "Our cow died/ We don 11 need your bul1 with the new slogan, "Once £ rat always £ rat.11 Omits Sparrow's thoughts about spending Lou i e ' s ro11. Adds his thoughts about spending Stash's Christmas bonus and insurance money. Here omits Kvorka's forbidding his brother, Umbrella Man, to participate in any poker game in which Frankie is not dealing, for Frankie is the only one who gives Umbrella Man protection. Uses this information in another paragraph. Adds that Pig is wearing Louie's two-toned shoes. Sparrow wonders if Pig le ft Louie even his socks. Changes Pig's juke box selection from (3) 1 ' I'd love to be in Loveland/ V/ith a girl 1 i ke you." to (4) "This is a great b ig c? ty/ There's a mi 11 ion things to see." Omits and changes slightly some of the dialogue between Pig and Sparrow about Sparrow's needing money, his break with Frankie, his lost job at Schwiefka's, his previous treatment of Pig, and his not dealing at Kippel's. Omits Sparrow's hesitation in talking about Kippel's. Adds Sparrow's blaming Frankie for his troub1e,

Sh L& Changes newspaper from The Sun- Times to The Daily News. Sec. 5^ greatly elaborates Sparrow's emotions at delivering the morphine for Pig, his feelings of regret as a culprit. 233

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54 cont'd. 48 cont'd. Unlike 48, in 54 Sparrow does take an elevator. The shifty-eyed operator motions him into the car, automatically stops at the third flo o r, and points to the room designated by Pig. Change: Sparrow finds no sand-filled container in which to put the bottle of morphine. Greatly elaborates and rearranges the details of Sparrow's reluctant preparation to give Frankie a "fix." Adds Frankie's suggestion that Sparrow needs one, too. Omits discussion of Frankie's quitting Schwiefka's to become a drummer and of having "the monkey on your back." Replaces omitted passage with Sparrow's giving Frankie the "fix " according to the dealer's directions. New: Frankie says that he is not himself but is instead Sgt. McGantic. Discussion of Frankie's becoming a drummer. Effects of the drug. Frankie te lls Sparrow that he has a job for him as a watchman for pioneers on alert for Indians. Frankie slaps Sparrow with a deck of cards when Sparrow wants to leave. Sparrow says that he did not roll Louie and that he knows that he "done bad" by running when Frankie got caught in the iron robbery. Frankie says that he hit Sparrow because of a "streetcar doublecross." (They bet on transfer numbers.) Frankie wants Sparrow to stay to hear him talk. Aware of Frankie's weakness, Sparrow realizes that no longer need he be afraid of Frankie. Long monologue by Frankie te llin g what it means to be a "junkie." Sparrow humors Frankie as he talks about the monkey. Frankie offers Sparrow a quarter grain, to make them buddies again. Sparrow refuses. Expands apprehension of Frankie and Sparrow by Bednar and Kvorka. Includes Frankie's babble on way to police station. 234

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55 49 Changes Frankie's bond from $1,000 to $500. Adds Frankie's conversation with Zygmunt about not having a job. Adds paragraph about Frankie's two friends, one lost (Molly) and one under heavy bond (Sparrow).

56 50 Adds in Frankie's dream that Molly must be back with Drunkie John. Omits Frankie's thinking that Mol lie is putting on an act of being down and out. Changes speaker from "the dark woman" to Molly herself. The dark woman in 50 talks about Mol lie , with whom men do whatever they want. Molly in 56 talks about a young g irl. Omits Frankie's wondering why life has turned out badly for him. Adds Frankie's decision that Bednar is thinking about Louie. Omits Frankie's self-analysis that culminates, "'My big trouble is bein' myself."1 Rearranges some of the final details of 50. Omits Frankie's wanting Mol lie .

57 51 Omits more than one page at beginning of 51 about what the query room means to different people. Condenses 51. Omits, e .g ., the account of the windows' being washed during the compaign of Big B ill Thompson. Omits trusty's sweeping room. Omits description of policemen. Uses a legend on query room wall e arlie r in 57 than in 51: "This is my f ir s t a f f a ir . So please be kind." Change: Guilt is fashioned in the query room not out of the blind man's testimony but out of the stray steerer's. Changes paragraph about Bednar's having another o fficer identify Sparrow as the man to a paragraph about Sparrow's waiting in the query room a long time for Bednar. Adds final paragraph, " It was always November in the query room."

58 52 Omits a 1it t le of the dialogue between Bednar and Sparrow about the la tte r's mentality. Omits the f ir s t time that Sparrow te lls the captain that he does not want to go (to ja il or insane asylum?). 235 Relates to Vers ion k Vers ion j} Remarks Sect ion Sect ion

58 cont'd. 52 cont'd. Changes captain's first approach to get Sparrow talking about Louie's murder. Changes conversation and exposition. In 57, e.g., the captain quotes Frankie as saying that it is Sparrow's turn to do time; then the captain admits that, if asked, Frankie would speak in this way. Elaborates the effects of an unsolved murder during an election year. Omits speeches about Sparrow's serving sentences concurrently. Changes Biltmore to L ittle Pulaski theater.

59 Account of Frankie's being an outcast, now that he is "hot," "on the needle," and losing his touch as a dealer. He is ill at ease at Schwiefka's, especially when Schwiefka asks if he inquired at Kippel's about a job. Each night Frankie goes to Pig for a " fix ." Frankie fears that Sparrow will implicate h im. Frankie meditates on everyone's desire to be something that he is not, Frankie gets meaning from the street lights. Even the green light has now turned trai tor.

60 53 Omits a ll of the dialogue between Sparrow and the Rev. Easter(man). k Instead uses dialogue between Sparrow and the cab driver, some of which repeats the dialogue between Frankie and the cab driver in sec. 5 of this version. Adds Sparrow's preoccupation with his own worri es. Changes Old Crow whiskey to Old McCall. Omits Frankie's speech about a Pittsburgh man. (Frankie's does not appear in 60.)

61 53 Adds Sparrow's remembering Frankie's golden arm. Adds cry of girl being brought to j a i l : "'A int anybody on nr£ side?"1 Adds Sparrow's answer that no one is. She is on her own; he is on his. Adds paragraph of exposition about "no man was on the side of men." Adds quotation from 2nd draft about a prostitute's being pulled from the river. Adds the ja ile r 's coming to see what the cabbie is talking about. CHAPTER V I

VERSION 4 1

A d efin itive description of fragmentary version 4* is impossible to make because missing pages prevent correlation with any other version or fragment at Ohio State. Furthermore, I found only three pages of this version in the Illinois Institute of Technology collection and they duplicate pages held at Ohio State (see p. 290). Clearly late in the genesis of the novel, fragment 4^ was composed a fte r version 4 and before 2 fragment 4 .

One may show that fragment 4* was composed after the fourth d raft, for the book more closely follows the fragment than it does version 4.

For example:

Vers ion 4

Something tugged so hard at her foot it wakened her: the army blanket, fa llin g across her feet, had tugged at her toes. Down both sides of Division Street the occasional arc-lamps burned and it was late, so late, there should be a light step on the long dark s ta ir, and someone should cry out that the night was done. (sec. 25)

Version 4^

Something tugged just hard enough at her foot to waken her: the army blanket had fallen across her toes. Yet she fe lt a secret message in being awakened so: someone was trying to te ll her she must not sleep tonight. Down both sides of Division Street the occasional arc lamps burned and it was late, so late, there should be a light step on the long dark s ta ir, someone should cry out that the night was too long. (sec. 5)

236 237

Book

Something tugged just hard enough at her foot to waken her; the army blanket had fallen across her toes. Yet she sensed a secret message in being awakened so: some­ one was trying to te ll her she must not sleep tonight.

Down both sides of Division Street the occasional arc lamps burned and it was late, so late, there should be a light step on the long dark stair and someone to cry out that the night was too long. (1 23)

The diction and structure of the fir s t sentence, the addition of the

sentence beginning "Yet she," the diction of the final clause, and the

paragraphing all demonstrate the greater a ffin ity of the book to fragment

h-' than to version b.

One may consider the following parallel passage as proof that

1 2 fragment k was composed before fragment b- :

■ 1 Fragment br

Years of the soft and wild ancestral songs: Chlopek sung in the evergreen's light, and on the tree's very top a single star to which all good children must say: Gwi zadka Tam Nieb i e. (sec. 2)

Fragment

Years of the soft and wild ancestral songs: Chlopek sung in the evergreen's light. And on the tree's very top a single star to which all good children must say: Gwi zadka tarn na N i eb ie . (sec. 10)

Book

Years of the soft and wild ancestral songs: " Chlopek" sung in the evergreen's light. And on the tree's very top a single star to which all good children must say: "Gwizadka tarn na niebie." (I 12) 2 We see that the Polish quotation in the book follows that in k and differs

from that in fragment Or one may consider these excerpts: 238

Fragment 4_L

"I never_run for s t r e e t - c a r s [ F r a n k ie hadj had the sheer brass to te ll |J>ophieJ once after standing her up for half an hour in front of the Pulaski .... (sec. 2) o Fragment 4 brassbround "I never run for street-cars," he'd had the sheer-brass the year she was seventeen, nerve to te ll her, enee afte r standing her up for half an hour in front of the Pulaski .... (sec. 10)

Book

"I never run for streetcars," he'd had the brassbound nerve to te ll her the year she was seventeen, after standing her up for half an hour in front of the Pulaski. (I 12)

Here we see fragment 4^ making changes which the book retains.

This fragment is composed of 45 pages, all of them carbon copies on yellow copy paper. All measure 8^ inches by 11 inches. None of the versos contains copy. Page numbers at top center use two patterns: some are preceded and followed by hyphens, e. g . , - 106—; others are only followed by a period, e .g ., 192. Revisions within the draft appear in both pencil and ink.

The extant pages of this draft are 106-123, 192-194, 204-205, and 239-260. I have assigned numbers to these pages as follows:

_1_: 106-108 204-205

2: 108-116 1' 239-246

l : 116-123 8: 246-260

123 2= 260

192-194

Although pages in the fourth draft that relate to the fir s t three sections of this fragment are missing, the fir s t sixteen pages of fragment 4 1 239 o relate directly to fragment 4 . Sec. 1 is nearly identical to sec. S,

version 4 . Both discuss Louie's giving Frankie a "fix "; however, the

incomplete sec. 1 does not begin until after Frankie has taken the morphine

and now is reacting to it. 2 Sec. 2 begins like sec. 10, version 4 , with Sophie's remembrances

of her courtship with Frankie. After continuing past sec. 10 to te ll of

her mock pregnancy that occurs in sec. 11, version 4^, sec. 2 goes on to

tell about her parents' disgust at her dating Frankie and her upbraiding

him for dating a prostitute, Lily Splits. It reveals his indifference to

their casual marriage, Sophie's fa ilu re to f u l f i l l her resolve to make a man of Frankie, and his guilty conscience, "the disease of his crippled joy."

Sec. 3 is the accident scene. It begins a l i t t l e before sec. 12, 2 version 4 , with which it is nearly identical until it adds nearly two pages relating the after-effects on Sophie.

Beginning with sec. 4, however, version 4^ parallels sections in 2 version 4, but no longer parallels sections in version 4 . Sec. 4 relates

to the beginning of the fir s t paragraph of sec. 14, version 4. It introduces

Zygmunt.

Sec. 5 relates to sec. 25, version 4. Both sections begin alike but sec. 5 omits Sophie's description of the dignified "tenants" coming

to the rooming house that she thinks is a hospital. In both she wonders

how she will get the wheelchair into Purgatory, where she wants to go to

see Frankie. In both she takes a corrupt pleasure in reasoning that Frankie must stay with her now that she is a cripple. In both she dreams about a distant cousin, Olga, who died in Sophie's childhood. In both she feels 240 depressed, although she now realizes a perverted triumph before hearing

Frankie return.

Sec. 6 begins with the third from the last paragraph of sec. 3, version 4. After an account of Frankie's ignoring Sophie for a month when they were teenagers, sec. 6 continues past sec. 22 with Frankie's nostalgic reminiscences of "the old days before the old days."

Sec. 7, similar to sec. 30, version 4, discusses Stash, newly returned from ja il , as now the boss of his house, much to the dismay of

Violet and Sparrow.

Sec. 8, which relates to sec. 31, version 4, describes the New

Year's Eve party, the drunken h ila rity there, and Kvorka's warning to

Frankie, who then goes to see Holly. The content of these sections is essentially the same, although paragraphing and diction sometimes d iffe r.

Sec. 9 relates to the beginning of sec. 32, version 4. It announces that the party is over.

Fragment 4^ has a rather curious position among the typescripts of The Man with the Golden Arm. When there are no parallei passages in version 4^, it is significant as the typescript closest to the copy text at Ohio State. When it is followed by version 4 , it represents what may have been a longer intermediary draft between version 4 and 4 . Occasionally it shows Algren particularizing a detail and strengthening a transition.

It means, therefore, that Algren rewrote p ro lific a 11y , that he insisted upon a reevaluation of his earlier writing. CHAPTER V I I

VERSION b2

Fragmentary version b2, the final extant draft, is usually identical to the fourth version, fragmentary version 4^ , and the book.

Occasionally, however, it incorporates changes made in the fourth draft and infrequently adds changes of its own. Where there is a difference

19 9 between versions b, b , and 4 , usually version b^ is the closest to the book, and therefore can be assumed to have followed version b and 4^ in order of composition.

These sentences demonstrate typical variances among the versions.

Vers ion 4

And that there was no one, nor any way, to help an old sad frayed and weary Westside junkie at a ll. (sec. 12)

Vers ion b2

There are so few ways to help old sad frayed and weary Westside junkies. (sec. 14)

Book

There are so few ways to help old sad frayed and weary West Side junkies. (I 11)

Vers ion b^

In twenty seconds the abandoned Ashland Avenue midnight was thronging with sprouts who should have been in bad for hours and windows began blazing with light as if they'd a ll been sittin g around in the dark just waiting for an accident to happen .... (sec. 3)

241 zbz 0 Version b

In twenty seconds the abandoned Ashland Avenue midnight was thronging with sprouts who should have been in bed for hours and windows began blazing with light as if everyone fehey-had had been sittin g around in the dark waiting for an accident to happen .... (sec. 17)

Book

In twenty seconds the abandoned Ashland Avenue midnight was thronging with sprouts who should have been in bed for hours and windows began blazing with light as if everyone had been sittin g around in the dark waiting for an accident to happen .... (I 13)

(Unfortunately for our purposes, no section incorporating changes can be 1 o traced through versions b, b , b , and the book.)

Fragment b^ is close enough to the book to be the setting copy.

The minimal changes between it and the book, e .g .,the change from

"Westside" to "West Side," undoubtedly were made by a copy editor at the

Doubleday firm. The change from "they'd a ll" to "everyone had" in the 2 second group of sentences emphasizes the book's reliance upon fragment 4 .

The Illin o is Institute of Technology has a complete draft of this version, the single most important typescript in its collection (see pp. 291-296).

Contradictory external evidence makes it possible for us only to speculate about the function of version b . A note typed in the upper le ft corner of page 1 reads, "fm & ms 1-537 end/ OK to copy read and set/ American spelling/ house style/ b/1/bS BE." ("American spelling/ house style" refers to words like "fibre" whose spelling the copy editor Americanized.

The in itia ls "BE" apparently refer to the copy editor who marked the typescript and then typed this note. I have been unable to identify them more sp ecifically.) This note suggests that version 4 is the setting copy. 243

This draft contains, however, no physical evidence that the printer at

the Country Life Press, Garden City, New York, handled it . There are no printer's marks such as galley numbers or rubber stamps. The sheets

contain no holes where they were spindled or lateral folds where the

linotyper creased them to f i t his copyholder. Therefore, the original o pages of version 4 , most of which are in the Illinois Institute collection, must have been retained by the publisher even though they were marked to be set. (Most of the extant carbon pages are at Ohio State.) . That the galley proof perpetuates some of the errors marked by the copy editor in version 4 indicates further that this typescript was not the setting copy. Another copy, in neither of the collections, therefore, must have been the setting copy. o The fragmentary portion of version 4 at Ohio State consists of

92 pages, 48 of which are white, both onion skin and heavier paper, and

44 of which are yellow copy paper. Of these, 83 are carbon copies; 9 are originals. None of the versos contains copy. All pages, measuring

82 inches by 11 inches, contain numerals at top center, some preceded and followed by hyphens, e.g., -47-, and others followed by a period, e.g., 176.

The extremely rare corrections, which appear only in the very early and very late portions of the fragment, are made in ink and pencil.

The extant pages of this fragment are 1-6, 11-12, 14-16, 19-21,

24-43, 45-80, 82 - 96 , 99 , 105- 108 , and 175- 176. I have assigned section numbers to pages of version 4^ as follows:

U 1-6 4: 14-16

2: 11-12 «>: 19-21

2: 12 6: 24 244

1- 24-29 Jl: 65-80

8: 30-32 14: 82-95

i: 32-40 J£: 95-96

10: 40-43 ±6: 99

]±: 45-46 _LZ: 105-108

12: 46-65 JL8: 175-176

ia= 176

These sections closely parallel severa 1 in version 4. which Captain Bednar confronts Frankie and Sparrow, relates to sec. 1, version 4. The differences between the two sections are minimal.

Version 4 reads, for example, "The vet edged back an inch." This fragment reads, "The vet edged back." Whereas version 4 describes

"The dealer's f la t , placid, deadpan phizz," this fragment discusses

"The veteran's f la t , placid, deadpan phizz." The book retains the changes apparent in the fragment.

Sec. 2 relates to sec. 2, version 4, a passage about Frankie's f ir s t finding Sparrow and about Sparrow's loyalty to Frankie, even while the dealer was overseas. Differences, again, are minimal.

In sec. 3, which relates to the beginning of the fir s t paragraph of sec. 3, version b, Frankie w ill not acknowledge that he squints. The fragment omits exposition about Frankie's squint and about his fairness at cards.

Sec. b relates to, and continues past, sec. 3, version b. It also relates to sec. b, version b. The fragment does not contain an account of all of Frankie's tricks. Because of missing pages it omits, for example, his device to make an extra ten dollars when depositing money in a bank. 245

Sec. 5 relates to sec. 4, version 4, but omits the final paragraph of sec. 4. It reads "'[The ways of doing things wilT] get you in trouble the same as the old ways,' Frankie assured the punk glumly." This section contains a discussion of Frankie's tricks, Sparrow's taunts at himself, and Frankie's taunts at him.

Sec. 6 is only a single line, the end of a sentence concluding sec. 6, version 4. It reads, "or twenty days on the Bridewell floor."

The rest of this section is lost.

Sec. 7 of this fragment, like sec. 7, version 4, is an account of the prisoners, of their probable burial as paupers, and of an old "wino" unsuccessfully begging to be remembered.

Sec. 8 of this fragment begins after sec. 8, version 4, but relates to it . The fragment omits the insulting interchange between the ja ile r and the cabbie, begins with Frankie's and Sparrow's conversation about the relative merits of a policeman and a ja ile r , omits more of the cabbie's musings, and then picks up Frankie's preoccupation with a roach fallen into a water bucket. It omits the cabbie's melancholy conversation with Sparrow, a g irl's cry, and the cabbie's next insult to the ja ile r .

It adds Frankie's reply to "somebody down the tier" that Sophie "stinks" and then Frankie's amendment, " 'I got a good [wifej to o ." 1

Sec. 3 s t ill relates to sec. 8, version 4; there is no break 2 designating a new section in the fourth draft as there is in 4 . In sec.

9 Zygmunt secures Frankie's and Sparrow's release from j a i l . After discussing their a b ility to frighten others, Frankie and Sparrow leave the j a i l , with Frankie owing Sparrow twenty slaps on the face because

Sparrow lost a card game to him. 246

In sec. 10, which relates to sec. 9, version 4, Frankie and

Sparrow drink in the Tug & Maul, where they witness Drunkie John's humiliating treatment of Molly Novotny. Frankie tosses her a dime to sing; John becomes enraged.

Sec. 11 continues to give the background of John, a former wrestler, now a d rifte r, an account presumably begun on page 44, missing from this fragment. Sec. 11 relates to sec. 9, version 4.

Lengthy sec. 12 relates to sec. 10, version 4. It reports the nagging banter between Sophie and Frankie that culminates in the dish- breaking scene. The sections are essentially the same, with only an occasional variation in paragraphing and wording.

Sec. 13 parallels almost identically sec. 11, version 4. Sec. 13 extends beyond sec. 11, however, adding further description of filth y Pig, his conversation with Louie, and his lascivious drinking. Then Frankie enters the Tug & Maul, and stops Sparrow from giving a sleeping drunk a

"hot foot." Sparrow next boastfully introduces Frankie to Rumdum, one of the victims of Sparrow's dog-stealing racket which this section discusses.

Sec. 14 parallels sec. 12, version 4, as it continues to talk about

Rumdum, which Frankie wants for Sophie. He asks Sparrow to take the dog to her while he heads for the Safari. Sec. 14 continues by relating to sec. 13, version b. The break between secs. 12 and 13 does not occur in fragment 4^. This passage is the scene in which Louie gives Frankie a

" fix ." Sec. lb extends beyond sec. 13. It depicts Frankie's hunger and sleep, reactions after the "fix," and his conversation with Louie about subjects such as the rising cost of morphine. 247

Sec. 15 has no parallel in version 4. It relates to I 12 in the

book. In sec. 15 Sophie recollects her courtship with Frankie, when they

"carried Easter lamb to Old St. Stephen's for Father Simon's blessing," and ran after mait-hop trucks. Even then Frankie was indifferent to her.

Sec. 16 continues Sophie's recollections; two pages are missing between secs. 15 and 16, Sec. 16, too, does not relate to any section in version 4 but continues to relate to I 12 in the book. Omitting Frankie's promenade with Lily Splits, sec. 16 tells of Sophie's yielding to Frankie

in every skirmish and of her false pregnancy.

Sec. 17, which has no counterpart in version 4, is a part of the accident scene. Relating to the middle portion of I 13 in the book, it portrays the gathering crowd and Frankie's conversations with a l i t t l e girl who gives him chewing gum and with the investigating o ffic e r. It also portrays the photographer whose exploding flash-bulb cuts Sophie.

Sec. 18 relates to the end of sec. 22, version 4. Concerning

Frankie's love for Molly, sec. 18 adds a p a rtia lly ille g ib le line about her not sewing his jacket sleeve w ell. Like sec. 22, it continues with

Frankie again at home when Violet wheels Sophie to Mass. He thinks that his going to Mass might help him, but he sleeps instead.

Sec. 19 relates to the beginning of sec. 23, version 4. The fragment does not contain pages relevant to the latter part of sec. 22.

This passage shows a Frankie who is regaining his strength by freeing himself from the "monkey." Consequently, his confidence as a card dealer returns. His a b ility to resist the sickness comes from Molly.

Some sections also relate to those in fragment 4^. Sec. 14 begins before sec. 1 of 4^ but some of the passages about the "fix " are nearly identical in the two sections. 2^8

Sec. 15 parallels sec. 2 of 4 ', in which Sophie remembers her courtship with Frankie. Sec. 15 ends before sec. 2 does, thereby omitting some of the examples of Frankie's indifference to Sophie.

Sec. 16 relates to several of the latter passages in sec. 2 of ^ , which s till treat the courtship of Frankie and Sophie.

Sec. 17 begins after and ends before sec. 3 of 4 1. Sec. 17, therefore, omits many details of the accident and its aftereffects which sec. 3 tel 1s.

None of the other sections of version relates to any in

This fragmentary version bears careful consideration inasmuch as

it follows the last major draft in the Ohio State collection. Consequently,

it is closer to the book in both content and style than is any other draft.

It is so close that it could have served as the copy text. Unfortunately, however, several pages are missing in the sequence from page 1 through page 176. This version also bears close scrutiny since it contains sections that the fourth draft and version do not. Secs. 15, 16, and 17 comple­ ment the fourth version; secs. 1-13 and 18-19 complement version . CHAPTER VIII

MISCELLANEOUS PAGES

Among the miscellaneous pages at Ohio State are twenty-one short units of consecutively numbered sheets. Most of these 110 pages are carbon copies on yellow copy paper. A few of them are originals on white paper.

The longest of the units is twenty-one pages. They are simply brief attempts at writing passages which later were incorporated, often revised, in the major drafts; or they represent intermediate revisions of passages in the major drafts. Units written early and those written late in the development of the novel correspond to both parts of the book, thereby signifying that throughout the novel's gestation Algren revised portions of the entire novel. He did not complete Part I before revising any of

Part I I . Although these pages are all numbered, arranging them numerically for discussion would be useless. Since they represent both early and late stages of development, a low-numbered page may actually relate to a scene that appears late in the book, for Algren justaposed several scenes during the composition of the novel. I have chosen, therefore, to group consecutive pages in units and then to arrange these units in the order in which they would appear in the novel.

What I call unit 1 consists of four pages relating to I 1. Two page 2's distinguish this group. One of them contains only six lines taken from page 1 and from the other page 2. Internal evidence shows that this unit, which concerns Captain Bednar as he talks with Frankie and Sparrow, was composed very early.

2kS 250

The three pages of unit 2 relate to I 1 and I 3^. Although unit 2 appears to have been composed late, perhaps even near thetime version 4 was w ritten, it does show several pencil changes. It chiefly te lls about the legends and pictures on jail-cell walls.

Another three pages, forming unit 3, parallel I 5 and I 6. This unit, too, is similar to version It contains some of Frankie's and

Sparrow's dialogue when they are in j a i l .

Unit 4, consisting of two pages, relates to I 9. It was written near the time version 3 was composed. In it Frankie fir s t talks with

Mol 1ie.

Unit 5 relates to I 8 and I 9. This eight-page group includes the original and a carbon copy of one of the pages that discuss the home life of Frankie and Sophie. This unit was written shortly after version 4 was composed.

In unit 6, which parallels I 10, Frankie hears Sparrow's sales talk about Rumdum. This three-page group, with many penned alterations, was probably composed near the time the second draft was.

Unit 7, which also relates to I 10, consists of fifteen pages that talk about Pig, Sparrow, and again, Rumdum. It was written near the time that version 3 was.

The rectos of unit 8 relate to I 12. These five pages mainly concern Frankie's indifference to Sophie. The versos relate to II 35. the "Witness Sheet"; to I 6, in which Frankie refuses to help the drowning roach; to II 13. in which Sparrow leaves Vi; and, perhaps, to II 18, in which Frankie dreams of Molly and John. These pages are early ones, written before the fourth draft. 251

The three-page unit 9 gives the background of Zygmunt right after

Frankie's automobile accident. It relates to I 14 and was written shortly

before version k.

Unit 10, consisting of five pages, contains harsh banter between

Sparrow and Kinsella. It relates to I 20. Itwas composed at the time

the first or second draft was written.

Unit 11, composed of six versos of pages in the fir s t version,

relates part of theGreat Sandwich Battle that appears in the book, I 2k.

Algren wrote these pages very early.

Unit 12 relates to I 31. These five pages contain an original and a carbon copy of the same page. The original pages are heavily edited.

Antek is here evicting a drunken man and his g irlfrien d from the Tug &

Maul. This unit was written near the time the second draft was composed.

Unit 13 talks about Little Lester. Its three pages relate to

II 5, II 6, and II 7, and were written near the time the third or fourth draft was written.

Unit 14, which relates to II 13, te lls of Sparrow's leaving Vi and returning to the alleys. The four pages were written at the time or a fte r the third draft was composed.

Unit 15, only two pages, relates to II 21. It te lls of Frankie's musings in which he believes that all men try to be what they are not.

It was written near the time the fourth draft was.

Unit 16 is a five-page group that approximates II 22. However,

in unit 16 the speaker is not the cabbie DeWitt but a preacher, the Rev.

Easterman, who appears by this name only in the second d raft. (One of the notes in pencil in unit 16 calls the preacher "Mr. Doubletalk.") Hence, this unit was written early in the genesis of the novel. 252

The two pages of unit 17 talk about DeWitt, the cabbie in II 23.

A small portion of the unit relates to II 2k. Since the cabbie is fir s t

named in the fourth d raft, this unit must have been composed near the

time version k was.

Unit 18 consists of twenty-one pages. This is a very late

composition relating to II 2k, II 25, and II 26. Here Kvorka warns

Frankie about the police, Frankie flees, the captain feels impaled, and

Sophie sits in meditative reverie after the police do not find Frankie in

the tenement.

In unit 19, which relates to II 29, Sophie is in the hospital.

Conflicting internal evidence suggests that these two pages could have

been composed either early or late.

Unit 20 relates to II 35. These five pages comprise an early

draft of part of the "Witness Sheet." Edited in pencil and pen, they must have been written before version 3.

The final group, unit 21, consists of two drafts of II 36,

"Epitaph: The Man with the Golden Arm." These drafts are identical

except for slight punctuation variants and the division, in one of the

drafts, of one stanza into two. They are both very similar to the book, which preserves the division.

The breadth of these miscellaneous pages is one index of the

scope of Algren's revision. Because both originals and carbon copies

show some editing and because both document Algren's attention to d etail,

th eir v a lid ity as evidence is valuable.

Like the groups of pages, the fifty-four single pages also represent

the novel at its various stages of development. A few are handwritten, 253 suggesting very early composition. For example, the verso of page bj>, version 2, contains a rough draft of the poem beginning "Bongo, bongo, bongo" that appears in the Kitten Klub section of the novel, II 27. The verso of page 216, version 2, contains a few handwritten lines beginning the Great Sandwich Battle, I 2b. Both the recto and the verso of another page contain an early handwritten version of the song "Lili Marlene," which appears in sec. 13, version 2.

Most of the pages, however, are typed. They represent a variety of stages ofthe novel's gestation. Some appear to have been composed very early. For example, one page contains numbers for each of its paragraphs about the Great Sandwich Battle. The verso of page 3^3, version 1, is another early page full of penned revisions of Frankie's thoughts about the past. Another page belonging to the early stage of the novel's gestation is distinguished by a large red X through the interchange between Sparrow and the Chinese waiter.

Among the other pages of this miscellaneous group, several appear to have been written near the time the second draft was composed. Some of these are edited, while others are not. With the exception of one page that talks about the drowning roach, the pages of this stage relate to the la tte r half of the novel.

Most of the pages probably composed near the time the third version was written also relate to the latter part of the novel; however, one is from the early scene in which Frankie returns to Sophie from j a i l . Another concerns their courtship. The majority, nevertheless, treat the show-up,

Sparrow's delivery of morphine to Frankie, and Captain Bednar's inquisition of Sparrow. Only two of these pages show any sort of revision by Algren. 254

Another group of pages clusters around the fourth d raft. Internal

evidence suggests that these pages were composed near the time versions

4, 4^ , and 42 were w ritten. One page begins the Great Sandwich Battle,

while another concludes it. One page chronicles a scene shortly after the

New Year's Eve party. Again most of the pages, however, represent the

latter portions of the novel. They portray the later Sparrow, asking

Frankie to intercede with Schwiefka for a job, playing cards at Kippel's,

and talking with DeWitt in j a i l . One page describes the query room.

Another depicts Frankie's return to Molly's room to find Drunkie John

there kicking her. Two other pages tell of Frankie's suicide.

This conglomerate of miscellaneous pages also includes both the

original and a carbon copy of the F. Scott Fitzgerald sentence placed at

the beginning of Part II of the novel, "Act of Contrition." Included,

furthermore, is an unused title page for Part II, "The Deck is Scattered."

Finally, the versos of version 4 unrelated to the rectos of the same pages

represent merely the fir s t attempts at typing other pages of the fourth

draft. If typing errors marred these attempts, or if Algren chose to

revise, then he sometimes began new pages.

Because of their variety these miscellaneous pages are unwieldy.

As would be expected, they form no continuum convenient for discussion or

analysis. That the majority of them relate to the la tte r half of the novel

seems to me to be more coincidence than absolute proof that Algren rewrote

the last half more than he did the fir s t portion. Certainly the analysis

of the major typescripts and the discussion of the short units belie such

a conclusion. These single pages, however, do suggest that Algren rewrote 255 even small passages of the novel. Like the three long fragments and the short units, these single pages again document the care which Algren lavished on the novel's composition at every step of the way. CHAPTER IX

GALLEY PROOF

The Ohio State collection includes two sets of proof for The

Man with the Go 1 den Arm. One set is uncorrected and is labeled "for

ADVANCE Readers." This set is a bound volume of 255 galley pages, ^ each

measuring 6 7/8 inches by 11 7/8 inches. The pages are numbered

consecutively, 1, 1A, 2, and 2A, for example.The other set is marked.

Its 122 sheets remain unbound. Each of them measures 7 inches by 2k

inches. Machine collation shows that these sets were pulled from the

same typesetting. The bound set is composed of the long galley sheets

cut in half; hence, pages 1 and 1A of the bound set, for example, together

form galley sheet 1 of the uncut proof.

Conspicuous on the fir s t page of the marked set is Nelson Algren's

large, sprawling, penned signature. Although it is ceremonious looking,

internal evidence shows that Algren read this proof with some care. He

added and substituted lyrics, answered questions from a proofreader and,

in turn, asked him others. Algren made a few additional major revisions.

The proof, therefore, is of particular importance since it shows Algren in

the last stage of correcting and changing.

One common alteration on the marked set of proofs is the addition or substitution of lyrics. Frequently the type reads, "Lyrics to come."

^1 use the term "galley page" to designate half of a galley sheet, i.e., a page printed from half of a galley.

256 Algren then added these to the proof sheets in pencil or pen. Pencilled 2 lyrics on page 15, for example, read, " I'm gonna lock my heart/ 'N throw

away the key,/ I'm wi se to a 11 those t r i cks/ You played on me . .

(cf. MGA ^2.9, 10, 12, 13). At other times Algren deleted lines in favor of new ones. For instance, replacing the lines of type, "Why must I be

tormented/ By j ust £ dream of you?" on page are the penned 1 i nes , " I'm a_ d i ng-dong daddy from Duma/ 'N^ you oughta see me d£ m^ stuff" (c f. MGA

209.27-28).

The proof shows both additions and excisions besides those in the

lyrics. Algren made these, too. Most of these changes involve only a few words, e .g ., "he ever extracted" becomes "he had ever yet extracted"

(p. 33; cf. MGA 93.18) and "Frankie had" becomes "Frankie too had" (p. 72; cf. MGA 203.13); "they [wall£] bent together above him now t i l l " becomes

"they bent together above him t i l l " (p. 66; cf. MGA 18^+ .13) and "Frankie answered, s ittin g and scratching" becomes "Frankie answered scratching"

(p. 92; cf. MGA 258.27).

Other marks on the proof designate alterations that are neither additions nor excisions, e.g., " It'll be a chance" becomes " It'll be my

|_Frankie's] chance" (p. 67; cf. MGA 188.^) and "the coneroo insisted" becomes "the coneroo begged off" (p. 70; cf. MGA 19^.25). The most drastic change in the proof occurs on page 70 where Algren deleted forty-four words to be replaced by fifty -n in e . These words are crossed out: "old rapoes and pious perverts, record men and parolees. The unlucky brothers with the hustlers' hearts, the afternoon prowlers and the midnight creepers.

^All references to proof cite the galley sheets, not the galley pages. The galley sheets are conventionally numbered. Only they contain proofreaders' marks. 258

Peeping Toms and firebox pullers, the old cold deckers and the young torpedoes coming on faster than they be picked up." The insertion, some of it new, reads, "ancient pious perverts and old blown parolees, rapoes and record-men; the damned and the undaunted, the jaunty and condemned.

Heartbroken bummies and the b itte r rebels: afternoon prowlers and mid­ night creepers. Peeping Toms and firebox pullers. The old cold-deckers and the young torpedoes coming on faster than the law can pick them up.

The unlucky brothers with the hustlers' hearts" (cf. MGA 197.3-10).

The single most common error in the proof is the division of a compound word into two separate words. These words are usually hyphenated in the typescripts. Thirty-six times proofreader's marks direct the type­ setter to eliminate the space between words such as "s ta ir well" and

"wheel chair" to form "stairwell" and "wheelchair" (see, e.g., p. 8; cf.

MGA 21.26).

Several other marks concern punctuation, particularly the use of hyphens and quotation marks. One mark repeatedly deletes the hyphen in

"back-street" and joins the two words (see, e.g., p. 96; cf. MGA 271.25).

Another inserts a hyphen in "music making" (p. 114; cf. MGA 319.39).

Quotation marks enclose excerpts from songs, e .g ., around "OJi, my man he's six foot three,/ He knows iust what to do for me" (p. 46; cf. MGA 127.37-38).

Frequently correct punctuation in typescript version 4 appears in altered form in the typesetting. Corrections are again marked.

A few spelling errors are noted. The proofreader missed two, however. On page 72 of the proof appears "typeetters" for "typesetters"

(cf. MGA 203.10) and on page 96 appears "Zgymunt" for "Zygmunt" (cf. MGA

271.5). The book does not perpetuate these errors. The proofreader, furthermore, did not mark a capitalization change. On page 6 of the proof appears "morphine beside it [syrette]. Melting whitely . . . ." This error does not appear in the book, which reads, "morphine beside it , melting whitely ..." (MGA 15.3).

The book incorporates all changes indicated in the proof. I did not find any other alterations except the three that the galley proofreader missed. Because of the format of, and alterations in, this proof, it is even nearer the book than are the latest typescript drafts, versions 3 ',

, and 42„

The marked proof contains, in addition to proofreader's symbols, typesetter's directions such as "Save line" (p. 7) and "Make line" (p. 52).

These changes in spacing, of course, are present in the book. The right margin of the proof, furthermore, contains numbers designating pagination of the book. Those on pages 1-9^ are in ink; those on pages 9^-122 are i n red penci1.

In the upper right corner of each page of marked proof are a penned set of in itia ls and a date. Usually "W V" or "V W" but sometimes

"R," "Cam[?J," and once "R G," the in itia ls presumably are those of the proofreaders from the typesetting firm. The date, 5/19, 5/20, 5/21, or

5/23, is probably that on which the galley was read. The top of each galley sheet gives the job number, 9533-1, and specifies the type as 10 point caladonia. The typesetter's name "Doherty," or "Green," or "Kuster," is given next.

The use of two different pens and a blue pencil indicates that the proof was read at least twice, perhaps three times, including once by Algren.

Certainly only Algren himself would have made changes such as the addition 260 and substitution of lyrics and the extensive revision noted on page 70.

Furthermore, page 108 contains the indecisive tinkering characteristic of

Algren. He directed that two lines of a song, already set in type, be omitted. Algren then added in pen two other lines, which he subsequently crossed out in favor of a third penned revision, a single line that the book retains: MJ_ wonder who1s booqin1 my wooqie now" (MGA 303*36).

Apparently the proof was sent to Algren with questions noted in blue pencil. The right margin of page 11, for instance, contains the question, "not in the w ell, on the stairs?" This inquiry refers to the phrase, "to repair a loose tread in the s ta ir w ell." Algren's penned note

in the le ft margin changed this phrase to read, "to repair a loose tread on the stairs." The proofreader asked on page 33 if the correct spelling was "Drunky John" rather than "Drunkie John," the spelling used everywhere else in the novel. Algren replied that '"Drunky1 is okay here." The proofreader questioned on page 73 the spelling of "dolaphine," noting that he could not find it in any medical dictionary. Algren replied that it, too, was "okay." The proofreader asked on page 15 if "with" should be

inserted in this sentence after the word "up": "Let them all see what she had to put up, chair or no chair." Algren made this addition. The reader questioned on page 7 the inconsistent use of prepositions after

"watchman" in these sentences: "'Remember me? I used to be night watchman on the old Wabash.' Mot one remembered any night watchman o ff the Wabash, old or new." Algren noted that they were "O.K. as set."

Algren himself asked questions that the proofreader answered. On page 26, for instance, he inquired about the spelling of "interns"; on page 61, of "stanched." 261

A fter Algren returned the proof, the reader edited the author's

alterations. Frequently, as on pages 10, 17, and 18, the reader rewrote

Algren's directions, particularly when he made them in the copy itself

rather than in the margins. Sometimes the reader corrected Algren's

inaccuracies. On page 2k, for example, Algren wrote, "There's nothing left

for me/ Of days that used to be . . . ." The reader cut to three the

number of ellipsis dots (see MGA 67.31-32). On page 7k the reader added

the concluding period to Algren's addition, " I'm a ding-dong daddy from

Duma/ 'J1 you ouqhta see me do my stuff" (see MGA 209.27-28) . A variety

of comparable changes appears on page 85.

Additional marks on the proof were made by a third person, probably

the printing house proofreader; at least they were made by a pen other than

Algren's. A note of this kind on page 16, for example, says, "OK? no close

single quote." A blue-pencilled X crosses out this note. Therefore, no

type was changed because of it . A note on page 120 refers to the "Witness

Sheet" when it says "Indention OK as set." Three similar notes on page 122 were written by this pen. They read, "No open quote?," "New Page," and

"OK as set." Because another blue X crosses out the fir s t of these, I assume that they were made before the reader with the blue pencil marked the proof. Several of the punctuation and spelling corrections also were made with this pen. And when this reader raised a question, the reader with the blue pencil always supplied the answer. On page 111, for example, the former reader questioned changing "or" to "nor." The change was approved by the reader with the blue pencil. Although corrections and notes in pen are relatively infrequent, nonetheless their presence through­ out the proof suggests that they represent a thorough reading of it . The 262 time at which the reader with the pen studied the proof is uncertain.

Since he addressed none of his comments to Algren, and since he did not mark conspicuous errors, he must have given his corrections after the other proofreader had studied the proof and after Algren, too, had seen it. This proofreader, however, studied the galleys before the final comments in blue pencil were made.

Clearly, then, at least three people handled the proof: the proof­ reader with blue pencil who made corrections, asked Algren questions, and answered his queries; the proofreader with the pen who made corrections and gave approval to the way in which a few passages were set; and Algren, whose heavier pen and rather awkward printing distinguish his revisions.

Clear, also, is the editorial authority of the reader with the blue pencil who looked at the proof at least twice and who must have been the last person to see the proof in this state. The marked proof, of course, is unique in value since it preserves Algren's last known concept of the novel before the book was published. His substantive alterations do more than witness to his usually a le rt proofreading. They indicate his refinement of the text, sometimes through slight revisions and, less frequently, through major changes. The addition of a word or two, for instance, improves a sentence by sharpening its focus or altering its tone. Having become more conscious of this sort of improvement in version U- than in the previous drafts, Algren continued in the proof to refine his diction and syntax. A few changes are gratuitous. Some changes of the lyrics, for example, are unnecessary unless Algren could not obtain permission to use his original choices. Most of his revisions, however, are deliberate attempts to c la rify or to v iv ify the text. CONCLUSION

The typescripts of The Han with the Go 1 den Arm tel 1 the unique

story of Nelson Algren's method of composition. Because of the lacunae,

especially in the early drafts, we cannot be certain about all of the

author's intentions. Since some portions are fragmentary, the record, of

course, is incomplete. Most versions are complete enough, however, to yield valid, informative conclusions.

My investigation reveals that the novel evolved. its development was dynamic; it constantly changed. The fir s t version is a rough outline of part of the plot, with some scenes apparently complete but without an explicable conclusion. This draft needs direction and, therefore, lacks meaningful value as a single unit, although some of its scenes are note­ worthy. Essentially unsuccessful, the fir s t draft demonstrates Algren's

incomplete grasp of the story. He here groped for the vehicle to express his major theme, mankind's complicity in vice. He had in mind some events of the episodic plot but searched for details to complement them.

Algren fille d in parts of the outline and made s ty lis tic revisions to vivify detail in version 2. He lengthened the story. While the first draft ends with Sparrow's waiting to deliver narcotics for Blind Pig, the second ends with the important "The Captain IsImpaled" section. Before this conclusion, however, Algren inserted new scenes and parts of scenes to add unity and coherence. He extended Sparrow's a ctiv itie s to include the delivery of morphine to Mol lie . He added the beginning of Frankie's

263 26k

flig h t. These final episodes answer some questions that the fir s t draft

raises but the scenes themselves raise additional questions that go

unanswered. To what places does Frankie flee? For how long? What,

sp ecifically, is the outcome of the pursuit? In version 2 Algren s t ill

fumbled with the plot; he had no peg on which to hang the story of Frankie

Machine, no adequate portrayal of his hero, no successful embodiment of the

dominant theme.

In version 3 Algren discovered the precise form the novel should

take. Whereas in the second version he clarified and amplified the first,

in the third he not only improved upon the second but also redirected the

plot. Now have materialized the few hints buried among the revisions of

the second draft: Frankie has become a drug addict. By transferring this

problem from Sophie to the central character, Algren altered the novel

significantly. As only a partial, slightly-treated explanation of Sophie's

irrational behavior, narcoticism serves little dramatic purpose in versions

1 and 2. In version 3 it helps to unify the plot and to express the theme.

Algren's greatly expanded use of addiction adds a second major problem to

Frankie's already complicated life . Now the reader grows involved in

Frankie's fran tic e ffo rt to escape from both the police and the "monkey."

Algren has developed the novel into a naturalistic "chronicle of despair,"

as a ll of the major events inextricably bind the hero.

There has never been any doubt that Frankie is the main character,

but now the story becomes much more his own. The action focuses on him;

characters are important in their relation to him; the environment is

significant as it portrays his mood. With the simultaneous broadening and

deepening of his character, his role emerges more clearly. He is a more dramatically imposing hero with the "monkey on his back." Addiction

dominates both his waking moments and his nightmares. It tests his

physical and emotional strength in a way that not even memory of the

accident does. It acts as an oppressive, environmental agent, hastening

his deterioration. When he escapes from the "monkey's" grip, he anticipates

a future ultimately free of restricting problems and responsibilities. This

illusion is short-lived. The "monkey" is stronger than he is; he again

fa lls prey to it. The more dependent upon drugs he becomes, the more

isolated he grows. He loses poker buddies, wife, loyal companion, and

fin a lly mistress. When he can no longer soothe (temporarily solve) his

problems with morphine, he sees no alternative to suicide. In fact, it

seems like the best solution to him. He hangs, alone.

As Algren expanded his hero's role by burdening him in the third

and subsequent versions with the imponderable weight of the "monkey," the

author succeeded in creating a character who evokes greater sympathy and

compassion. Frankie is not a sentimentalized figure, but as his plight

is compounded, he grows increasingly poignant. And as he becomes more and more ensnared, the reader's involvement with him becomes more and more

intense. I believe that Algren calculated this effect when he introduced

Frankie's addiction. The author wanted to do more than add another typical dimension to a representative character—narcotics certainly were not unusual in Frankie's neighborhood. He wanted to invest the dealer with an overriding preoccupation that would doom him unmistakably. Even had Frankie somehow successfully avoided Bednar, he could never have avoided the "monkey.

He could never have fu lfille d his illusion about the future. When Algren

introduced Frankie's addiction he assured Frankie's fate. By heightening 266.

Frankie's tragedy in this way, Algren also augmented the reader's concern

for the hero, for as the reader analyzes the causes of Frankie's tragedy--

an analysis that the power of the novel compels the reader to make— he easily implicates himself. He cannot consider Frankie's suicide necessary even if inevitable. He cannot fathom that this Frankie, or any Frankie, is

to tally responsible for his own demise when a phenomenon as awesome as addiction plagues him unremittingly.

In addition to broadening the scope of Frankie's plight, introducing his addiction changed Sophie and the reader's interest in her. In the first two versions she uses morphine, but Algren made very l i t t l e of her narcoticism.

It is simply a fact rather than a dramatically presented occurrence. At no time does she seem as "hooked" as Frankie becomes. Her use of drugs is more background information than current event. Nonetheless, it is part of her problem, and the reader's understanding of her is incomplete unless he recognizes it . When Algren transferred the addiction to Frankie, he otherwise changed Sophie lit t le : she remains the nagging, voluntary cripple wedded to a d riftin g card dealer who comes home only long enough for her to stab his scarred conscience. Although Algren's treatment of

Sophie's addiction in the fir s t two drafts is so slight that the reader probably attributes to it l i t t l e , if any, of her behavior, the reader now does not have that opportunity. He now must blame her eccentricity not only on the accident but also upon Frankie. After Frankie breaks her pride during their courtship, she rebels, and keeps on rebelling until the

"fatal accident" gives her the means to hold him. Because of her injury, more psychic than physical, Sophie believes that Frankie dare not leave her. His g u ilt binds him to her. No practice board or deck of cards or 267

tramp on the fir s t floor front or "monkey" is strong enough to loosen her grip on him. Her morbid preoccupation with herself, not an occasional

"fix," leads to her mental deterioration that, in the third draft, finally places her in a mental hospital. The change in motivation for Sophie's behavior in turn adds another dimension to the reader's understanding of

Frankie. The question of Frankie's guilt in driving Sophie insane cannot be evaded when her use of morphine can no longer act as a scapegoat. And the degree of Sophie's guilt in driving Frankie to narcotics becomes more

important when her perverted personality is emphasized.

In two other signal respects the third draft shows the precise direction of the novel. The union of Dovie and Mol lie to form a new Mol lie

is important since the new character can be a more cohesive force in the novel. In the fir s t two drafts, as only Drunkie John's abused mistress,

Mol lie is peripheral to the central action. The novel would lose little

if her role were deleted. The role of Dovie, too, is limited since, as a Negress, she would hardly vow to "stick by" Frankie regardless of where his flig h t would take him. The new Mol lie , a white g ir l, therefore becomes a much more integral part of the story. In the third draft her role is extended. If Frankie is to stay with her, then he must reckon with Drunkie

John. And having dismissed John, then Frankie can expect the trouble that comes.

In one further respect version 3 forecasts the final course of the novel by including the suicide scene. Although this section does not let us hear Frankie's last whimper, nevertheless, it does suggest what fin a lly happens to "the man with the golden arm." The addition of this scene and then the "Witness Sheet" furnishes the fir s t reasonable conclusion to the 268

novel. The plot has now run nearly its full length. It is not appreciably

foreshortened. It contains a beginning, a middle, and an end. With the

third draft Algren grasped the plot with both hands, molded it to more

concrete specifications, and produced a vessel with several rough edges

and a few blemishes but with also a definite shape. This version promises

to exhibit a certain harmony if it is adequately polished.

The fourth draft continues in the course charted by the third version. Algren believed that the novel was now well enough constructed,

its direction secure enough, to afford him opportunity to concentrate

chiefly upon refinement. I do not mean to suggest that nowhere previously

had he revised for s ty lis tic purposes, since he revised in this manner in every draft. And I do not mean to suggest that he made no change in plot

here; he did: he expanded and thereby emphasized Frankie's involvement with narcotics. But Algren's chief concern in the fourth draft was unlike that in the other versions. Now he had the opportunity to devote his principal energy to perfecting what he had already composed. Nearly every sentence came under his c ritic a l eye. Some sentences remained intact.

Others were completely altered, while only a word or two were changed in many more. Now he became master of syntax and diction as well as of plot and character.

The evolution of The Man with the Golden Arm culminated in a version that is better than any previous one. The published book is more tightly constructed than is any of the drafts. Its scenes display a coherence that they lack in the loosely constructed early drafts in which Algren tinkered with plot and atmospheric d e ta il. The new material that has popped in and out of the major versions is now fu lly absorbed, essentially according to 269

the nature of draft 3. The scenes that he has cut no longer leave notice­

able gaps. He also has decided what to do with specific problems. For

instance, in the development of the novel Algren's notion of what to do with Louie's pocketful of bills changed, implicating different characters

in the th eft. In version 1 Sparrow robs Louie and divides the money with

Frankie. Presumably in version 2 and more obviously in version 3 Sparrow

is the thief but does not give Frankie any of the money. In the fourth draft and in the book, Sparrow is not the th ief at a ll. Blind Pig robs

Lou ie.

The published book, furthermore, shows Algren's crystallized concept of his characters. The major figures have gradually become more complex and, therefore, more real and sympathetic. Sophie, for example, becomes more enigmatic, and Sparrow, pathetic. The characters now are not only individuals but also abstract composites of all unfortunate human beings who have been and are products of their crime-ridden environments.

They live in a "neon wilderness" that is distinctly Chicago--place names are only slightly changed--and that is at the same time representative of all wildernesses the world over. Algren wrote, "In the growing light the wall legends continued like the continuation of a dream begun in another place; the legends that follow upon each other in all the tongues of man, from cell to cell, and jail to jail, linking seas to cities and cities to plains, down the streets of all the world wherever a thief stands waiting behind steel bars and a turnkey waits by the wall" (MGA, p. 18^). These characters, furthermore, are unable to help themselves. Frankie, for instance, wonders how he can expect anyone else to trust him when he cannot trust h imself. 270

The three themes that I have outlined earlier also have solidified as the novel has matured. The theme of complicity emerges dominant. Minor preoccupations with justice, or, more specifically, injustice in Chicago, are here subservient to the principle that each man is his brother’s keeper.

The love element continues to draw pairs of characters together in a variety of relationships but now it, too, is a sad commentary on man's inhumanity to man. Not a single character experiences the joy of a healthy love relationship. Driven by the pangs of insecurity resultant from a society that "doesn't care" or from an environment that is all-powerful, these wayward creatures turn to equally wayward creatures for happiness.

Their search is, ultimately, fu tile . If each man, however, was aware of his guilty conscience, if each man realized with Sparrow that "Everybody's a habitual in his heart," and if each man, therefore, acted according to his truly humane conscience, then people like Frankie and Sophie and Molly and Sparrow would find a security in their very humanity which would equip them to make healthy and enduring relationships based on love. That they do not find this foundation is not only their fa u lt. All men have a stake in their deprivation. All men are blameworthy. "No man is an island . .

. ." Everyone, however, is not a Captain Bednar, who "Alone below the glare lamp in the abandoned query room, s tifled by a ravaging g u ilt, . . . knew now those whom he had denied, those beyond the wall, had a ll alone been members of himself. Theirs had been the common humanity, the common weakness and the common failu re . . ." (MGA, p. 298).

The investigation of the typescripts of Nelson Algren's best novel tel 1s us not only about The Man with the Go 1 den Arm but a 1 so about i ts author. His keen involvement with his subject and its theme makes the novel powerful. At no time does his intense feeling seem distant.

Although in creating the novel he exercised much more control than he did

in his early writings, especially in the l i t t l e magazines of the 1930 's,

nonetheless, this later performance is more convincing, for the story

its e lf is strong enough to carry the weight of the dominant theme. No

laborer here shouts, "Rise up, workers!" as he does in "A Holiday in Texas.1

The Commun i st Man ifesto has no p1 ace i n The Man wi th the Golden Arm as i t

has in Somebody in Boots. But the novel graphically and poignantly documents the lives of society's outcasts. Because the documentation

rings true, it implicitly argues for change. It argues for reappraisal of the class structure. It argues for basic human values. It argues for brotherhood. I believe that reading this novel as only the story of a drug addict who temporarily succeeds at cards but fa ils with the law would be difficult, if not impossible. The major plot is full enough and the minor plots are humorous enough to captivate the reader; he need not go beyond the story to appreciate the novel. Yet, Algren's involution means more than the author's desire to tell an entertaining tale. It also means his using the story, with a rather narrowly circumscribed milieu and plot, to convey a larger truth.

This investigation reveals, furthermore, that Algren unmistakably was a conscious, conscientious craftsman with high standards. Some of his other writings, such as the amorphous Who Lost an American?, seem haphazardl constructed or carelessly composed. Studying the typescripts of The Man with the Golden Arm firmly refutes any similar conjecture about this novel.

At no time during its composition was Algren completely satisfied with its content and organization. He cautiously pruned— the omission of some of the scenes of the fir s t draft improves the second version, for example— at

the same time that he extended the plot and characterization. He rearranged

entire scenes as well as passages within individual scenes. He polished

his singular style to make the diction and syntax not merely hi& own but

also a brilliant vehicle for his message. Algren's feel for detail—his

ear for dialect and his eye for minute observation— gave him a reporter's

honesty. He was more than a reporter, however, for he a rtis tic a lly controlled

the data. His conduct was not dictatorial; it was sensitive, sensitive to

the nuances of impression and expression. His attention to all kinds of

detail necessitated that he simultaneously revise several aspects of the

story. Alterations in each draft are critical as well as expository,

narrative as well as descriptive. We cannot judge a draft, therefore, by

only one type of alteration made there. Algren did not do one sort of

work at a time. Not only all aspects but also both parts of the novel

change in each draft. Although he progressively added more to Part II

than to Part I, all sections of the novel underwent change. He did not write and polish Part I before moving on to Part II.

Investigation of the typescripts demonstrates, nevertheless, that

Algren was not a consistent writer. While most of the revisions improve

the text, some neither improve nor impair it . They are simply alterations.

It is impossible to propose a concrete, logical motivation for them, since

they do no more than illu s tra te Algren's indecision and his preoccupation with changing details. In his caution to decide upon the exact word or

phrase to refine the text, he sometimes made conspicuous errors in judgment.

Some of these he later cut; others remain. Their usual effect is to make

the text appear contrived, over-written, and overly poetic. They belie 273

Algren’s assertion that he did not consciously write a poetic prose. Most of the novel, of course, is a straight-forward expository and narrative account that seems credible. But occasionally the description— of the paupers' burial, for instance— gets in the way of the story, hindering the onward movement of the plot and, hence, giving a static quality which I am sure Algren did not intend.

Just as the description is sometimes over-written, so are the minor characters over-drawn. Now and then they seem barely re a lis tic . In documenting their depravity, Algren made them grotesque. No character, except perhaps Blind Pig, is consistently grotesque, however, for flashes of individuality and sympathy distinguish each. But this sympathy occasionally becomes sentimentalized. The notion that Violet, for example, has any concern except a physical one for Sparrow strikes me as absurd.

Algren's forays into the Chicago slums may have presented the prototypes of these characters; he has never publicly revealed their sources. They may not be distortions, although on occasion their actuality seems unlikely.

This kind of portrayal may be exactly the one for which Algren strove. It can be ju s tifie d , but it can also be damaging to his underlying purpose in writing the novel. It may discourage the reader from following the aesthetic experience of reading the novel by the moral experience of asking himself why the characters deserve his sympathy, if not p ity. Despite these flaws, the novel possesses a power derived from Algren's deliberate use of characters and milieu which to him are brutally real.

This genetic study tells us, finally, that Algren's chief intent in wr i t i ng The Man wi th the Golden Arm was not to port ray the 1i fe of a typical drug addict or card player. Although perhaps the lasting impression 27 k

of the book chiefly concerns Frankie's addiction, this impression would

more naturally come from the movie adaptation of the novel, from which

Algren divorced himself.* Because Frankie is not addicted in the first

two drafts, we can assert that Algren did not in itia lly intend to make

narcoticism the crux of the book. Because he hesitated to insert it, he

must have wished to place the emphasis of the story elsewhere. By trans­

forming part of Frankie's preoccupation with cards into an interest in

drum-playing, Algren also deemphasized his hero's role as a poker dealer.

Hence, he did not intend the reader to think of Frankie as a "card shark"

and nothing more.

I believe that Algren intended The Han with the Golden Arm to be

read as the saga of a man who happens to be a morphine addict, a card

player, and an aspiring drummer. The emphasis upon addiction and card-

playing is attributable to their partial responsibility for Frankie's

fa ilu re to reach his goal, but this novel is not the story of addiction or

card-playing. It is the tale of a man, a man ill-equipped to disentangle

himself from the tightening web of circumstances that bind and fin a lly

strangle him. Although he is a social outcast among social outcasts, he

is poignantly human. He lives by the code he knows and when it fa ils him,

he is doomed. He cannot readjust his behavior to conform to someone else's brand of society. Some of his values — loyalty, for instance— are

true and deep, even if his interpretation of them seems idiosyncratic to anyone outside the hero's sphere.

^Algren says that he had nothing to do with the movie, although he collaborated with Paul Trivers on the screenplay. See Anderson-Southern, p. 58. Algren is accurate in announcing that the movie bears l i t t l e likeness to the book. See Perlongo, p. 93- 275

Algren is doing more than te llin g the story of a man, however, for

he presents a "slice of life " of a very particular kind. The epigraphs

prefixed to each part of the novel suggest Algren's concept of this life .

It is an existence, fir s t of a ll , lived by people unaware of its horror.

Although they are its participants, its victims, they are so conditioned

to accept middle-class vices as their own virtues and lower-class indigence

as their settled economic status that they seldom complain and never rebel.

Even in a police show-up they demonstrate no remorse for their crimes.

Only when their court records mean life or death do Frankie and Sparrow

become worried. They have accepted poverty as a way of life to be relieved

by petty theft. They have accepted love as a catch-as-catch-can affair.

They have accepted truth as expediency in the service of a fellow outcast.

Frankie realizes no horror until the pursuing police and "monkey" are about to capture him. Sparrow realizes none until he is faced with life

imprisonment or betrayal of his idolized friend. The strictures of their way of life, as of the lives of all those in a Damen and Division Street

neighborhood, do not horrify them to the point of outright action to better themselves or their condition. Frankie only talks about getting a job

"on the le g it." Sparrow does not even consider V iolet's suggestion that he work for a living.

The reader wonders, however, if a few of these people do not

rea1ist ica11y appraise thei r condi t ion. In The Man with the Golden Arm

Frankie is, of course, the most sensitive character, at times apparently aware of "the real dark night of the soul." He seems desperately to be fooling himself about his present and his inevitable future. He daydreams about a present not predicated upon the "fatal accident" and about a future 276 not implacably linked with p o litica l chicanery. At times he seems wide awake to life; at other times—and most often—he seems asleep to its multi-leveled re ality . Algren may be suggesting that once in a while people like Frankie perceive the horror of their routine lives and that they then attempt, usually with success, to bury that horror so deeply that it rarely causes conflict.

The study of the genesis of The Man w? th the Golden Arm, in summary, gives us information that is essential to a just interpretation of this enduringly popular novel. It also furnishes a perceptive insight into

Algren's craft and art. It reemphasizes the supreme importance to Algren of the tragic fate of men whose lives are only troubled dreams. APPENDIX I

TYPESCRIPTS AT THE ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

The Illin o is Institute of Technology library at Chicago, in

addition to the Ohio State University library, owns typescripts of The

Man with the Golden Arm. The Illinois Institute collection is less

extensive than is Ohio State's and, in some cases, duplicates it . A

study of the Illin o is typescripts corroborates the general conclusions

drawn from the foregoing study of the Ohio State typescripts.

Most of the pages in the Illin o is collection are not sorted by

d raft. All pages bearing the same numeral are grouped together regardless

of their content. Usually two, three, or four pages, but sometimes a single

page or as many as five pages have the same number. Occasionally no pages

bearing a given number exist. Like the pages in the Ohio State collection, many of those at the Illinois Institute contain revisions in both pen and

pencil, exhibit a variety of numbering systems, and represent varied kinds of paper. Some have The Man with the Golden Arm copy on both rectos and versos, and some copy is written on the versos of letters to Algren. The

Illin o is Institute is fortunate to have more original pages than carbon

copies; nonetheless, as we have seen, Algren frequently revised carbon

copies but not originals. Hence, the usual preference for original pages does not apply in every instance here.

The Illinois Institute has none of versions 2 or 3. It does,

O however, have some original pages of version 1, many of version 3 , a few

277 278

of version 4, even fewer of version 4^ , and a complete final extant draft,

which corresponds to Ohio State's version 4^. The Institute also has a

draft not represented in the Ohio State collection. It would properly be

1 9 labeled version 3 since it was composed between versions 3 and 3 . Besides

these holdings, the Institute has several miscellaneous pages that belong

to none of the known drafts and, hence, may represent Algren's fitful

stops and starts at writing various portions of the novel.

VERSION 1

Pages of the first version in the Illinois Institute collection—all

of them white originals— are most frequently identifiable by numerals,

typed at top center, which are preceded and followed by a hyphen. Other

large numerals written in blue crayon and revisions written in blue ink

distinguish these pages. The revisions are usually changes in diction or

addition of d e ta il. For example, "Sparrow" becomes "S olly," "turnkey walked" becomes "lockup went," and "Lockup" becomes "Pokey" (p. 4). Later,

"fish" becomes "bucks" (p. 21) and a "o n e -to -life stretch" becomes a

"one-to-fourteen stretch" (p. 22). Algren sometimes altered tense;

e. g ., in the clause "Sparrow assured her" Algren added the word "had"

after "Sparrow" (p. 109). Elsewhere he added particularizing detail;

e .g ., to the clause "'C ute,' Sophie announced" he appended the phrase "in

an oddly altered voice" (p. 32). To the phrase " f la t , goodnatured phizz"

he added the word "placid" after "flat" (p. 3).

Pagination is much less complete in the Illin o is collection than

it is at Ohio State. Large gaps often occur. Nonetheless, there-are

extant a few pages that are missing from the Ohio State typescript. Page 1 depicts Frankie talking to Captain Katz. Page 38 te lls that the accident

occurred on the fourth night after Frankie returned from the war, that

Sophie came home from the hospital limping, and that she went into a

wheelchair ten days later. Page 101 portrays Sparrow"s eviction from a

Chinese restaurant and Violet's explanation that only old Stash would not

worry about her a ctivities when he was away. Pages 108 and 109 chronicle

Sparrow's theft of a coat from Gold's and his subsequent conversation at

the police station with Violet, who chides him for his foolishness.

Pages 157-162 te ll a l i t t l e about the courtship of Frankie and Sophie,

about Frankie's reminiscences of his former days as a top-notch card

dealer, about the sound of a train that reminds Frankie of a coughing

army private, about Frankie with Dovie (here, too, a Negress), and about

the beginning of the Great Sandwich Battle. Pages 272 and 273 show Frankie

examining the legends on the ja i l walls and account for the pervasive

holiday a ir at show-up time. Pages 293-296 depict Frankie by the Bride­

well prison laundry machine, describe the inmates, portray Frankie's battle with his guilty conscience, and includes Sparrow's v is it to Frankie, during which "the punk" says that Dovie has had to move because she is pregnant

and that Stash s t ill lives in the broom closet. At the bottom of page 296

begins a new section entitled "Hustlers' Hearts." Its one line reads,

"On the bunk above Frankie the old-timer called Bonarue Mac." Page 307

shows Mellow-Boy Weissman trying to aggravate Frankie and Bonarue. On pages 369-370 the captain unsuccessfully tries to make a deal with Sparrow

to prevent the Sikowicz boys' propaganda. On page 370-37^ Sparrow, lonely without Frankie, listens to a self-styled preacher called "Witness" te ll what happened to his friend Chester and to another friend Schwabatski. 280

In the next section, pages 37^-378, Zygmunt v is its Sparrow the day before

Sparrow is to stand t r i a l. This passage gives a l i t t l e background data on Zygmunt and shows his efforts to entice Sparrow into implicating Frankie

in Louie's murder. On page 378, fin a lly , L ittle Stinker te lls Frankie that Sparrow has named him the murderer and that the police are now en

route to apprehend Frankie. Announcing that he is going afte r custard

ro lls, Frankie leaves Sophie, goes to a bar, takes a tro lley to a Negro neighborhood, and then goes to Dovie's home only to be told that she is not there.

Unfortunately, several pages of the fir s t version are missing from both the Ohio State and the Illinois typescripts. They are pages 2, 3k-S6 ,

115, 123, 145-15^, 163-165, 216, 219-221, 252, 267, 27^-292, 306, 308-315,

347-3^8, and 353-369.

VERSION 31

More significant than the pages already discussed are those that form a draft not represented in the Ohio State holdings. Internal evidence 2 proves that this draft was written between the time versions 3 and 3 were composed. Its pages are all originals with numerals, at top center, preceded and followed by hyphens. Distinguishing this draft are many of the revisions made with a blue-gray pencil. (Others are made with black

ink.) Several margins contain typed notes, as do a few in the original typescript of version 3* A note on page ^50, for instance, reads:

" ( repeated better here)" while another on page 505 reads: "(these are actual names of places.)" 281

This draft, version 3^ , contains numerous revisions, which are

usually additions rather than deletions. After the sentence "'You wouldn't be one conviction away from the Habitual A c t.111 Algren added Sparrow's

reply to Frankie's taunt: " ‘I'm three convictions away from Mr. Schnackenberg,'

the punk advised Frankie, 'So long as I don't catch two a lik e " 1 (p. 22).

After the sentence " It was too late a lrig h t." Algren added "Too late for

roaches or cabbies or Sophie or anybody" (p. 49). A revision on page 30 shows Algren's tendency toward particularization: 29 3+ years "Frankie had seen some bad ones in his time." At other times Algren apparently tried for authenticity of speech. In the "Witness Sheet" he altered the clerk's speech in this manner: from "'we have the chickenwire top like according to the Board of Health is permitted'" to "'we have the chickenwire top like according to the Board of Health it's perm itted"1

(p. 545). In some cases it is impossible to construe Algren's motive for change. For example, he substituted the words "hurt some body" for "shot" in the clerk's sentence, " 'I went up the fir s t time and saw he'd been shot"1

(p. 545). As in the other drafts, Algren sometimes designated passages with the label "elsewhere" and also crossed out paragraphs (see p. 7 0 -

In short, this draft has abundant evidence demonstrating Algren's careful technique.

This d raft, like the others, is incomplete. Extant pages are numbered as follows: 1-6, 12-16 (?), 18-43, 49-71» 74-98, 101-108, 124-131,

133-138, 141-161, 163-165, 171-180, 182-190, 192-196, 203-213, 215 (?)-237,

252- 256, 263-264, 267, 273, 280 , 292-319, 321, 323, 328-345, 347, 349-382,

388, 391-392, 394-456, 466-480, 482-487, 490-492, 494-512, 514-545. 282

A brief account of the content of these pages reveals their affinity with version 3.

Pages Content

1-6 Captain Bednar's opening conversation with Frankie and Sparrow.

12-15 Frankie's discovery of Sparrow and their subsequent friendship.

15-16 Frankie's unwillingness to admit his squinting and his willingness to boast about his prowess at cards.

18-24 Frankie's demonstration of card tricks to Sparrow.

24-28 The cabbie's conversations with Frankie and Sparrow.

28-29 Frankie's fir s t dream of the man who needs a " fix ."

30-42 Account of the prisoners, including the "wino" who longs to be remembered, of the ja ile r who questions the noise, of the drowning roach, and of Sparrow's attempts to cheer the cabbie.

42-43 Schwiefka's v is it to Frankie and Sparrow.

49-50 Frankie's and Sparrow's departure from jail after the roach has drowned.

50-57 Frankie's and Sparrow's v is it to the Tug S-Maul; background information on Drunkie John; and his scene with Mol lie about the dime she picks up in the bar.

58-71 Introduction to i860 West Division Street and to the landlord's obsession for having doors shut; Frankie's return home; account of Sophie's scrapbook and her desire for a dog; section about Frankie's war accident at the hands of a German soldier, marked “elsewhere."

74-79 Sophie's accusing Frankie of being stubborn; his meeting with Mol lie after he kicks her dog.

79-98 Description of the Tug & Maul and its customers, including Blind Pig, who agrees to do an errand for Louie; Frankie's halt to Sparrow's giving Shooie a hot foot; Sparrow's report of his dog-stealing route and his laudatory account of Rumdum.

^Repetition of the number “ 15" indicates that one section ends and that another begins on page 15. I treat similar instances in the same manner throughout this lis t. 283

98 Passage about the clock's te llin g only"junkie"time, crossed out.

101-108 Introduction to McGantic; Frankie's illness in Louie's room; Frankie's getting a "fix."

124-130 Passages about Zygmunt's background and racket, some crossed out. Note atop page 125: "A l i t t l e too much on Zygmunt."

130-131 Soph ie'

131 Account

133 Soph i e '

133-138 Soph i e '

141-145 Soph i e ' growing fa t.

14-5-161 Account of Sparrow's "scraunching route"; his courtship of Vi; his lies about Kentucky, crossed out; his thefts, including the topcoat from Gold's.

161 V i's payments from Stash's insurance money for Sparrow's re 1 ease.

163-165 Jailer's insistence that Drunkie John pay his rent.

171-175 Description about closing time everywhere; Sophie's depression; her joking that her name is Rumpelsti1tskin; her recollection of Frankie's seduction of her.

175-180 Stud session as Schwiefka's; Sparrow's win; Louie's surprise at being alive; description of Umbrella Man and Meter-Reader.

182-189 Tense banter about flashlight pencils between Sparrow and Louie.

189-190 Frankie's sight of John now only at Schwiefka's, crossed out; description of Mol lie's curtains.

192-196 Frankie at M ollie's.

203 Frankie with Sophie; he thoughts about going to Mass but his going instead to the bottle; note at top of page: "TITLE NIGHT WITHOUT MERCY."

203-209 Frankie's gain in strength; exposure of Louie's card tric k.

210-211 Frankie's direction to Sparrow to "case out." 284

211-213 Sophie's b e lie f, upon waking, that she is in a hospital, not a rooming house.

215-217 Sophie's certainty that Frankie has "'fixed me so's I can't have no kid'"; her dream of cousin Olga; her decision not to worry.

217-237 The Great Sandwich Battle.

252-256 Frankie with Mol lie.

256 Frankie in the dealer's slot, crossed out.

263 Louie's and Sparrow's tense banter at cards.

264 The murder, crossed out.

264 The irregular thunder Frankie hears after the murder.

267 Stash, newly released from j a i l , now a reformed man.

273 Stash's wish for Sparrow to pay board.

280 The bewilderment of Sparrow and Vi at Stash's change.

280 Beginning of party scene. Note, crossed out: " i t was night- before-christmas when Louie was done in, before Stash did 5 ten days. Move back." Another note changing Night before Christmas ball to New Year's Eve b a ll.

292-294 Kvorka's warning to Frankie; Frankie's v is it to Mol lie .

294-300 Frankie's assurance to Mol lie that he w ill "tough it out."

300 Sophie's question where Frankie went when he le ft the party; his taking her home; Frankie's dream.

301-312 Background on Antek; the plunger episode; Frankie's illusions about his future; Frankie's and Sparrow's conversation with Pig; Sparrow's wish that he were a wind.

313-319 Frankie's interrogation of Sparrow; their fantasy about having women on a yacht; Sparrow's account to Frankie of Sophie's curiosity about M ollie, crossed out; Frankie's and Sparrow's decision to steal irons.

319 Theft of irons at Nieboldt's.

321 Apprehension of Frankie. 285 323 Description of Negro asleep near Frankie in j a i l , crossed out.

328 Description of legends on jail walls.

328-338 Show-up.

338-345 Show-up continued; includes Frankie's case; ends "The captain was impaled."

347 Beginning of Part II; Frankie by the jail laundry's sheet- rolling mach i ne.

349-356 Frankie's illness; description of prisoners and of deadlock.

356-357 M ollie's v is it.

357-370 L ittle Lester: his bravado, his attempts to get Frankie and Bonarue Katz to talk, his callisthenics.

370-373 Rumors about Lester's execution; Frankie's concern about the shoe laces.

373-376 Frankie's illness after playing softball.

376-382 Frankie's return home; his talk to Jailer.

388 Frankie's leaving Sophie.

388 Frankie's belief that all things seem as they were before he went to j a i l ; description of beer advertisements.

391-392 Frankie's rebuff to Sparrow about Sparrow's "racket."

394 Frankie's insult to Antek.

395-400 Frankie's determination to quit Schwiefka' s; Frankie's loneliness; Sophie's scrapbook; her performance like an Hawa i ian dancer.

400-423 Sparrow's unhappiness with Vi; Sparrow's return to the alleys; his game at Kippel's; the kite symbolism; his v is it to the Tug 6-Maul; his agreement to del I ver morph i ne for Pig.

421-434 Sparrow's pulling his baseball cap over his face as he starts on the delivery; passages about fear, some crossed out; Sparrow's delivery to Frankie; Sparrow's giving Frankie a "fix"; Frankie's discourse on being "hooked"; their apprehension.

434-446 Zygmunt's release of Frankie but not of Sparrow; Frankie's insulting M ollie at Antek's; Frankie's indecision whether to flee. 286

446-450 Description of the query room.

450-456 Bednar's interrogation of Sparrow; Sparrow's firmness.

456 Sparrow's loneliness; note: "Insert cabbie to replace preacher."

466-468 Frankie at his nightly spot at Schwiefka's; his concern about Sparrow; his need for narcotics; his meditation that everyone wants to be something that he is not.

469-478 Kvorka's warning to Frankie; the dealer's flig h t,fin a lly to the Ki tten Klub.

478-480 Sophie's depression in the tenement after police search it.

482 Frankie's drinking alone.

482-487 Paragraphs, circled to go at beginning of section, talking about two monkeys caged above the Kitten Klub; antics of Mr. Floor-Show; Frankie's beer upset by a drunk.

490-492 Performance of a stripper with lights; Frankie's recognition of Mol 1ie.

492 Sophie's listening to a preacher on the radio.

494-500 Sophie's breaking a radio and thinking of Frankie's return.

500-502 Sophie in the hospital.

502-503 There, her reminiscences, including "Thesorrowful name of Frankie Machine."

504-512 Police's search for Frankie; his hideout at M ollie's; his confession to her of murdering Louie and her revelation to him of bribing John.

512 Frankie's growing restlessness.

514-518 The "deal" between Frankie and Antek.

519-527 John's kicking Mol lie; the unsuccessfulescape attempt; Frankie's flight to a hotel.

527-535 Sophie in the hospital.

535-540 Suicide scene; last paragraph: "'Have a good dream you're xxx dancin', Zosh and xxx both the cry and xxx its reply were swept by a dead-cold wind through a long xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 287

darkened room where the only sound was a single half-choked whimper. And then no whimper at a ll."

540-545 The "Witness^ Sheet"; note: "Dispose of Molly-0 here as a witness in |_?J custody." Another note: "Does Molly-0 say 'Some cats swing like that'?" Witnesses are Witwicki, Mol lie , and Sgt. Otto Schaeffer. Ends not with "Case is closed" but with Schaeffer's testimony.

This draft differs from version 3 in only a few respects. It

lacks the report of the ja il cells' legends that probably is on lost pages

7-12. Itincludes information on pages 50-57 not contained in version 3.

Sophie's preoccupation with her scrapbook appears much e a rlie r in this draft than in the third. This draft does not contain an account of

Frankie's and Sophie's courtship or an account of the accident, both of which undoubtedly are on lost pages 109-124. Sophie's unsuccessful attempt to walk, on pages 141-145. does not appear in version 3» Her calling herself Rumpelsti1tskin occurs twice, not only once, in the third version.

Events on pages 189-211 happen in a different order in version 3* For instance, Frankie's exposure of Louie's cheating at cards occurs earlier in the third draft than in this one. Whereas in the third version Mol lie does not permit Frankie to visit her after the party, in version 3^ she lets him assure her that he can "tough it out" (pp. 294-300). Part II in version 3 begins immediately after Frankie's arrest for stealing irons; it begins in version 3 ' after the show-up. Frankie's visitor in version 3 is V io let, not M ollie. Version 3^ adds a description of beer advertisements,

Frankie's rebuff to Sparrow and insult to Antek, and Frankie's determination to quit Schwiefka's. It does not contain an account of the fire, however.

The woman whom Frankie insults at Antek's is named Mollie in version 3^5 she is unnamed in version 3. The third draft does not contain the infor­ mation given on pages 466-468 of version 31, data including Frankie's 288

concern for Sparrow and Frankie's need for narcotics. Version 3 ', finally,

ends with the "Witness Sheet," not with 3 section about Captain Bednar,

as version 3 does. Version 3^, then, shows Algren reworking material

already written rather than adding large new sections. He is consciously

refining and rearranging— two processes very evident throughout the

gestation of The Man with the Golden Arm.

VERSION 32

2 Many pages in the Illinois collection are part of version 3 •

All of them are originals with revisions in pencil. Page numbers are at

top center, followed by a period. Unlike any of the other drafts, the paper for this one is very light-weight, almost onion skin. In addition 2 to having the originals of most of Ohio State's carbon copies of version 3 ,

the Illin o is collection also has several other pages. Most of them are e arlie r than those at Ohio State, the fir s t of which is page 460. The pagination of the Illinois draft reads as follows: 11-12, 14, 19-21 (?) ,

22-44, 46-104, 119, 121 , 124-125, 127, 131, 137, 139-145, 147, 152,

154-155, 161-162, 164-165, 182, 184, 186, 188-190, 192-193, 197, 202, 208,

213 , 218 , 220-224, 226 - 227 , 231 , 233-238, 249, 253-260, 262 , 267-295 (?) ,

317-325, 339-368, 370-380, 382-391, 393, 396-415 (?), 416-422, 424-426,

428-429, 432-439, 441-448, 450, 460-461, 468-472, 482-546, and 548-549.

This version adds no elements to the story not represented elsewhere or 2 considered in the discussion of Ohio State's fragment 3 • It accounts for the friendship between Frankie and Sparrow, depicts Frankie's dream of the soldier fighting the monkey, portrays the ja ilb ird s , and includes the dish- breaking episode and the Tug & Maul scenes. It describes the courtship of 289

Frankie and Sophie, Frankie getting a " fix ," and Old Doc Dominowski

treating Sophie. It concludes with the "Witness Sheet." In this draft are pictured Violet and Sparrow, Blind Pig and even Zygmunt. None of these events or people is new to the novel. 2 Although the carbon pages of version 3 at Ohio State are unrevised, the originals at Illinois, especially some of the later pages, are heavily edited. Consider this passage, for example: "And now they had been stud-poker hunting him three weeks already. And where, in all Chicago, a junkie^dealer thunderous might be hiding, this season of fchundepi-Rg winds and b itte r skies, Zygmunt-

enquire, Antek-the-Owner might surmise, a certain the-Prospector might sa pm-i-se-;-‘ehe-j-HRk-i-ei 9-bandsman-mtgh*-wish-he-knew, ward super had to know; a-ward-sapeP-mfghfe-tnstsfc-efi-kFiewtRg, and Record Head Bednar could only try to find out" (p. 503). Other revisions are less extensive. Algren changed, for example, Dr. William Hassell to Dr. Blue, the physician who pronounces Frankie Machine dead (p. 5^6). He changed "looking around" to "looking about" and "begin measuring the hours" to "begin to measure her hours" (p. ^82).

o Studying the pages of version 3 in the Illin o is collection proves that at this point Algren revised the entire novel, not just the latter portion. The characteristic changes, furthermore, substantially support my assertion that Algren was a careful craftsman in writing The Man with the Golden Arm.

VERSION k

The very few pages of version k in the Illinois Institute collection are originals. Their numbers are at top center and are 290 followed by a period. Revisions, chiefly involving substitution of words, are all made in pencil. For example, Algren crossed out "Chester-from- the-Conveyor" and substituted "Schwabatski and Drunkie John" (p. 76).

Later he changed "gone out" to "come out" and he deleted the underscoring of "S afari." He sometimes changed tense, e .g ., "He handed" becomes "he had handed" (p. 11). He sometimes crossed out introductory conjunctions.

"And cold as he was" was changed to "Cold as he was" (p. 11).

Some of these pages f i l l gaps in the Ohio State collection.

Pages 108-117, for instance, concern Sophie's remembrance of her courtship with Frankie. Following it, on pages 117-124, is an account of the accident.

Both of these sections are missing from the fourth draft at Ohio State.

In addition, page 205 presents Frankie's recollections of the "old days" when he broke Sophie's pride. Unfortunately there exist no pages after

469 that would complete the draft.

VERSION 4 1

I found only three pages of fragmentary version 4^ in the Illinois collection. Nonetheless, pages 106 (renumbered 94), 248 (renumbered 249), and 260 are originals of copies held at Ohio State. The originals contain both additions and deletions in pencil. For example, Algren revised the clause "he alone had come to mourn" to read "he alone, of a 11 good hustlers, had come to mourn a hustler" (p. 248). Conversely, the sentence " It was hard to te ll with these joy-poppers just beginning to get wel1-hooked." becomes " I t was hard to te ll with these joy-poppers" (p. 106). 291

VERSION b2

The single most important typescript in the Illin o is Institute collection is the final extant copy, of which fortunately for the researcher,

the pages are already sorted. This draft is the original of Ohio State's version b . (in a few instances, however, Ohio State has the original page and the Illin o is Institute, the carbon copy.) This typescript is on white paper except for five pages of yellow copy paper. Some page numbers are preceded and followed by hyphens; others are followed by a period. Some numbers are typed; others are written in pen or pencil. Margins vary in width. Qualities of paper differ. Some revisions are made in blue pencil and some with typewriter. In short, the format of even this final draft

is not standardized.

The pencilled revisions are particularly noteworthy because most of them are made by the same person who corrected the proof in blue pencil.

Often this copy editor made corrections dictated by Doubleday style, e.g., he changed "fibres" to "fibers" and "grey" to "gray." Sometimes he exchanged notes with Algren in the manner in which he did on the proof. Referring to the paragraph on page b that reads, '"Good thing you don't get drunk every half hour, you'd have tr a ffic blocked. What's your right name?'" the editor said, "This is right out of The Neon Wilderness. OK?" Algren replied, "0. K. I've employed two or three such phrases, out of 'NCM' £• ltNW' feeling very few readers would be troubled by such repetition—Algren."

The editor often questioned whether Algren had obtained permission to use excerpts from songs. Sometimes the editor crossed out lyrics to await substitution of others, directing the typesetter to leave space for the new lines (see, for example, pp. 6^, 380, and b75)• He corrected such 292

Algren spelling as "alrig h t," "phizz" (p. 9 ), and "inadmissably" (p. 110).

The editor, furthermore, corrected punctuation. For instance, he noted

the misplaced apostrophe in "other veteran's rooms" (p. 9). Just as he did on the galley proof, the editor here, too, often deleted hyphens, in

"arm-load" (p. 9 ), "day-long" (p. 11) and "Antek-the-Owner's" (p. 11), for example. He noted capitalization errors, e.g., "Indian summer" (p. 1),

"sparrow" (p. 9 ) > "god" (p. 9 ) > and "Schnackenberg1s Habitual Act" (p. 20).

He frequently inserted apostrophes when needed in contractions, e.g .,

"There aint none" (p. 18). He considered end punctuation, too. " 'I t ' s just this simple, buddy-o,' - he began" becomes "'It's just this simple, buddy-o.' He began" (p. 18). The editor made grammatical alterations to conform to proper usage. He changed, for instance, "neither move" to

"neither moves" (p. 8). Revisions of this nature appear throughout the typescript. Curiously, many of the errors corrected here by the editor reappear in the proof, where they were remarked by the editor (see p. 243).

Revisions typed by Algren both add and delete words. For instance, premedi tated "confessed murder" becomes "confessed^murder" (p. 425); "though why it that was so was funny nobody knew" becomes "though why i^ w^s funny nobody knew"

(p. 487); and parts of several lines are crossed out with typed X's on page 487.

Pagination of this draft is continuous from 1 through 537. It includes pages 252 and 252A. Two unnumbered pages precede page 1. The fir s t of these contains the numeral "I" and the t i t l e "Rumors of Evening"; the second contains the Kuprin quotation, "Do you understand, gentlemen, that all the horror is in just this—that there is no horror!" Page 314 reads " II ACT OF CONTRITION" and the following page gives the Fitzgerald 293

quotation, "In the real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock

in the morning, day after day."

This draft is important since it displays Algren's last tinkering;

its importance can be overemphasized, however, for the majority of revisions

here are the copy editor's, not the author's. And Algren, furthermore, made his final changes in the proof, not here. Nevertheless, the Illin o is

Institute of Technology is fortunate to have this draft and the Ohio State

University is fortunate to have carbon copies of part of it , besides the

galley proof, in which the typesetter incorporated some of the revisions but let many go unheeded.

The galley proof follows this draft in all cases of sectioning except 2 one. Page 141 of version 4 begins a new section. In the proof it does not. The following table shows the relationship among the final draft,

the proof, and the book. No major changes in content occur among them.

Final Draft Gal 1ey Proof Pub 1ished Book

1-7 Paqes 1-3 Paqes 3-7 (1 l)

7-12 3-4 7-10 (1 2)

12-22 4-6 10-15 (1 3)

22-23 6 15-16 (1 V

24-29 6-7 16-20 (I 5)

30-32 7-8 20-21 (1 6)

32-40 8-10 21-26 (1 7)

40-46 10-11 27-30 (1 8)

46-65 11-16 30-43 (1 9)

65-86 16-20 43-56 (1 10)

86-95 20-22 56-61 (1 11) 294

Final Draft Ga11ey Proof Published Book

Paqes 95-103 Paqes 22-24 Paqes 62-67 i 12)

103-110 24-26 67-71 1 13)

110-114 26-27 72-74 1 14)

115-118 27-28 74-76 1 15)

118-127 28-30 76-82 1 16)

127-139 30-33 83-91 1 17)

i4o-i44 33-34 91-93 1 18)

1M+-153 34-36 93-99 1 19)

153-166 36-39 99-107 1 20)

166-176 39-41 107-113 1 21)

176-188 41-43 113-121 1 22)

189-191 44 121-123 1 23)

192-218 44-50 123-140 1 24)

219-227 50-52 140-145 1 25)

228-235 52-54 145-150 1 26)

235-238 54-55 150-152 1 27)

239-246 55-56 152-157 1 28 )

246-259 56-59 157-165 1 29)

259-265 59-61 166-169 1 30)

265-278 61-64 169-177 1 30

278-284 64-65 177-181 1 32 )

284-286 65 181-182 1 33)

287-294 65-67 182-188 S 34)

294-313 67-72 188-200 1 35)

314 72 201 295

Final Draft Gal 1ey Proof Published Book

Paqes 315 Paqes 72 Paqes 202

316-324 72-74 203-208 ( 1 1)

324-329 74-75 208-212 ( 1 2 )

330-331 75-76 212-213 ( 1 3)

331-340 76-78 213-219 ( 1 4)

340-344 78 219-221 ( 1 5)

344-346 78-79 221-222 ( 1 6)

346-348 79 222-224 ( 1 7)

348-352 79-80 224-226 ( 1 8)

352-360 80-82 226-231 ( 1 9)

361-367 82-83 231-235 ( 1 10)

367-372 84-85 235-238 ( 1 ID

373-377 85-86 238-241 ( 1 12 )

377-382 86-87 241-244 ( 1 13)

383-387 87-88 245-247 ( 1 14)

387-397 88-90 247-254 ( 1 15)

398-415 90-94 254-266 ( 1 16)

415-418 94-95 266-267 ( 1 17)

418-424 95-96 267-271 ( 1 18)

424-428 96-97 271-274 ( 1 19)

428-436 97-99 274-279 ( 1 20 )

436-440 99-100 279-282 ( 1 21 )

440-444 100-101 282-284 ( 1 22 )

444-449 101-102 285-288 ( 1 23)

449-460 102-105 288-295 ( 1 24) 296

Final Draft Ga11ey P roof Published Book

Paqes 460-467 Paqes 105-106 Paqes 295-299 11 25)

467-471 106-107 "299-302 11 26)

472-481 107-110 302-308 u 27)

A81-486 110-111 308-311 i 1 28)

1+86-489 111-112 311-313 II 29)

489-499 112-114 313-319 II 30)

499-507 114-115 319-324 M 31)

507-516 115-H7 324-330 M 32)

517-524 117-119 330-334 Ml 33)

524-528 119-120 334-337 II 34)

529-536 120-122 338-342 II 35)

537 122 343 II 36)

This description of the typescripts in the 111i nois 1nst i tute of

Technology collection adds weighty support to the assertion that in composing The Man with the Golden Arm Alqren was a conscientious craftsman.

The pages that complement those in the Ohio State collection exhibit types of rewriting analyzed in the main body of this dissertation. The addition of version 3 brings to eight the number of stages in the novel's gestation: 1, 2, 3, 3^» 3^, 4, 4^, and 4^. Aware of this sort of thorough and complex process, a critic of Algren cannot legitimately say that any element of the novel lacked the author's painstaking attention. The revisions entered every aspect and every part of the novel. A study of the Illin o is typescripts verifies the conclusions drawn from the much larger Ohio State collection of Algren materials. 297

APPENDIX II

TABLE OF NAME CHANGES

Among the many changes that Algren made in successive drafts of

The Man wi th the Go 1 den Arm are the names of characters. Some of the names

remain the same, e .g ., those of Frankie Machine, Sophie, V io let, Sparrow,

N ifty Louie Fomorowski, Zygmunt, Drunkie John, and Peter, but most of them

change. The greater number of changes between versions 1 and 2 than between

3 and 4, for instance, suggests that Algren's concept of the characters, even their names, changed more in the early drafts than it did in the later.

V/e can attach no special significance either to groups of changes or to most individual changes, however. The dramatic introduction of Frankie's addiction in version 3 does not bring noteworthy change. The chief alteration here is from Dovie to Mol lie; perhaps Algren thought that the name Dovie

Breedlove was phony. Its symbolism is blatant. The name of no other major character ever changes. Rather than making a pronouncement about Algren's

intent in the novel, this table, therefore, graphically illustrates his obsession with change. As with a myriad of other revisions in the type­ scripts, many of the name changes show neither improvement nor impairment.

The following table lists the name changes to inform the general reader and to fa c ilita te study of the typescripts by a future scholar. The

lis t is limited to those characters who participate in the action of the novel. It does not include those only mentioned. A diagonal line between two names indicates that both refer to the same person. The absence of a name from a particular version indicates the absence of the character from that draft. Version 1 Version 2 Version 3 Version *+ Proof & Book

Dovie Breedlove/ Dovie Breedlove Mol 1ie Gowdy/ Molly Novotny Molly Novotny Dovie Weaver Novotny

Lt. Katz Capt. Bednar Capt, Bednar Capt. Bednar Capt. Bednar

Bruno Antek Antek Antek Antek

Zero Kinsella Zero Kinsella Schwiefka Schwi efka Schwiefka

Stash Kozkozka/ Stash Kozkozka Stash Koskoczka/ Stash Koskozka Stash Koskozka Koschiusko Kostasczka

Schuatzy/Ja i 1er Taterka/Jailer Schwabatski/ Schwabatski/ Schwabatski/ Jailer Jailer Jailer

Chester-from-the- Meter Reader Meter Reader Meter Reader Meter Reader Conveyor

Big Stinkin' T 1ing/ Big Stinkin1 T'ing Umbrella Man/ Umbrella Man/ Umbrella Man/ Umbrella Man Umbrellas Umbrellas Umbrellas

Kvorka Kvorka/Little Kvorka Kvorka Kvorka St i nker

Mr. Floor Show Mr. Floor Show B i rd Dog Mr. Floor Show unnamed cabbie unnamed cabbie unnamed cabbie DeWitt DeWi tt

Bona rue Mac Bonarue Mac Bonarue Katz Applejack Katz Applejack Katz

Rev. Easterman Rev. Easter

Mel low Boy L ittle Lester L ittle Lester L ittle Lester L ittle Lester Weissman

Doc Jankowski Doc Winska Pasterzy Pasterzy Pasterzy

Domanowski Domanowski Dorninowski Dorn i nows ki Schautzi Mr. Floor Show B i rd Dog B i rd Dog A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NELSON ALGREN

Rather than a roster of works consulted for the dissertation, this bibliography is a complete lis t of all works both by and about Nelson Algren published through mid-1964. Because it is designed to benefit any future

Algren scholar, the thorough coverage notes republications of Algren's writings, including those republished in toto or in part with new title s .

Part'! of the bibliography consists of works by Algren; Part I I , of works about him.

I . WORKS BY NELSON ALGREN

"American Christmas, 1952," The Nation. CLXXV (Dec. 27, 1952), unnumbered verso of front cover.

"Beasts of the Wild," New Wo r1d Wri ting , N i nth Mentor Selection (Apr i 1 , 1956), pp. 66-71. Repub 1ished in The Best American Short Stories 1957, ed. Martha Foley (Boston, 1957), pp. 1-7. (This story is part of A Walk on the Wild Side. )

"B 5 ceps ," The Southern Revi ew. VI (19^1), 713-728. Repub 1i shed in The Best American Short Stories 19^2, ed. Martha Foley (Boston, 19^2), pp. 1-18, (Also published as "A Bottle of Milk for Mother." This story is part of Never Come Morning.)

"B itter Physics of the Deprived," The Saturday Review, XXXVI (July A, 1953), 20- 21.

"The Book of Lonesome Monsters: A Preface," Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters (New York, 1962) , pp. 7“10.

"A Bottle of Milk for Mother," 0. Henry Memoria 1 Award Prize Stories of 19^-1 , ed. Herschel Brickell (New York"] 19^0 , PP* 71-89. Republished in The Neon Wilderness, pp. 73-91. (Also published as "Biceps." This story is part of Never Come Morning.)

299 "The Brothers' House," Story. V (Oct., 193*0, 22-25. Republished in (). Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1935, ed. Harry Hansen (New York, 1935) , pp. 63- 67; and in The Neon Wi1derness , pp. 142-147.

"Buffalo Sun," Ca 1 ? thump, I (April, 193*0, 13-14.

"The Captain is Impaled," Prize Stories of 1950: The £. Henry Awards, ed. Herschel Brickell (New York, 1950), pp. 52- 67. (This story is part of The Man with the Go 1 den Arm.)

"Case Studies of Dreams ," The Saturday Rev?ew of Literatu re. XXXI I I (Dec. 9, 1950) , 16.

Ch i cago: Ci ty on the Make. New York, 1951. Republished 1 96 1. (Also published as "One Man's Chicago.")

"Chicago Is a Wose." The Nation, CLXXXVI I I (Feb. 28, 1959), 191.

"The Children." The American Mercury. LVII (Sept., 19*+3) » 310—31 *4-. Republished in The Neon Wilderness, pp. 200-205.

"City against Its e lf," The Nation, CLXXVII I (Feb. 13, 195*0, 135-136.

"Ding-Ding, Tinkle Hinkle, the Finkified Lasagna & the Footnote King," The D ia l: A Magazine of F ictio n , I (F a ll, 1959), 125-131.

"Do It the Hard Way," The V/r i t e r , LVI (March, 1943), 67-70.

"Donkeyman by Tw ilight," The Nation, CXCVIII (May 18, 1964), 509-512.

"Down with All Hands." The A tlantic Monthly, CCVI (Dec., i 960 ) , 76, 81.

"Dreiser Hedged Out," The Nation. CLXXXV I I I (May 16, 1959), *+59-460.

"Eggheads are Rolling: The Rush to Conform," The Mat ion, CLXXVII (Oct. 17, 1953) , 306-307.

"Epitaph: The Man with the Golden Arm," Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. LXX (Sept., 1947), 316-317. (This poem is part of The Man wi th the Goiden Arm. )

" Erik Dorn: A Thousand and One Afternoons in Nada," introduction to Ben Hecht. Erik Dorn (Chicago, 1963 ), pp. vii-xvii.

"The Face on the Barroom Floor," The American Mercury. LXIV (Jan., 1947) 26-35. Republished in The Neon Wilderness, pp. 127-141. (This story is part of A Walk on the Wild Side.) 301

"Forgive Them, Lord," Year Magazine. Sec. 2 (Dec., 1933-April, 1934), 144-I4g.

"Hemingway: The Dye That Did Not Run," The Nation. CXCIII (Nov. 18, 1961), 387-390.

"He Swung and He Hissed," The American Mercury, LV (July, 1942), 57”63. Repub 1ished in The Neon Wilderness. pp. 157-164; in The Wor1d1s Greatest Boxing Stories, ed. Harold U. Ribalow (New York, 1952), pp. 34-20; and as "Unge Rocco," Fo1ket i b i1d, XXVIII (July 8, I960), 10-11,45.

"A Holiday in Texas," The Anvi1 , No. 6 (May-June, 1934), 23-26. (This story is part of Somebody in Boots.)

"Hollywood Djinn: With a Dash of B itters," The Nation. CLXXVII (July 25, 1953), 68 - 70.

"Home and Goodnight," Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, LV (Nov., 1939), 74-76.

"The House of the Hundred Grassfires," Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters, ed. Nelson Algren (New York, 1962), 173-192. (This story i s part of A Wa 1k on the WiId Side.)

"How Long B1ues," Poetry: A Magaz i ne of Verse, LVI I I (Sept., 1941) , 309.

"How the Devil Came down Division Street," Harper's Bazaar, LXXVIII (May, 1944), 106-107. Republished in The Best American Short Stories 1945, ed. Martha Foley (Boston, 1945), pp. 1-7; in The Neon Wi lderness , pp. 35-42; and in IL _S. Stories, ed. Martha Foley & Abraham A. Rothberg (New York, 1949), pp. 301-306.

" I f You Must Use Profanity," The American Mercury, XXXI (A pril, 1934), 430-436.

The Jungle. New York, 1958. (An abridged version of Somebody in Boots.)

"Junkie Beware," The Nation. CXCIV (Feb. 3, 1962), 106.

"Kewpie Doll," The Anvi1 , No. 7 (July-Aug., 1934), 26-27. (This story is part of Somebody in Boots.)

"Local South," Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, LVI I I (Sept., 1941), 308-309.

"A Lumpen," New Masses, XVI (July 2, 1935), 25-26. (This story is part of Somebody in Boots.)

"The Maf ia of the Heart," Contact, II (Oct., i 960 ) , 9, 11. 302

The Man with the Golden Arm. New York, 1949. Republished 1951, 1956, 1964. (Also published as De man met de gouden arm. tr . J. F. Kliphuis. Baarn, 1956; Per Mann mit dem qoldenen Arm, tr. Werner von Gru'nau. Hamburg, 1952; L'homme au bras d 'o r, tr. Boris Vian. Paris, 1956; L'uomo dal braccio d'oro, tr. Giorgio M onicelli. Verona, 1957; Monnen med den gyllene armen, tr . Olov Jonason. Stockholm, 1951; 0 homen do braco de ouro, t r . Daniel Augusto Goncalves. Lisbon, 1962.)

"Nelson Algren," The New York Hera Id T ribune Book Rev i ew. Oct. 7, 1951. Sec. 6, p. 27.

The Neon Wilderness. New York, 19^7. Republished 1955, I960, 1 96 1 .

Never Come Morning. New York, 1942. Republished 1948, 1955, 1^963* (Also pub 1ished as Le matin de fa it attehdre, tr . Rene Guyonnet. Paris, 1950.)

"One Man's Chicago," Hoiiday. X (Oct., 1951), 72-73, 75, 77-78, 80-83, 86-87, 89 , 117, 119-120. (Also published as Chi caqo; City on the Make. )

"The Peseta with the Hole in the Middle, Part I ," The Kenyon Review, XXIII (Autumn, 1961), 549-570. (This sketch is part of Who Lost an Amer i can?)

"The Peseta with the Hole in the Middle, Part II," The Kenyon Review, XXIV (Winter, 1962), 110-128. (This sketch is part of Who Lost an Amer i can?)

"A Place to Lie Down," Partisan Review, II (Jan.-Feb., 1935), 3-9. (This story is part of Somebody in Boots.)

"Remembering Richard Wright," The Nat i on , CXCII (Jan. 28, 1961) , 85.

"Single Exit," Cross Section 1947, ed. Edwin Seaver (New York, 1947), pp. 217-22k.

"So Help Me." Story, III (Aug., 1933), 3-14. Republished in Story in America, 1933-1934, ed. Whit Burnett and Martha Foley (New York, 193*0, pp. 42-53; *n The Neon Wilderness, pp. 272-286; and in These Your Children, ed. Harold U. Ribalow (New York, 1952) , pp. 187-202.

Somebody in Boots. New York, 1935- Republished 1957- (Abridged as The Jung 1e. )

"Spoon-fed Universe," The Saturday Review of L iteratu re. XXXV (Dec. 6, 1952), 35. 303

"Stickman's Laughter," The Southern Review, VII (Spring, 1942), 845-851. Republished in The Neon Wilderness, pp. 65-73.

"Storm in Texas," Partisan Review, I (Sept.-Oct., 1934), 26-29.

"The Swede Was a Hard Guy," The Southern Review, VI! (Spring, 1942), 873-879.

"Things of the Earth: A Groundhog View," The California Q uarterly, II (Autumn, 1952), 3-11.

"Travelog," Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, LV (Nov., 1939), 76-77*

"Tricks Out of Times Long Gone," The Nat ion. CXCV (Sept. 22, 1962), 162.

"The Unacknowledged Champion of Everything," Sto ry , n.s. No. 2 (Oct., I960), 14-24.

"Un-American Idea: Sex Can Be Funny," L ife , LVI (May 8, 1964), 8.

A Walk on the Wild Side. New York, 1956. Republished 1957, I960.

"Winter in Chicago," The Anvi1 . II (May-June, 1935), 27-29. (This story is part of Somebody in Boots.)

"Within the Ci ty ," The Anvi1 , I I I (Oct.-Nov., 1935), 9-

Who Lost an American? New York, 1963.

"Who's Who at the Lost & Found," The Nation, CXCVIII (June 1, 1964), 560-561.

I I . WORKS ABOUT NELSON ALGREN

"Algren Saved from Ice," The New York Times. Jan. 1, 1957. Sec. 1, p. 14.

Allsop, Kenneth. "A Talk on the Wild Side," The Spectator. CCII I (Oct. 16, 1959), 509, 511.

A1 pe rt, Ho 11 is . "Fa 1len Angels," The Saturday Review of L iteratu re, XXXII (Oct. 8, 1949), 22-23.

Ames, Alfred C. "Algren Pens a Distorted, Partial Story of Chicago," The Chicaao Sunday Tribune Maqazine of Books. Oct. 21, 1951, Sec. 4, p. 5. 304

Anderson, Alston, and Terry Southern. "Nelson Algren: The Art of Fiction f X f j The Paris Review, No. 11 (Winter, 1955), 37-58. Repub 1isned in Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews. ed. Malcolm Cowley (New York, 1963), pp. 231-249.

Appel , Benjamin. "People of Crime," The Satu rday Rev i ew of L i teratu re. XXV (April 18, 1942), 25.

"Authors Defend Open Letter," The New York Times. May 24, 1948. Sec. 1, p. 18.

"Baedeker with a Bite," Newsweek, LXI (May 13, 1963), 108.

Bartlett, William. "Reader's Choice," The Atlantic Monthly, CCXI (June, 1963), 129-135. jjBiographi ca 1 SketchT] The Saturday Review, XXXIX (May 26, 1956), 16.

Bittner, William. "The Literary Underground," The Nation, CLXXXIM (Sept. 22, 1956), 347-349.

Blake, Nicholas. "Fact, Fiction and the Inferno," The Spectator, CLV (Sept. 27, 1935), 480, 482.

Bluestone, George. "I Love Thee, Infamous City," The Hopkins Review, VI (Spring-Summer , 1953), 204-208.

______. "Nelson Algren," The V/estern Review. XXII (Autumn, 1957), 27-44.

"Book Pub 1 ishers Make 3 Awards," The New York Times. March 17, 1950. Sec. 1, p. 21.

"Books in Brief" (anon. rev. Chi cago: Ci ty on the Make) r. The Nation. CLXXII I (Nov. 10, 1951) , 409.

Boynton, H. W. "'Somebody in Boots' and Other Recent Words of Fiction," The New York Times Book Review. April 7, 1935. Sec. 6, p. 6.

Bradley, Van Allen. "Author Nelson Algren— He Sits and Broods," The Chicago Daily News. Sept. 6, 1952, p. 22.

Breit, Harvey. "Talk with Nelson Algren," The New York Times Book Review. Oct. 2, 1949. Sec. 7, p. 33. Republished in B reit's The Wri ter Observed (New York, 1956), pp. 85 - 87 .

"B riefly Noted" (anon. rev. Ch i cago: C i tv on the Make) , The New Yorker, XXVII (Dec. 8, 1951), 170, 173-180.

"B riefly Noted," (anon. rev. The Man with the Golden Arm), The New Yorker. XXV (Sept. 17, 1949), 105-106. 305 Brown, Catherine Meredith. "Chicago without Tears or Dreams," The Saturday Review of Literatu re, XXX (Feb. 8, 1947), 14.

Butcher, Fanny. "The Literary Spotlight," The Chicago Sunday Tribune. Oct. 16, 1949. Sec. 4, p. 12.

"Comments by Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg," The Book Find News, ed. George Braziller, No. 85 (Jan., 1950), 5.

Conroy, Jack. "Chicagoan's Short Stories," The Chicago Sun Book Week. Feb. 2, 19^7, p. 2.

Cowley, Malcolm. "Chicago Poem," The New Repub li e , CVI (May 4, 1942), 613-614.

Dedmon, Emmett. "Dreams of Poor Are Shown with Humor, P ity," The Chicago Sun-Times. Sept. 11, 1949, p. 6X.

______. "Hust1ing Metropolis," The Saturday Review of Li terature, XL IX (Dec. 8, 1951), 17-18.

. "The Man with the Golden Arm," The Book F i nd News, ed. George Brazil ler, No. 85 (Jan., 1950), 2, 4.

Donohue, H. E. F. Conversat ions wi th Nelson A1gren. New York, 1964. P artia lly published as "Nelson Algren at F ifty -fiv e ," The Atlantic Monthly, CCXIV (Oct., 1964), 79-80, 83 - 85 .

Eisinger, Chester E. "Nelson Algren: Naturalism as the Best of the Iron Heart," Fiction of the Forties (Chicago, 1 963 )> PP- 73-85.

E llis , Albert. "Sex— the Schizoid Best S eller," The Saturday Rev?ew of Li teratu re, XXXIV (March 17, 1951), 11, 42-44.

Fadiman, C lifton, "Books," The New Yorker, XVIII (April 18, 1942), 74-75.

F a rrel1, James T. "On the V/rong Side of Town," The New Repub lie, CXXXIV (May 21, 1956) , 18-19.

Ferguson, Otis. "On the Bum." The New Republic. LXXXI II (July 17, 1935), 286-287.

Fiedler, Leslie A. "The Noble Savages of Skid Row," The Reporter. XV (July 12, 1956), 43-44.

Geismar, Maxwell. "Against the Tide of Euphoria," The Nation. CLXXX1I (June 2, 1956) , 473.

______. "Nelson Algren: The Iron Sanctuary," American Moderns: From Rebellion to Conformity (New York. 1958), pp. 187-195. 306

______. "The Postwar Generation in Arts & Letters: Fiction," The Saturday Review, XXXVI (March 14, 1953), 11-12, 60.

Gelfant, Blanche Housman. The American City Novel. Norman, Okla., 1954. Miss Gelfant discusses Algren on pp. 12, 19, 23, 188, 236, 252-257, 259.

Gold, Herbert. "After A l l , Who Is the Enemy?" The New York Times Book Rev?ew. June 2, 1963. Sec. 7, p. 23.

Hansen, Harry. "Fighting Hymn to Chicago," The New York Herald Tribune Book Review. Oct. 21, 1951. Sec, 6, p. 15.

Hass, Victor P. "Algren Sees the World inGrain of Sand," The Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine of Books. May 20, 1956. Sec. 4, p. 4.

"Headli ners and Best S ellers," The New York Times Book Revi ew. June 11, 1950. Sec. 7, P* 5.

Hoffman, Frederick J. The Modern Novel in America, 1900- 1950. Chicago, 1951. Hoffman discusses Algren on pp. 135, 137, 187-188.

Hogan, William. "Worlds in Decay—The Twisted and the Intellectual," The San Francisco Chronicle. May 27, 1956. Sec. This World , pp. 22, 27.

Holmes, John Clellon. "Existentialism and the Novel: Notes and Questions," Chicago Review. XVIII (Summer, 1959), 144-151.

Hutchens, John K. "Books and Things," The New York Hera 1d Tribune. Nov. 26, 1949, p. 8.

"Intellectual as Ape Man." Time. LXXXI (May 31, 1963), 84, 87-

Kazin , A1fred. "Some Peop1e Pass ing By," The New York Times Book Revi ew. May 20, 1956. Sec. 7, p. 4. Republished as "Nelson Algren on the Wild Side" in Kazin's Contemporaries (Boston, 1962), pp. 183-185.

Kelly, James. "Sin-Soaked in Storyville," The Saturday Review, XXXIX (May 26, 1956), 16.

Koningsberger, Hans. "Omnium Gatherum," The Saturday Review. XLVI (May 11, 1963), 30.

Kramer, Hilton. "He Never Left Home," The Reporter. XXVIII (June 20, 1963), 46-47.

Lipton, Lawrence. "A Voyeur's View of the Wild Side: Nelson Algren and His Reviewers," The Chicago Review Anthology, ed. David Ray (Chicago, 1959), pp. 31-41. "The Lower Depths," Time. LIV (Sept. 12, 1949), 104, 106, 108.

M., S. P. [Mandel, SiegfriedJJ [Sketch of legal suit about movie rights of The Man wi th the Go 1 den ArroTI The Saturday Rev iew, XXXIX (May 26, 1956), TZ7 ~

M ailer, Norman. "Big Bite," Esqu i re , LX (Sept., 1 963 ) , 16.

Maloney, John J. "Chicago: Seamy Side," The New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review. Sept. 11, 194-9. Sec. 7, p. 10.

Margoshes, Adam. "Chicago Realist," Current History, II (Auqust, 1942), 467-468.

Marsh, Fred T„ "Poles in Chicago," The New York Times Book Review. May 10, 1942. Sec. 6, p. 6.

Minehan, Thomas. "Born without Luck," The Survey, LXX1 (Aug., 1935), 252.

"Moscow Says 32 Artists in U. S. Joir, in Soviet Fight on Our Policy," The New York Times♦ May 3, 1948. Sec. 1 , pp. 1,5.

"New Novels," The fLondon | Times Literary Supplement. Sept. 19, 1935, p. 578.

Perlongo, Robert A. "Interview with Nelson Algren," Chicago Review, XI (Autumn, 1957), 92-99.

Phillips, William and Philip Rahv. "Literature in a Political Decade," New Letters in America, ed. Horace Gregory (New York, 1937) , pp. 170-181.

"Plumbing the Depths," Newsweek, XLVIII (July 2, 1956), 74-75'.

Podhoretz, Norman. "Books: The Man with the Golden Beef," The New Yorker, XXXII (June 2, 1956), 132, 134, 137-138.

Rahv, Philip. "No Parole," The Nat ion, CLIV (April 18, 1942), 466-467.

Ray, David. "A Talk on the Wild Side:A Bowl of Coffee with Nelson Algren The Reporter, XX (June 11, 1959), 31-33. Republished in Cavalcade IV (July, 1964), 52-55.

["Rev. of Chicago: City on the Make^J The Booklist, XLVII I (Nov. 15, 1951), 99. jlTev. of The Man with the Golden Arm, I The Bookl i s t . XLVI (Nov. 15, 1949) , 97-

[Rev. of A Walk on the Wild Side~j The Booklist, LI I (July 1, 1956) , 458. 308

"Revival in Chicago," Newsweek, LXII (Dec. 9, 1963), 9^-96.

R ideout, Wal ter B. The Radi cal Novel i n the Uni ted States . 1900- 195^-. Cambridge, 1956. Rideout discusses Algren on pp. 185, 2^5, 270, 287 - 288 .

Rivette, Marc. "A Novel of Chicago's Sordid Side," The San Francisco Chron i cle. Oct. 9, 19^9. Sec. This Wor1d , p. 27.

Rolo, Charles J. "Reader's Choice.11 The A tlantic Monthly. CXCVII (June, 1956), 75-81.

"Rough S tuff," Time, LXVil (May 28, 1956), 106.

Rugoff, Milton. "An Exuberant Novel of the Lower Depths," The New York Hera 1d Tribune Book Review. May 20, 1956. Sec. 6, p. b.

Schulberg, Budd. "Heartbeat of a City," The New York Times Book Review. Oct. 21, 1951. Sec. 7, P- 3.

Spectorsky, A. C. "Saloon Street, Chicago," The New York Times Book Review. Sept. 11, 19^+9- Sec. 7, p. 8.

"Three Literary Prizes," The New York Times. March 18, 1950. Sec. 1, p. 12.

Walcutt, Charles Child. American Literary Naturalism: A Divided Stream. Minneapolis, ,1956. Walcutt discusses Algren on pp. 299-300.

Walton, Edith H. "The Book Parade," Forum and Century. XCIV (Sept., 1935), vi-vi i .

W arfel, Harry R. "Nelson Algren," American Novelists of Today (New York, 1951) , pp. 7-8.

Woodburn, John. "People of the Abyss," The New York Times Book Review. Feb. 2, 19^7. Sec. 7, p. 16.