Nathanael West

Nathanael West (1903–1940) was an American novelist and screenwriter whose darkly comic fiction, including Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust, satirized American life.

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Miss Lonelyhearts: A 1933 novel by Nathanael West about a newspaper advice columnist overwhelmed by readers’ suffering. West’s first major novel turns a newspaper advice column into a bleak satire of faith and compassion.
New York City: The largest city in the United States and a major center of publishing, theater, and film. West grew up in New York and set much of Miss Lonelyhearts in its newspaper world.
Josephine Herbst: An American novelist and journalist whose fiction often addressed political and social change. Herbst was West’s second wife and part of the literary circle that supported his work.
Advice column: A newspaper or magazine feature that answers readers’ questions about personal problems. The advice-column format gives Miss Lonelyhearts its structure and exposes the limits of easy counsel.
American literary naturalism: A literary tradition portraying people constrained by social forces, environment, and circumstance. West’s characters face forces that overwhelm individual will, though his grotesque humor departs from classic naturalism.
The Day of the Locust: A 1939 novel by Nathanael West depicting Hollywood and the people drawn to it during the Great Depression. West’s final novel expands his satire into a portrait of Hollywood’s frustrated outsiders.
Hollywood: A Los Angeles district that became a major center of the American film industry. West worked as a screenwriter there, and its film culture became the setting of his final novel.
Harold Ross: An American editor who founded The New Yorker in 1925. Ross published West’s short fiction, including “The Impostor,” in the magazine.
Hollywood novel: A novel centered on the film industry, its workers, or its culture. The Day of the Locust is a defining example of fiction about Hollywood.
Black comedy: Humor that finds comic effect in disturbing, tragic, or taboo subjects. West’s laughter at suffering and violence helped establish a distinctly dark comic tone.