Farrell, James Thomas [key], 1904–79, American novelist, b. Chicago. In his fiction Farrell expressed anger against the brutal economic and social conditions that produce emotional and material poverty. His work, noted for the frankness of its language and its detailed realism, is in the tradition of naturalism. Farrell's first series of novels about life among the Irish Catholic population of Chicago's South Side was the Studs Lonigan trilogy: Young Lonigan (1932), The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934), and Judgment Day (1935). Another of his series was the Danny O'Neill pentalogy: A World I Never Made (1936), No Star Is Lost (1938), Father and Son (1940), My Days of Anger (1943), and The Face of Time (1953). Farrell's other works include numerous collections of short stories; several volumes of essays, including Reflections at Fifty (1954); and innumerable novels, among them Ellen Rogers (1941), Boarding House Blues (1961), and The Dunne Family (1976).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: American Literature: Biographies
