Nathanael West

Nathanael West, born Nathan Weinstein, wrote two of American literature's sharpest satires: Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), narrated by a newspaper advice columnist drowning in the despair of his letter-writers, and The Day of the Locust (1939), a portrait of Hollywood's fringes on the edge of eruption. Neither sold well in his lifetime; both are now considered classics of American fiction.