born Feb. 27, 1904, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
died Aug. 22, 1979, New York, N.Y.
U.S. novelist and short-story writer.
A native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Chicago, he is known for his realistic portraits of the city's lower-middle-class Irish population, drawn from his own experiences. His well-known Studs Lonigan trilogy
Young Lonigan (1932), The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934), and Judgment Day (1935)
traces the self-destruction of a spiritually crippled young man. He later planned a cycle of 25 novels, of which he completed 10. Of the 25 novels he published, The Face of Time (1953) is among the best. He also produced 17 short-story collections.