James Thomas Farrell (1904-1979), novelist and social and literary critic, was one of the most unrelenting naturalists in American literature.

Born in Chicago, James Thomas Farrell attended Catholic parochial school. He worked at various jobs before attending the University of Chicago for three years. Here he composed a story called "Studs," which, at his professor's suggestion, he expanded into Young Lonigan (1932), a semi-autobiographical novel about a troubled 15-year-old Chicago youth. A sequel, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934), deals with the protagonist's moral dissolution as a result of his involvement with the Chicago underworld. Judgment Day (1935) closes the trilogy with an affecting account of Stud's death at the age of 29, a helpless victim of biological and environmental conditions. Despite its stylistic dreariness and turgidity, Studs Lonigan is a work of power and a classic of naturalism.

After completing this widely acclaimed but controversial trilogy, Farrell began the Danny...