In the essay below, Cox and Chatterton provide an overview of Algren's short stories, stating that critical focus on his novels has minimized "Algren's considerable achievement in the [short story genre."]

In the following essay, Lid discusses the primary conflicts in the short story "A Bottle of Milk for Mother" by examining Algren's use of detail, character, and symbolism.

In the following introduction to The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren, Drew provides an overview of the time Algren spent in Texas during the 1930s and discusses how the author incorporated his experiences in the Southwest into his short stories.

Nelson Algren is known as a Chicago novelist, but he is only secondarily an urban writer. He has chosen, rather, to explore the theme of death and survival among our Lumpenproletariat. Of his four novels, all of one and two-thirds of another are set entirely outside Chicago. In The Neon Wilderness, his collection of stories, at least one third take place outside the urban world. In brief, only slightly more than half his published fiction is centrally concerned with Chicago…. Somebody in Boots, Algre...

In the following excerpt, Lid provides an overview of Algren's career and critical reaction to his works. He also discusses the short story "A Bottle of Milk for Mother."

In the following essay, Silkowski discusses themes of identity and isolation in "A Bottle of Milk for Mother, "focusing on how to make the story meaningful to students.

In the following introduction to the 1986 edition of The Neon Wilderness, Carson calls the collection "the pivotal book of Nelson Algren's career" and comments on Algren's writing style and the relationship between his short stories and his novels.

In the following review of The Last Carousel, Frakes comments on Algren's use of humor in the stories.

In the following review of The Last Carousel, Maloff faults Algren's overblown prose, his self-indulgence, and the repetitive nature of the stories in the volume.

In the following excerpt taken from an essay in which Bluestone primarily discusses Algren's novels, the critic provides a mixed assessment of The Neon Wilderness, focusing on the story "Design for Departure."

In the review of The Neon Wilderness below, Brown praises Algren's portrayal of the downtrodden and discusses the plots of various stories.

In the following excerpt, the critic praises the short stories in The Last Carousel and discusses the similarities between Algren's fiction and nonfiction.

In the following review of The Neon Wilderness, Woodburn states that the collection is uneven but praises Algren's sympathetic characterization.

In the following excerpt from a review of the anthology Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters, Frankel discusses Algren's introduction to the work and the one story he contributed, "The House of the Hundred Grassfires."

A Walk on the Wild Side … deserves to be read by every Catch 22 and Cuckoo's Nest freak just so they can find out what opened the door for two novels that had the same kind of effect on the changing American consciousness that Bob Dylan has had. It's not only that before Heller and Kesey there was Algren. It's that Algren is where they came from, and the fantasy/reality, inside/outside paradoxical view of the inversion of the American Dream that is central to their books was firs...

In the following excerpt, Geismar comments on Algren's focus on character development in The Neon Wilderness.

I have never quite met Nelson Algren—we talked on the phone once—but he has been a continuing influence in my life. He is the poet of the sad metropolis that underlies our North American cities; I was among those millions who caught an early chill there. Reading Algren didn't dispel the chill, but it did teach us to live with it and to look around us with deepened feelings and thoughts. Algren's Chicago and the people who live in its shadows are still there. Algren is their tragi...

Below, the critic provides a positive review of The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren.

Below, Wilhelm comments favorably on The Texas Stories of Nelson Algren.