His books should, I think, be classified as Cautionary Tales, parables about a Kingdom of Hell whose ruler is not so much the Father of Lies as the Father of Wishes. Shakespeare gives a glimpse of this hell in Hamlet, and Dostoievsky has a lengthy description in Notes from the Underground. ...West's descriptions of Inferno have the authenticity of first-hand experience: he has certainly been there, and the reader has the uncomfortable feeling that his was not a short visit. (W. H. Auden: The Dyer's Hand).

Born Nathaniel von Wallenstein Weinstein the author later changed his name to Nathanael West because, he told his friend the poet William Carlos Williams, “Horace Greeley said, “Go West, y

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First published 21 March 2002

Citation: Wisker, Gina. "Nathanael West". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 March 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4670, accessed 20 November 2009.]