Albert Halper
Albert Halper was an American author born on August 3, 1904, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the child of Lithuanian immigrants who owned a grocery store, which provided him with early insights into urban life. Halper's literary journey began with humble jobs, including working at his parents' store and various clerical positions, while he pursued writing on the side. His breakthrough came in 1928 when he had works accepted by the esteemed poet Marianne Moore, prompting him to relocate to New York City to further his writing career.
Halper gained recognition with his third novel, *Union Square*, published in 1933, which solidified his status as a prominent writer. His works often reflected his Chicago experiences, capturing the struggles of individuals in an industrialized society. Throughout his career, he published several novels and short stories, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1934. Halper also dabbled in playwriting and edited anthologies about Chicago. He spent his last years in Pawling, New York, where he died from leukemia on January 19, 1984. Halper's authentic storytelling and focus on personal narratives have earned him a place as a significant figure in American literature.
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Subject Terms
Albert Halper
- Born: August 3, 1904
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Died: January 19, 1984
- Place of death: Pawling, New York
Biography
Albert Halper was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 3, 1904, the fifth of six children of Rebecca Alpert Halper and Isaac Halper, who had immigrated from Lithuania and opened a small grocery store on Chicago’s West Side. Albert attended Tilden Grammar School and John Marshall High School, graduating in 1921. From 1924 to 1926, Halper attended evening classes at Northwestern University. He also educated himself by visiting the Art Institute, seeing plays, and reading voraciously.
Halper married Pauline Friedman, a textile designer, painter, and pianist, on January 6, 1942. They had one son, Thomas, before they divorced in 1956. Halper married Lorna Blaine Howard, an artist, on December 28, 1956.
Halper first learned about Chicago street life by working in his parents’ store while he was a child. At fourteen, he got a job as an errand boy for a fur store and haberdashery. After high school, he worked as an order picker at a catalog house and then as a shipping clerk in an electrotype company. In 1927, he started working at Chicago’s central post office.
Meanwhile, Halper tried unsuccessfully to compose popular songs and paid to have a volume of his poems printed. His luck changed in 1928, when Marianne Moore, a poet and an editor of a prestigious New York magazine, Dial, notified him that she had accepted both an article and a short story he had written. He immediately quit his job and caught a bus to New York City. When he ran out of funds, he returned to Chicago, got a job at a law office, and saved his money. In September, 1929, he was back in New York, where he managed to sell enough stories and sketches to support himself.
In 1930, Halper was a resident at the Yaddo Artists’ Colony. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing in 1934. After his first two novels were rejected, his third novel, Union Square, was not only accepted for publication but became the Literary Guild selection for March, 1933. This novel established his reputation as a writer. After publishing On the Shore, a collection of short stories about Chicago, he wrote four long, realistic novels, all drawn from his experiences in Chicago. Halper then brought out two novels set in New York and another novel about New Yorkers in Miami Beach, Florida, but he continued to publish short stories set in Chicago and articles about his native city. He also edited two anthologies about Chicago.
In addition, Halper wrote two plays, both of which closed almost immediately after they opened. In 1970, he published a memoir, Good-bye, Union Square. He spent his later years in Pawling, New York, where he died of leukemia on January 19, 1984.
Halper’s best short stories and novels drew on his early life in Chicago. While other writers were immersed in radical causes, Halper wrote authentic fiction about individuals attempting to survive in an urban, industrialized environment, and for this work he became known as one of the leading fiction writers of his time.