Nelson Algren Fountain

Intersections of Milwaukee Avenue, Ashland Avenue, and Division Street, Chicago

Polonia Triangle

Best known for his novel The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first National Book Award in 1950, Nelson Algren lived in Chicago the great majority of his life, beginning at the age of three, when his parents came here from Detroit. Algren was considered one of the major writers of his generation, based on his novels, short stories and prose poem collection. The…

Best known for his novel The Man with the Golden Arm, which won the first National Book Award in 1950, Nelson Algren lived in Chicago the great majority of his life, beginning at the age of three, when his parents came here from Detroit. Algren was considered one of the major writers of his generation, based on his novels, short stories and prose poem collection. The fountain in the middle of what is known as the Polonia Triangle acts as a memorial to Algren, one of the neighborhood's most famous writers. A traffic accident at this corner in Algren's The Man with the Golden Arm puts Frankie Machine's wife, Sophie Majcinek, in a wheelchair. The memorial is inscribed with a quote taken from Algren’s Chicago: City on the Make: “For the masses who do the city’s labor also keep the city’s heart.”

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