Albert Halper (1904-1984) was born and raised on Chicago’s West Side, where, as this New York Times “City Room” piece quotes him, he was bothered by “the strong odor from the stockyards rolling in heavy waves all the way from the South Side.” He got away from that and, in his quest to succeed as a writer, came to New York.

Perhaps by happenstance he settled in what is arguably the City’s premier literary neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights, moving into a walk-up on Sidney Place. He wrote short fiction, plays, and a number of novels, including Atlantic Avenue (1956), which is set in this neighborhood in the 1950s and, perhaps because of its seedy-looking cover (the illustrator, Arthur Shilstone, says he’d like to forget having done it) seemed to the Times’ Andy Newman an exemplar of “pulp fiction.” On February 27, Newman posted the cover in the “City Room” blog and, under the headline “Want to be a Pulp Fiction Writer? Here’s Your Chance”, invited readers to write a first paragraph for the novel. Continue Reading →