Nathanael West

Consulting "A Book of Days for the Literary Year," one of the many sources from which we steal material, we note that on this date in 1921, Nathanael West flunked out of Tufts, where he had gained admission by using the high school transcripts of someone who happened to have the same name. 

This is only one of the reasons to admire Nathanael West (ne Nathan Von Wallenstein Weinstein--and what are the chances of finding someone else with that name?); another is his habit, while managing his family's Kenmore Hall Hotel, of letting his indigent artist, writer and musician friends live there rent-free.

Okay, the main reason to raise a glass to the memory of Nathanael West is the set of short novels he published, two of which--"Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust"--are modern classics.

West was married to Eileen McKenney, the original of "My Sister Eileen," which has to be one more reason to admire him.  

Both were killed in a motor vehicle accident.  West was thirty-seven years old.