Algren is best known for his novel "The Man With the Golden Arm" (1949), which won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1950.(With essays by Rachel Kushne and Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)</ref> The protagonist of the book, Frankie Machine, is an aspiring drummer who is a dealer in illicit card games. Frankie is trapped in demimonde Chicago, having picked up a morphine habit during his brief military service during World War II. He is married to a woman whom he mistakenly believes became crippled in a car accident he caused.