According to Harold Augenbraum, "in the late 1940s and early 1950s he was one of the best known literary writers in America". The lover of French writer Simone de Beauvoir, he is featured in her novel "The Mandarins", set in Paris and Chicago. He was called "a sort of bard of the down-and-outer" based on this book, but also on his short stories in "The Neon Wilderness" (1947) and his novel "A Walk on the Wild Side" (1956). The latter was adapted as the 1962 film of the same name (directed by Edward Dmytryk, screenplay by John Fante).