Hubert Selby Jr.
Hubert Selby Jr. was born in Brooklyn and contracted severe lung disease as a young merchant marine, spending a decade hospitalized.
Facing death with no formal education, he resolved to become a writer, reasoning simply that he "knew the alphabet." Drawing from his Brooklyn neighborhood, he spent six years crafting what became Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964).
He went on to write several more novels, including The Room and Requiem for a Dream, works better appreciated in Europe than America.
He later taught creative writing at USC, dying in 2004 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, survived by his wife, four children, and eleven grandchildren.
