| Editors' Preface | |
| The Man with the Golden Arm | p. 1 |
| Remembrances | |
| Letter to Joe Haas | p. 345 |
| Arm: A Memoir | p. 349 |
| Algren's Golden Pen | p. 363 |
| Algren as I Knew Him | p. 367 |
| Glasses | p. 371 |
| Nelson Algren's Politics | p. 377 |
| Photographing Nelson Algren | p. 381 |
| Early Reception | |
| Nelson Algren: The Iron Sanctuary | p. 387 |
| Nelson Algren | p. 393 |
| A Voyeur's View of the Wild Side: Nelson Algren and His Reviewers | p. 399 |
| New Views | |
| Algren's Question | p. 411 |
| The Quality of Laughter: Algren's Challenge to the Reader | p. 417 |
| The Story of Decline and the October City | p. 423 |
| The Heart of the Matter | p. 433 |
| The Value of Dissent | p. 437 |
| Golden Arm's Song of Sweet Surrender | p. 439 |
| An Algren Photo Essay | p. 445 |
| Contributor Biographies | p. 451 |
| Acknowledgments and Credits | p. 453 |
| About the Author | p. 455 |