Frank Norris

Born in Chicago on March 5, 1870, and raised largely in San Francisco, Frank Norris came of age as the United States was changing fast. He studied art in Paris before turning to writing, and that visual training helped give his fiction its vivid, strongly drawn scenes.

Norris worked as a journalist and became one of the first important American writers associated with literary naturalism, a style that often shows how environment, chance, and powerful social forces shape people's lives. His best-known novels include McTeague: A Story of San Francisco (1899), The Octopus: A Story of California (1901), and The Pit (published in 1903 after his death).

His career was brief but influential. Norris died in San Francisco on October 25, 1902, yet his work continued to matter because of its energy, scale, and tough view of ambition and human struggle.