Dahlberg, Edward [key], 1900–1977, American novelist, critic, and essayist, b. Boston, grad. Columbia, 1925. The illegitimate son of an itinerant hairdresser, he spent much of his childhood in Kansas City. His childhood experiences were recreated in his first novel, Bottom Dogs (1930). Dahlberg lived mostly in Europe. His works include the novels Those Who Perish (1934) and The Olive of Minerva (1976); mystical literary criticism such as Do These Bones Live? (1941); studies of ancient societies such as The Carnal Myth (1968).
See his autobiographical Because I Was Flesh (1964) and The Confessions of Edward Dahlberg (1971); study by H. Billings, ed. (1968).
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