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Frank
Norris is best remembered for his 1899 novel, McTeague, the sordid
story of a Polk Gulch dentist. Norris died in 1902 at the age of 32, but
made his mark with naturalistic novels influenced by the work of Emile
Zola. In his short but storied life, Norris studied art in Paris, attended
Harvard University for a year, worked in South Africa as a travel writer,
and covered the Spanish-American War in Cuba for McClure's. Norris' observations
as a journalist covering the local scene for The Wave between 1891-1898
provided the writer with material for McTeague and his other San Francisco
novels, Blix, and Vandover and the Brute. The alley named in honor of Norris
is located off Larkin Street between Bush and Pine. McTeague became the
basis for Erich Von Stroheim's silent epic, Greed.
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