John O'Hara

John O'Hara (1905–1970) was an American writer known for his short stories, which are credited with helping to shape the style of The New Yorker, and for novels including Appointment in Samarra and Butterfield 8. Appointment in Samarra follows a car dealer whose life comes apart over a single holiday weekend, a close look at class, pride and self-destruction. O'Hara became a best-selling novelist before he turned thirty, and his fiction sold strongly in the years after World War II.