it ByJoshKrauter Senior staff writer Editors note: In this weekly series, we explore the lives and works of notable Nebraska artists of the 20th cen tury. “I may be wrong - I have been wrong about so many things — but I can’t recall ever hearing or knowing of a son-of-a-bitch who did not do all right for himself. I’m talking about real sons of-bitches, understand. The Grade-A, double-distilled, steam-heated variety. You take a man like that, a son-of-a bitch who doesn’t fight it - who knows what he is and gives his all to it - and you’ve really got something. Rather, he’s got something. He’s got all the things that are held out to you as a reward for being a non-son-of-a-bitch.” - Jim Thompson, “The Nothing Man” Jim Thompson made a living writ ing about and for SOBs, but he didn’t get any of the rewards for not being a SOB until after his death. Robert Polito, author of “Savage Art,” a biography of Thompson, called him a “novelist of failure, not a failed novelist.” This is certainly true. Thompson wrote about killers, corrupt cops, alcoholic reporters and other i assorted failures, but his novels were always sharp, clear and exciting. His life was another story. Thompson was often overlooked, and when he died, none of his books were available in the United States. Thompson was born in Anadarka, Okla., in 1906. His family moved back and forth from Burwell, Neb., and Oklahoma throughout his childhood. At age 25, Thompson enrolled in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an agriculture major. His professors were so impressed with his writing that they recommended him to Prairie Schooner Editor Lowry Wimberley. Thompson later wrote fiction and poet ry for the publication, but he quit school for financial reasons. Thompson then embarked on a series of odd jobs, including being a steeplejack, burlesque actor, profes sional gambler and seller of bootleg whiskey. He was working in the West Texas oil fields when he began to be published in true-crime magazines. He moved back to Oklahoma and joined the Oklahoma Federal Writers Project in 1936, becoming head of the organization in 1939. In 1940, he resigned and spent the next 10 years working in an aircraft plant and later reporting for the New York Daily News and the Los Angeles Times Mirror. His time in New York and Los Angeles pro vided information for his crime novels. Swto9tecetoOketaM5«fl»9 Oea 1776 MorttMttSfreH A