An American author and self-proclaimed "cripple". His writing included essays, stories, and novels. He contracted polio at the age of 11, leaving him confined to steel braces and crutches shortly after. Kriegel recounted his experience with the illness in his memoir, The Long Walk Home, published in 1964. He received both Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, and three of his books were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year.