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The first book in Farrell's five-volume series to be republished by the University of Illinois Press, A World I Never Made introduces three generations from two families, the working-class O'Neills and the lower-middle-class O'Flahertys. The lives of the O'Neills in particular reflect the tragic consequences of poverty, as young Danny O'Neill's parents--unable to sustain their large family--send him to live with his grandmother. Seen here at the age of seven, Danny is fraught with feelings of anxiety and dislocation as he learns the ins and outs of life on the street, confronting for the first time a world he never made.

The fourth novel in James T. Farrell’s pentalogy chronicles Danny O’Neill’s coming of age. Recording his reactions to initiation into college life at the University of Chicago and the imminent death of his grandmother, one of his primary caretakers, Danny realizes the value of time and gains confidence in his writing abilities. As he works on his first novel, he prepares to leave his family, his Catholicism, and his neighborhood in Chicago behind for a new life as a writer in New York.