Roberto Arlt was born in Buenos Aires in 1900. He had a deeply unhappy childhood and was brought up in the city's crowded tenement houses - the same tenements which feature in The Seven Madmen. As a journalist, Arlt described the rich and vivid life of Buenos Aires. As an inventor, he patented a method to prevent ladders in women's stockings.Roberto Arlt died suddenly of a heart attack in Buenos Aires in 1942. He was the author of the novels The Enraged Toy, The Flamethrowers, Love the Enchanter and several plays.