Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born American writer.
For his literary contributions, Bellow was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize
for Literature, and the National Medal of
Arts. He is the only writer to win the National
Book Award for Fiction three times and he
received the Foundation's lifetime Medal for
Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
in 1990.
In the words of the Swedish Nobel Committee,
his writing exhibited "the mixture of rich
picaresque novel and subtle analysis of our
culture, of entertaining adventure, drastic
and tragic episodes in quick succession interspersed
with philosophic conversation, all developed
by a commentator with a witty tongue and penetrating
insight into the outer and inner complications
that drive us to act, or prevent us from acting,
and that can be called the dilemma of our
age." His best-known works include The Adventures
of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog,
Mr. Sammler's Planet, Seize the Day, Humboldt's
Gift and Ravelstein. Widely regarded as one
of the 20th century's greatest authors, Bellow
has had a "huge literary influence."
Bellow said that of all his characters Eugene
Henderson, of Henderson the Rain King, was
the one most like himself. Bellow grew up
as an insolent slum kid, a "thick-necked"
rowdy, and an immigrant from Quebec. As Christopher
Hitchens describes it, Bellow's fiction and
principal characters reflect his own yearning
for transcendence, a battle "to overcome not
just ghetto conditions but also ghetto psychoses."
Bellow's protagonists, in one shape or another,
all wrestle with what Corde called "the big-scale
insanities of the 20th century." This transcendence
of the "unutterably dismal" is achieved, if
it can be achieved at all, through a "ferocious
assimilation of learning" and an emphasis
on nobility.
Early life
Saul Bellow was born Solomon Bellows in Lachine,
Quebec, two years after his parents, Lescha
and Abraham Bellows, emigrated from Saint
Petersburg, Russia. Bellow celebrated his
birthday in June, although he may have been
born in July. Of his family's emigration,
Bellow wrote:
A period of illness from a respiratory infection
at age eight both taught him self-reliance
and provided an opportunity to satisfy his
hunger for reading: reportedly, he decided
to be a writer when he first read Harriet
Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
When Bellow was nine, his family moved to
the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago,
the city that formed the backdrop of many
of his novels. Bellow's father, Abraham, was
an onion importer. He also worked in a bakery,
as a coal delivery man, and as a bootlegger.
Bellow's mother, Liza, died when he was 17.
He was left with his father and brother Maurice.
His mother was deeply religious, and wanted
her youngest son, Saul, to become a rabbi
or a concert violinist. But he rebelled against
what he later called the "suffocating orthodoxy"
of his religious upbringing, and he began
writing at a young age. Bellow's lifelong
love for the Bible began at four when he learned
Hebrew. Bellow also grew up reading William
Shakespeare and the great Russian novelists
of the 19th century. In Chicago, he took part
in anthroposophical studies. Bellow attended
Tuley High School on Chicago's west side where
he befriended fellow writer Isaac Rosenfeld.
In his 1959 novel Henderson the Rain King,
Bellow modeled the character King Dahfu on
Rosenfeld.
Education and early career
Bellow attended the University of Chicago
but later transferred to Northwestern University.
He originally wanted to study literature,
but he felt the English department was anti-Jewish.
Instead, he graduated with honors in anthropology
and sociology. It has been suggested Bellow's
study of anthropology had an influence on
his literary style, and anthropological references
pepper his works. Bellow later did graduate
work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Paraphrasing Bellow's description of his close
friend Allan Bloom, John Podhoretz has said
that both Bellow and Bloom "inhaled books
and ideas the way the rest of us breathe air."
In the 1930s, Bellow was part of the Chicago
branch of the Works Progress Administration
Writer's Project, which included such future
Chicago literary luminaries as Richard Wright
and Nelson Algren. Many of the writers were
radical: if they were not members of the Communist
Party USA, they were sympathetic to the cause.
Bellow was a Trotskyist, but because of the
greater numbers of Stalinist-leaning writers
he had to suffer their taunts.
In 1941 Bellow became a naturalized US citizen.
In 1943, Maxim Lieber was his literary agent.
During World War II, Bellow joined the merchant
marine and during his service he completed
his first novel, Dangling Man about a young
Chicago man waiting to be drafted for the
war.
From 1946 through 1948 Bellow taught at the
University of Minnesota, living on Commonwealth
Avenue, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
In 1948, Bellow was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
that allowed him to move to Paris, where he
began writing The Adventures of Augie March.
Critics have remarked on the resemblance between
Bellow's picaresque novel and the great 17th
Century Spanish classic Don Quixote. The book
starts with one of American literature's most
famous opening paragraphs, and it follows
its titular character through a series of
careers and encounters, as he lives by his
wits and his resolve. Written in a colloquial
yet philosophical style, The Adventures of
Augie March established Bellow's reputation
as a major author.
In the spring term of 1961 he taught creative
writing at the University of Puerto Rico at
Río Piedras. One of his students was William
Kennedy, who was encouraged by Bellow to write
fiction.
Return to Chicago
Bellow lived in New York City for a number
of years, but he returned to Chicago in 1962
as a professor at the Committee on Social
Thought at the University of Chicago. The
committee's goal was to have professors work
closely with talented graduate students on
a multi-disciplinary approach to learning.
Bellow taught on the committee for more than
30 years, alongside his close friend, the
philosopher Allan Bloom.
There were also other reasons for Bellow's
return to Chicago, where he moved into the
Hyde Park neighborhood with his third wife,
Susan Glassman. Bellow found Chicago vulgar
but vital, and more representative of America
than New York. He was able to stay in contact
with old high school friends and a broad cross-section
of society. In a 1982 profile, Bellow's neighborhood
was described as a high-crime area in the
city's center, and Bellow maintained he had
to live in such a place as a writer and "stick
to his guns."
Bellow hit the bestseller list in 1964 with
his novel Herzog. Bellow was surprised at
the commercial success of this cerebral novel
about a middle-aged and troubled college professor
who writes letters to friends, scholars and
the dead, but never sends them. Bellow returned
to his exploration of mental instability,
and its relationship to genius, in his 1975
novel Humboldt's Gift. Bellow used his late
friend and rival, the brilliant but self-destructive
poet Delmore Schwartz, as his model for the
novel's title character, Von Humboldt Fleisher.
Bellow also used Rudolf Steiner's spiritual
science, anthroposophy, as a theme in the
book, having attended a study group in Chicago.
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences in 1969.
Nobel Prize
Propelled by the success of Humboldt's Gift,
Bellow won the Nobel Prize in literature in
1976. In the 70-minute address he gave to
an audience in Stockholm, Sweden, Bellow called
on writers to be beacons for civilization
and awaken it from intellectual torpor.
The following year, the National Endowment
for the Humanities selected Bellow for the
Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's
highest honor for achievement in the humanities.
Bellow's lecture was entitled "The Writer
and His Country Look Each Other Over."
Bellow traveled widely throughout his life,
mainly to Europe, which he sometimes visited
twice a year. As a young man, Bellow went
to Mexico City to meet Leon Trotsky, but the
expatriate Russian revolutionary was assassinated
the day before they were to meet. Bellow's
social contacts were wide and varied. He tagged
along with Robert F. Kennedy for a magazine
profile he never wrote, he was close friends
with the author Ralph Ellison. His many friends
included the journalist Sydney J. Harris and
the poet John Berryman.
While sales of Bellow's first few novels were
modest, that turned around with Herzog. Bellow
continued teaching well into his old age,
enjoying its human interaction and exchange
of ideas. He taught at Yale University, University
of Minnesota, New York University, Princeton
University, University of Puerto Rico, University
of Chicago, Bard College and Boston University,
where he co-taught a class with James Wood.
In order to take up his appointment at Boston,
Bellow moved in 1993 from Chicago to Brookline,
Massachusetts, where he died on 5 April 2005,
at age 89. He is buried at the Jewish cemetery
Shir HeHarim of Brattleboro, Vermont.
Bellow was married five times, with all but
his last marriage ending in divorce. His son
by his second marriage, Adam, published a
nonfiction book In Praise of Nepotism in 2003.
Bellow's wives were Anita Goshkin, Alexandra
Tsachacbasov, Susan Glassman, Alexandra Ionescu
Tulcea and Janis Freedman. In 1999, when he
was 84, Bellow had a daughter, Rosie, his
fourth child, with Freedman.
While he read voluminously, Bellow also played
the violin and followed sports. Work was a
constant for him, but he at times toiled at
a plodding pace on his novels, frustrating
the publishing company.
His early works earned him the reputation
as a major novelist of the 20th century, and
by his death he was widely regarded as one
of the greatest living novelists. He was the
first writer to win three National Book Awards
in all award categories. His friend and protege
Philip Roth has said of him, "The backbone
of 20th-century American literature has been
provided by two novelists—William Faulkner
and Saul Bellow. Together they are the Melville,
Hawthorne, and Twain of the 20th century."
James Wood, in a eulogy of Bellow in The New
Republic, wrote:
Themes and style
The author's works speak to the disorienting
nature of modern civilization, and the countervailing
ability of humans to overcome their frailty
and achieve greatness. Bellow saw many flaws
in modern civilization, and its ability to
foster madness, materialism and misleading
knowledge. Principal characters in Bellow's
fiction have heroic potential, and many times
they stand in contrast to the negative forces
of society. Often these characters are Jewish
and have a sense of alienation or otherness.
Jewish life and identity is a major theme
in Bellow's work, although he bristled at
being called a "Jewish writer." Bellow's work
also shows a great appreciation of America,
and a fascination with the uniqueness and
vibrancy of the American experience.
Bellow's work abounds in references and quotes
from the likes of Marcel Proust and Henry
James, but he offsets these high-culture references
with jokes. Bellow interspersed autobiographical
elements into his fiction, and many of his
principal characters were said to bear a resemblance
to him.
Criticism, controversy and conservative cultural
activism
Martin Amis described Bellow as "The greatest
American author ever, in my view".
For Linda Grant, "What Bellow had to tell
us in his fiction was that it was worth it,
being alive."
On the other hand, Bellow's detractors considered
his work conventional and old-fashioned, as
if the author was trying to revive the 19th-century
European novel. In a private letter, Vladimir
Nabokov once referred to Bellow as a "miserable
mediocrity." Journalist and author Ron Rosenbaum
described Bellow's Ravelstein as the only
book that rose above Bellow's failings as
an author. Rosenbaum wrote,
Sam Tanenhaus wrote in New York Times Book
Review in 2007:
But, Tanenhaus went on to answer his question:
V. S. Pritchett praised Bellow, finding his
shorter works to be his best. Pritchett called
Bellow's novella Seize the Day a "small gray
masterpiece."
As he grew older, Bellow moved decidedly away
from leftist politics and became identified
with cultural conservatism. His opponents
included feminism, campus activism and postmodernism.
Bellow also thrust himself into the often
contentious realm of Jewish and African-American
relations. Bellow has also been critical of
multiculturalism and once said: "Who is the
Tolstoy of the Zulus? The Proust of the Papuans?
I'd be glad to read him."
Despite his identification with Chicago, he
kept aloof from some of that city's more conventional
writers. In a 2006 interview with Stop Smiling
magazine, Studs Terkel said of Bellow: "I
didn't know him too well. We disagreed on
a number of things politically. In the protests
in the beginning of Norman Mailer's Armies
of the Night, when Mailer, Robert Lowell and
Paul Goodman were marching to protest the
Vietnam War, Bellow was invited to a sort
of counter-gathering. He said, 'Of course
I'll attend'. But he made a big thing of it.
Instead of just saying OK, he was proud of
it. So I wrote him a letter and he didn't
like it. He wrote me a letter back. He called
me a Stalinist. But otherwise, we were friendly.
He was a brilliant writer, of course. I love
Seize the Day."
Awards and honors
1948 Guggenheim Fellowship
1954 National Book Award for Fiction
1965 National Book Award for Fiction
1971 National Book Award for Fiction
1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1976 Nobel Prize in Literature
1988 National Medal of Arts
1989 PEN/Malamud Award
1989 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author
Award
1990 National Book Foundation's lifetime Medal
for Distinguished Contribution to American
Letters
Bibliography
Novels and novellas
Dangling Man
The Victim
The Adventures of Augie March, National Book
Award for Fiction
Seize the Day
Henderson the Rain King
Herzog, National Book Award
Mr. Sammler's Planet, National Book Award
Humboldt's Gift, winner of the 1976 Pulitzer
Prize for Fiction
The Dean's December
More Die of Heartbreak
A Theft
The Bellarosa Connection
The Actual
Ravelstein
Short story collections
Mosby's Memoirs
Him with His Foot in His Mouth
Something to Remember Me By: Three Tales
Collected Stories
Plays
The Last Analysis
Library of America editions
Novels 1944–1953: Dangling Man, The Victim,
The Adventures of Augie March
Novels 1956–1964: Seize the Day, Henderson
the Rain King, Herzog
Novels 1970–1982: Mr. Sammler’s Planet,
Humboldt’s Gift, The Dean’s December
Novels 1984–2000: What Kind of Day Did You
Have?, More Die of Heartbreak, A Theft, The
Bellarosa Connection, The Actual, Ravelstein
Translations
Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Non-fiction
To Jerusalem and Back, memoir
It All Adds Up, essay collection
Saul Bellow: Letters, edited by Benjamin Taylor,
correspondence
Works about Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow's Heart: A Son's Memoir, Greg
Bellow, 2013 ISBN 978-1608199952
Saul Bellow, Tony Tanner
Saul Bellow, Malcolm Bradbury
Saul Bellow Drumlin Woodchuck,Mark Harris,
University of Georgia Press.
Saul Bellow: Modern Critical Views, Harold
Bloom
Handsome Is: Adventures with Saul Bellow,
Harriet Wasserman
Saul Bellow and the Decline of Humanism, Michael
K Glenday
Saul Bellow: A Biography of the Imagination,
Ruth Miller, St. Martins Pr.
Bellow: A Biography, James Atlas
Saul Bellow and American Transcendentalism,
M.A. Quayum
"Even Later" and "The American Eagle" in Martin
Amis, The War Against Cliché are celebratory.
The latter essay is also found in the Everyman's
Library edition of Augie March.
'Saul Bellow's comic style': James Wood in
The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the
Novel, 2004. ISBN 0-224-06450-9.
The Hero in Contemporary American Fiction:
The Works of Saul Bellow and Don DeLillo , Stephanie
Halldorson
Saul Bellow a song, written by Sufjan Stevens
on The Avalanche
See also
List of Jewish Nobel laureates
PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American
Fiction
Wilhelm Reich
References
External links
Works by Saul Bellow at Open Library
Works about Saul Bellow in libraries
Mr. Sammler's City, City Journal, Spring 2008
Nobel site with two speeches & longer biography
Annotated Bibliography of Criticism by the
Saul Bellow Society
Bellow's 1955 autobiographical statement for
reference book
Gordon Lloyd Harper. "Saul Bellow, The Art
of Fiction No. 37". Paris Review. 
JM Coetzee on the early novels
Slate's assortment of other writers' takes
on Bellow, mostly eulogistic
Joyce Carol Oates on Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow 'Bookweb' on literary website
The Ledge, with suggestions for further reading.
Blogpost on Bellow's Russian family name–Belo
or Belov?
Review of Bellow's collected letters
Saul Bellow, a neocon’s tale by John Podhoretz
Reflections with Saul Bellow by Dejan Stojanović
Saul Bellow's grave, Brattleboro, Vermont
'Between Fiction and Autobiography', review
of Letters in The Oxonian Review
"Leaving the Yellow House", a short story
in Narrative Magazine,.
"Bellow and Trotsky", Judie Newman, Berfrois,
1 June 2011
