Saul Bellow, 1915- . Canadian-American author
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Finding-Aid for the Bellow Papers [00139]Collection Description
Letter, 1970
1 item
Access: Open
American novelist whose characterizations of modern urban man, disaffected by society but not destroyed in spirit, earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Brought up in a Jewish household and fluent in Yiddish—which influenced his energetic English style—he was representative of the Jewish-American writers whose works became central to American literature after World War II. Bellow's parents emigrated in 1913 from Russia to Montreal. When he was nine they moved to Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University (B.S., 1937), and afterward combined writing with a teaching career at various universities, including the University of Minnesota, Princeton University, New York University, Bard College, the University of Chicago, and Boston University. His books, most notably The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Herzog (1964), Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1970), and Humboldt’s Gift (1975) are among the most widely acclaimed American novels of the post-WWII era.
The letter is dated August 7, 1961 and is from Bellow to
Graham Ackroyd in reply to a question concerning Bellow’s
novel Dangling Man. He discusses Paul Bowles, Hemingway,
and Faulkner and thanks Ackroyd for his letter.
Selected Names
Bellow, Saul, 1915- . Canadian-American author