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Saul Bellow, 1915- . Canadian-American author


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Finding-Aid for the Bellow Papers [00140]

Collection Description

Speech, 1976

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 speech was delivered on March 9, 1965 and is for Bellow’s acceptance of his National Book Award, which he received for Herzog.


Selected Names

Bellow, Saul, 1915- .  Canadian-American author

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