Saul Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976
Saul Bellowwas praised for his vision, his ear for detail, his
humor, and the masterful artistry of his prose. Born of Russian
Jewish parents in Lachine, Quebec in 1915, he was raised in
Chicago. He received his Bachelor's degree from Northwestern
University in 1937, with honors in sociology and anthropology, and
did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin. During the Second
World War he served in the Merchant Marines.
His first two novels,Dangling Man(1944) andThe Victim(1947) are
penetrating, Kafka-like psychological studies. In 1948 he was
awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent two years in Paris and
traveling in Europe, where he began his picaresque novelThe
Adventures of Augie March, which went on to win the National Book
Award for fiction in 1954. His later books of fiction includeSeize
the Day(1956);Henderson the Rain King(1959);Mosby's Memoirs and
Other Stories(1968);Mr. Sammler's Planet(1970);Humboldt's
Gift(1975), which won the Pulitzer Prize;The Dean's
December(1982);More Die of Heartbreak(1987);Theft(1988);The
Bellarosa Connection(1989);The Actual(1996);Ravelstein(2000); and,
most recently,Collected Stories(2001). Bellow has also produced a
prolific amount of non-fiction, collected inTo Jerusalem and Back,
a personal and literary record of his sojourn in Israel during
several months in 1975, andIt All Adds Up, a collection of memoirs
and essays.
Bellow's many awards include the International Literary Prize
forHerzog, for which he became the first American to receive the
prize; the Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, the highest
literary distinction awarded by France to non-citizens; the B'nai
B'rith Jewish Heritage Award for "excellence in Jewish Literature";
and America's Democratic Legacy Award of the Anti-Defamation League
of B'nai B'rith, the first time this award has been made to a
literary personage. In 1976 Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature "for the human understanding and subtle analysis of
contemporary culture that are combined in his work."
By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“Bellow evokes places, ideas, people…on the edge of history, an
inch from disaster, yet brimming with argument and words…. An
impassioned and thoughtful book.” –The New York Times Book
Review
“Essentially a plea for a greater understanding of the state of
Israel by one of its most articulate admirers.” –The Times
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