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April 5, 2005
Goodbye Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow died today. For the few that do not know of him, he was among the finest American writers of this or any generation; the 1976 Nobel laureate in literature, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, winner of three National Book Awards, the Jewish Heritage Award and the French Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. He was a member of a University of Chicago "committee" from 1962 to 1993, then University Professor and Professor of English at Boston University and finally Boston University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of English. Along the way, he taught at New York University, Princeton University, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, and Stanford University.
He wrote seventeen books, mostly novels, of which I am proud to say that the following are in my library:
- The Dean's December
- Henderson the Rain King
- Him With His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories
- Humboldt's Gift
- Seize the Day
- To Jerusalem and Back: A personal Account
I have also read
- Herzog
- Mr. Sammler's Planet
and many short stories and articles.
His numerous articles, reviews, and opinion pieces have appeared in nearly every mayor literary journal, magazine, and newspaper.
There was a time when I had an abnormal interest in Bellow and his work. While I have not thought of him for some time, I was remained of his work, and my neglect of it, by the announcement of his death. In the seventies and eighties, he brought me great pleasure.
The New York Times has a good obituary and a review of his major works.
Back in 1956, Alfred Kazin wrote of him,
It is the special distinction of Mr. Bellow as a novelist that he is able to give us, step by step, the world we really live each day -- and in the same movement to show us that the real suffering of not understanding, the deprivation of light. It is this double gift that explains the unusual contribution he is making to our fiction.
That remained true throughout Bellow's literary life.
Thank you, Saul Bellow.
Posted by Duane Smith at April 5, 2005 8:26 PM | Read more on Odds and Ends |
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