Saul Bellow

Born

in Lachine, Quebec, Canada

June 10, 1915

Died

April 05, 2005

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction

Influences

Dostoyevsky, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Anton Chekov, The bible, Willia ...more

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Saul Bellow was born in Lachine, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, in 1915, and was raised in Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago, received his Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1937, with honors in sociology and anthropology, did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, and served in the Merchant Marines during World War II.

Mr. Bellow's first novel, Dangling Man, was published in 1944, and his second, The Victim, in 1947. In 1948 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent two years in Paris and traveling in Europe, where he began The Adventures of Augie March,, which won the National Book Award for fiction in 1954. Later books include Seize The Day (1956), Henderson The Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964), Mos Saul Bellow was born in Lachine, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, in 1915, and was raised in Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago, received his Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1937, with honors in sociology and anthropology, did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, and served in the Merchant Marines during World War II.

Mr. Bellow's first novel, Dangling Man, was published in 1944, and his second, The Victim, in 1947. In 1948 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and spent two years in Paris and traveling in Europe, where he began The Adventures of Augie March,, which won the National Book Award for fiction in 1954. Later books include Seize The Day (1956), Henderson The Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964), Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories (1968), and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970). Humboldt's Gift (1975), was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Both Herzog and Mr. Sammler's Planet were awarded the National Book Award for fiction. Mr. Bellow's first non-fiction work, To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account, published on October 25,1976, is his personal and literary record of his sojourn in Israel during several months in 1975.

In 1965 Mr. Bellow was awarded the International Literary Prize for Herzog, becoming the first American to receive the prize. In January 1968 the Republic of France awarded him the Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, the highest literary distinction awarded by that nation to non-citizens, and in March 1968 he received the B'nai B'rith Jewish Heritage Award for "excellence in Jewish literature". In November 1976 he was awarded the America's Democratic Legacy Award of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the first time this award was made to a literary personage.

A playwright as well as a novelist, Saul Bellow was the author of The Last Analysis and of three short plays, collectively entitled Under the Weather, which were produced on Broadway in 1966. He contributed fiction to Partisan Review, Playboy, Harper's Bazaar, The New Yorker, Esquire, and to literary quarterlies. His criticism appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Horizon, Encounter, The New Republic, The New Leader, and elsewhere. During the 1967 Arab-lsraeli conflict, he served as a war correspondent for Newsday. He taught at Bard College, Princeton University, and the University of Minnesota, and was a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. ...more

Combine Editions
Saul Bellow’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 86,406 ratings · 5,778 reviews · 138 distinct works • Similar authors

	Herzog by Saul Bellow, Philip Roth (Introduction) 3.78 avg rating — 17,418 ratings — published 1964 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, Christopher Hitchens (Introduction) 3.85 avg rating — 15,404 ratings — published 1953 — 84 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Henderson the Rain King 3.79 avg rating — 13,086 ratings — published 1959 — 99 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick (Introduction) 3.55 avg rating — 9,065 ratings — published 1956 — 70 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Humboldt's Gift 3.86 avg rating — 7,588 ratings — published 1975 — 73 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow, Stanley Crouch (Introduction) 3.75 avg rating — 2,965 ratings — published 1970 — 65 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ravelstein 3.61 avg rating — 2,806 ratings — published 2000 — 57 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dangling Man by Saul Bellow, Salman Rushdie (Introduction) 3.53 avg rating — 2,191 ratings — published 1944 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Victim 3.52 avg rating — 1,623 ratings — published 1947 — 43 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	More Die of Heartbreak 3.76 avg rating — 1,168 ratings — published 1987 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Saul Bellow…

Quotes by Saul Bellow

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”
― Saul Bellow

tags: imagination, inspiration, writing

6661 likes

“People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.”
― Saul Bellow

tags: book-lovers, libraries, reading

3577 likes

“Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.”
― Saul Bellow, Herzog

tags: life

1777 likes

See all Saul Bellow's quotes »

Polls

May 2017 New School Classic Poll

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, 1997, 512

58 votes, 17.8%

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 1997, 607

54 votes, 16.6%

My Ántonia by Willa Cather, 1918, 232

37 votes, 11.3%

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, 1980, 416

31 votes, 9.5%

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton, 1908, 182

27 votes, 8.3%

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, 1989, 288 pgs

26 votes, 8.0%

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, 1962, 246

21 votes, 6.4%

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, 1922, 232

20 votes, 6.1%

The Long Walk by Richard Bachman/Stephen King, 1979, 370

12 votes, 3.7%

The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata, 1954, 189

11 votes, 3.4%

The Winds of War by Herman Wouk, 1971, 892

11 votes, 3.4%

Silence by Shūsaku Endō, 1966, 201

9 votes, 2.8%

After the Divorce by Grazia Deledda, 1902, 174

5 votes, 1.5%

Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow, 1959, 341

4 votes, 1.2%

326 total votes

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