1970's The Arts | Bellow, Saul 1915-

WRITER

Themes.

During his years at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University in the 1930s, young Saul Bellow knew instinctively the academic life was not for him. He felt it was too narrow, too dictatorial; only as a writer could he find the freedom and independence he craved to explore his imagination and interpret the world. Bellow was well-read, and his attachment to books led to employment writing book notices in New York. He soon turned to fiction writing and achieved some attention with his first novel, Dangling Man (1943). The book established what was to become typical in Bellow's work over the years: a sensitive protagonist who feels he does not belong or is out of step with the world, searching for some sense of personal destiny or self-realization. This theme paralleled the author's own struggle during his long career for such understanding. The Victim (1947) established Bellow as a...