Introduction


Saul Bellow

“Fiction is the higher autobiography,” Saul Bellow once said. And true to his words, Bellow infused his work with incidents and characters from his own life and beloved hometown of Chicago. It was a method that worked well: he has garnered more awards for his writing than any other American author, including the Nobel Prize in literature, three Pulitzer Prizes, and the Presidential Medal of Honor. In addition to using personal experience in his writing, shown to particularly good effect in his much-loved breakthrough novel The Adventures of Augie March, Bellow considered himself to be a “historian of society,” and his anthropological approach is apparent in critical and popular successes such as Henderson the Rain King, Herzog, and Mr. Sammler’s Planet.

Essential Facts

  1. Although considered a through-and-through American, Bellow was not actually a native son. He was born in Quebec and didn’t move to the States until he was 9 years old.
  2. Bellow’s mother wanted him to be either a rabbi or a concert violinist. However, during a hospitalization at age eight, Bellow fell in love with literature and committed to that path for the rest of his life.
  3. One of his closest friends was the writer Ralph Ellison.
  4. He once said that the character Eugene Henderson (from Henderson the Rain King), a pig farmer and violinist, was the most like himself.
  5. As to his craft, Bellow claimed, “The writer’s art appears to seek compensation for the hopelessness or meanness of existence.”
 

Recommended Resources

  1. Henderson the Rain King Study Guide (quickNotes)
  2. Herzog Study Guide (eNotes)
  3. Saul Bellow - Critical Survey of Long Fiction
  4. Saul Bellow - Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century
  5. The Adventures of Augie March Study Guide (quickNotes)

All Resources

Display as: Categories, List
  1. A Silver Dish Study Guide
  2. A Theft - Book Review
  3. American Decades
  4. Author Profile
  5. Critical Survey of Short Fiction
  6. Cyclopedia of World Authors
  7. Dangling Man - Literary Characters
  8. Dangling Man - Masterplot
  9. Henderson the Rain King - Literary Characters
  10. Henderson the Rain King - Literary Places
  11. Henderson the Rain King Study Guide (quickNotes)
  12. Herzog - Literary Characters
  13. Herzog - Literary Places
  14. Herzog Study Guide (eNotes)
  15. Humboldt's Gift - Book Review
  16. Humboldt's Gift - Literary Characters
  17. Humboldt's Gift - Literary Places
  18. Humboldt's Gift quickNotes
  19. Humboldt's Gift Study Guide (eNotes)
  20. It All Adds Up - Book Review
  21. Leaving the Yellow House Study Guide
  22. More Die of Heartbreak - Book Review
  23. More Die of Heartbreak quickNotes
  24. Mr. Sammler's Planet - Literary Characters
  25. Mr. Sammler's Planet - Literary Places
  26. Ravelstein - Book Review
  27. Saul Bellow - Critical Survey of Long Fiction
  28. Saul Bellow - Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century
  29. Saul Bellow Contemporary Literary Criticism
  30. Saul Bellow Criticism
  31. Seize the Day (1986)
  32. Seize the Day - Book Review
  33. Seize the Day - Literary Characters
  34. Seize the Day - Literary Places
  35. Seize the Day Study Guide
  36. The Actual - Book Review
  37. The Adventures of Augie March - Book Review
  38. The Adventures of Augie March - Identities and Issues
  39. The Adventures of Augie March - Literary Characters
  40. The Adventures of Augie March - Literary Places
  41. The Adventures of Augie March Study Guide (quickNotes)
  42. The Bellarosa Connection - Literary Characters
  43. The Bellarosa Connection - Masterplot
  44. The Bellarosa Connection Criticism
  45. The Dean's December - Literary Characters
  46. The Dean's December - Masterplot
  47. The Oxford Companion to American Literature Article on Saul Bellow
  48. The Oxford Companion to American Literature Article on The Adventures of Augie March
  49. The Oxford Companion to English Literature Article on Saul Bellow
  50. The Victim - Literary Characters