The Life of Saul Bellow, Volume 1 : To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964

For much of his adult life, Saul Bellow was the most acclaimed novelist in America, the winner of, among other awards, the Nobel Prize in Literature, three National Book Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. __The Life of Saul Bellow__, by the literary scholar and biographer Zachary Leader, marks the centenary of Bellow’s birth as well as the tenth anniversary of his death. It draws on unprecedented access to Bellow’s papers, including much previously restricted material, as well as interviews with more than 150 of the novelist’s relatives, close friends, colleagues, and lovers, a number of whom have never spoken to researchers before. Through detailed exploration of Bellow’s writings, and the private history that informed them, Leader chronicles a singular life in letters, offering original and nuanced accounts not only of the novelist’s development and rise to eminence, but of his many identities—as writer, polemicist, husband, father, Chicagoan, Jew, American. The biography will be published in two volumes. The first volume, __To Fame and Fortune: 1915–1964__, traces Bellow’s Russian roots; his birth and early childhood in Quebec; his years in Chicago; his travels in Mexico, Europe, and Israel; the first three of his five marriages; and the novels from __Dangling Man__ and __The Adventures of Augie March__ to the best-selling __Herzog.__ New light is shed on Bellow’s fellow writers, including Ralph Ellison, John Berryman, Lionel Trilling, and Philip Roth, and on his turbulent and influential life away from the desk, which was as full of incident as his fiction. Bellow emerges as a compelling character, and Leader’s powerful accounts of his writings, published and unpublished, forward the case for his being, as the critic James Wood puts it, “the greatest of American prose stylists in the twentieth century.” Based On Much Heretofore Unavailable Archival Material And Access To Close Relations, And Extraordinary For The Diligence Of Its Scholarship, The Unsparingness Of Its Scope, And The Engaging Clarity Of Its Prose, This Booktraces Not Only Bellow's Rise To Literary Eminence--from The Roots Of His Family In St. Petersburg, Russia, To His Birth And Childhood In Quebec To His Years In Chicago And At The University Of Chicago, To Right Before The Breakout Commercial Success Of His Novel Herzog In 1964--but Also Bellow's Life Away From The Desk, Which Was Rich With Incident. In The Mornings He Wrote; In The Afternoons, He Went Out And Got Into Trouble. Often This Trouble Involved Women--spirited, Intelligent, Beautiful Women. And More: Throughout We Are Given Fresh And Fulsome Readings Of Bellow's Work, From His Early Writings And Debut Novel Dangling Man To Herzog-- Introduction: Bellow And Biography. Russia / Abraham -- Canada / Liza -- Chicago / Maury -- Tuley -- Politics / Anthropology -- Anita / Dangling -- New York -- Minneapolis -- Paris -- Princeton / Delmore -- Augie / Bard / Sasha -- Pyramid Lake -- Betrayal -- Susan / Herzog. Zachary Leader. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. For much of his adult life, Saul Bellow was the most acclaimed novelist in America, the winner, among other awards, of the Nobel Prize in Literature, three National Book Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. The Life of Saul Bellow , by the literary scholar and biographer Zachary Leader, marks the centenary of Bellow's birth as well as the tenth anniversary of his death. It draws on unprecedented access to Bellow's papers, including much previously restricted material, as well as interviews with more than 150 of the novelist's relatives, close friends, colleagues, and lovers, a number of whom have never spoken to researchers before. Through detailed exploration of Bellow's writings, and the private history that informed them, Leader chronicles a singular life in letters, offering original and nuanced accounts not only of the novelist's development and rise to eminence, but of his many identities --as writer, polemicist, husband, father, Chicagoan, Jew, American. The... "Based on much heretofore unavailable archival material and access to close relations, and extraordinary for the diligence of its scholarship, the unsparingness of its scope, and the engaging clarity of its prose, this booktraces not only Bellow's rise to literary eminence--from the roots of his family in St. Petersburg, Russia, to his birth and childhood in Quebec to his years in Chicago and at the University of Chicago, to right before the breakout commercial success of his novel Herzog in 1964--but also Bellow's life away from the desk, which was rich with incident. In the mornings he wrote; in the afternoons, he went out and got into trouble. Often this trouble involved women--spirited, intelligent, beautiful women. And more : throughout we are given fresh and fulsome readings of Bellow's work, from his early writings and debut novel Dangling Man to Herzog"-- Provided by publisher