His novel Herzog, written during this period, became an unexpected commercial success, the first in his life. He lived in Hyde Park, a neighborhood that was known as being a high-crime area back in the day, but he relished it because it enabled him to 'stick to his guns' as a writer, he told Vogue in a March 1982 interview. 'Chicago, with its gigantesque outer life, contained the whole problem of poetry and the inner life in America,' reads a famous line from Humboldt's Gift. To Bellow, Chicago embodied the essence of America, more so than New York. He befriended fellow writer Isaac Rosenfeld while attending Tuley High School in Chicago.Īuthor Saul Bellow (1915 - 2005) with his son Daniel, Chicago, December 1969. Interestingly, he had a lifelong love for the Bible, which started when he began learning Hebrew, and was also fond of Shakespeare and the Russian novelists of the 19th century. Bellow did not heed his mother’s wishes, and instead kept writing. His father worked a few odd jobs to support the family, and his mother, who died when Bellow was 17, was religious and wanted her youngest son to become a rabbi or a concert musician. At age nine, he moved to the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago with his family, a city that would end up becoming the backdrop of many of his novels. He credits the book Uncle Tom’s Cabinfor his decision to become a writer. A debilitating respiratory infection he contracted at the age of eight taught him self-reliance, and he took advantage of his condition to catch up on his reading.

His parents were of Jewish-Lithuanian ancestry and had recently immigrated to Canada from Russia. Saul Bellow was born in Lachine, Quebec, the youngest of four siblings. Notable Quote: 'Was I a man or was I a jerk?' spoken on his deathbed.Children: Gregory Bellow, Adam Bellow, Daniel Bellow, Naomi Rose Bellow.Spouses: Anita Goshikin, Alexandra Tschacbasov, Susan Glassman, Alexandra Ionescu-Tulcea, Janis Freedman.Sammler's Planet (1954, 1965, 1971) Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt's Gift (1976) Nobel Prize for Literature (1976) National Medal of Arts (1988) Awards and Honors: National Book Award for the Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Mr.Selected Works: Dangling Man (1944), The Victim (1947), The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Henderson the Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964), Mr.Education: University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin.Parents: Abraham and Lescha 'Liza' Bellows.

Also Known As: Solomon Bellows (originally Belo, then 'Americanized' into Bellow).

Known For: Pulitzer-Prize-winning Canadian-American author whose protagonists had an intellectual curiosity and human flaws that set them apart from their peers.

ჰენდერსონი, წვიმის მეფე by Saul Bellow