1915-, American novelist; b. Canada. Moral in tone, his novels are concerned
with the individual in an
indifferent society. They include Herzog (1964), Mr. Sammler's Planet
(1970), Humboldt's Gift (1975; Pulitzer),
More Die of Heartbreak (1987), and The Bellarosa Connection (1989).
Bellow was awarded the 1976 Nobel
Prize in literature.
Primary Works
Dangling man. NY: Vanguard P, 1944. PS3503.E4488 D3Selected Bibliography: BooksThe Victim. NY: Vanguard P, 1947. PS3503.E4488 .V5
The Adventures of Augie March, 1953.
Seize the Day, 1956.
Henderson, the rain king; a novel. NY: Viking P, 1959. PS3503.E4488 .H4
Herzog, 1964.
The last analysis. NY: Viking P, 1965. PS3503.E4488 L3
The Arts & the public. Essays by Saul Bellow and others. Edited by James E. Miller, Jr. and Paul D. Herring. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1967 PS688 .A7
Mosby's memoirs and other stories. NY: Viking P, 1968. PS3503.E4488 M6
Mr. Sammler's planet. NY: Viking P, 1970. PS3503.E4488 .M4
Technology and the frontiers of knowledge. Foreword: Daniel J. Boorstin. Contributors Saul Bellow and others. The Frank Nelson Doubleday lectures; 1972 73. T185 T38
Humboldt's gift. NY: Viking P, 1975. PS3503.E4488 H8
To Jerusalem and back: a personal account. NY: Viking P, 1976. DS107.4 B37
The dean's December: a novel. NY: Harper & Row, 1982. PS3503.E4488 D4
Him with his foot in his mouth and other stories. NY: Harper & Row, 1984. PS3503 .E4488 H56
More die of heartbreak. NY: Morrow, 1987. PS3503 .E4488 M5
A theft: a novella. NY: Penguin Books, 1989. PS 3503 .E4488 T4
The bellarosa connection. NY: Penguin, 1989. PS3503 .E4488 B45
Something to Remember Me By, 1991.
It all adds up: from the dim past to the uncertain future: a nonfiction collection. NY: Viking, 1994. PS3503 .E4488 O23
The actual. NY: Viking, 1997. PS3503 .E4488 A63
Bach, Gerhard, and Jakob J. Kollhofer. eds. Saul Bellow at Seventy Five: A Collection of Critical Essays. Tubingen: Narr, 1991.
Bakker, J. Fiction as survival strategy: a comparative study of themajor works of Ernest Hemingway and Saul Bellow. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1983. PS374 .I42 B3x
Bloom, Harold. ed. Saul Bellow. NY: Chelsea, 1986.
Bradbury, Malcolm. Saul Bellow. NY: Methuen, 1982. PS3503 .E4488 Z578
Braham, Jeanne. A sort of Columbus: the American voyages of Saul Bellow's fiction. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1984. PS3503 .E4488 Z58
Clayton, John J. Saul Bellow: in defense of man. Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1979. PS3503.E4488 Z6
Cohen, Sarah B. Saul Bellow's enigmatic laughter. Urbana, U of Illinois P, 1974. PS3503 E4488 Z614
Cronin Gloria L. and Ben Siegel. eds. Conversations with Saul Bellow. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994.
- - -. and L. H. Goldman. eds. Saul Bellow in the 1980s: A Collection of Critical Essays. East Lansing: Michigan State UP, 1989.
Dutton, Robert R. Saul Bellow. Boston: Twayne, 1982. PS3503 .E4488 Z66
Fuchs, Daniel. Saul Bellow: Vision and Revision. Durham: Duke UP, 1984.
Glenday, Michael K. Saul Bellow. Macmillan: London, 1990.
Goldman L. H. et. al. eds. Saul Bellow: A Mosaic. NY: Peter Lang, 1992.
Gullette, Margaret M. Safe at Last in the Middle Years: The Invention of the Midlife Progress Novel: Saul Bellow, Margaret Drabble, Anne Tyler, John Updike. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988.
Hyland, Peter. Saul Bellow. NY: St. Martin's, 1992.
Kiernan, Robert F. Saul Bellow. NY: Continuum, 1989. PS3503 .E4488 Z723
Kulshrestha, Chirantan. Saul Bellow: the problem of affirmation. New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann, 1978. PS3503.E4488 Z73
"Looking for Mr. Bellow." (The Writer's Credo by Gerhard Bach; An Homage to Saul Bellow by Mario Materassi; Meeting With Saul Bellow by Sukhbir Singh; In Praise of Saul's Soul by Teresa F.A. Alves; The Hero's Last Ordeal by Sigrid Renaux.) American studies international 35.1 (Feb 1997): 4-50.
Nault, Marianne. Saul Bellow: his works and his critics: an annotated international bibliography. NY: Garland Pub., 1977. Z8087.8 .N33
Newman, Judie. Saul Bellow and History. NY: St. Martin's, 1984. PS3503 .E4488 Z795
Noreen, Robert G. Saul Bellow: a reference guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1978. Z8087.8 .N66
Opdahl, Keith M. The Novels of Saul Bellow. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1967.
Pifer, Ellen. Saul Bellow against the Grain. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1990.
Porter, M. Gilbert. Whence the power?: The artistry and humanity of Saul Bellow. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1974. PS3503 E4488 Z82
Rovit, Earl H. ed. Saul Bellow: a collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1975. PS3503 E4488 Z843
Trachtenberg, Stanley. ed. Critical essays on Saul Bellow. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1979. PS3503.E4488 Z615
Selected Bibliography: Articles
Anderson, David D. "Chicago Cityscapes by Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson and Saul Bellow." Midwestern Miscellany 13 (1985): 43-49.
- - -. "The Novelist as Playwright: Saul Bellow on Broadway." Saul Bellow Journal (SBN) 5.1 (Wint 1986): 48-62.
- - -. "Saul Bellow and the Midwestern Myth of the Search." SBN 14.1 (Wint 1996): 19-26.
Atlas, Marilyn J. "The 'Figurine' in the China Cabinet: Saul Bellow and the Nobel Prize." Midamerica 8 (1981): 36-49.
Austin, Mike. "Saul Bellow and the Absent Woman Syndrome: Traces of India in 'Leaving the Yellow House'." SBN 11-12.2.1 (Wint 1993-Fall 1994): 146-55.
Bach, Gerhard. "Saul Bellow and the Dialectic of Being Contemporary." SBN 10.1 (Fall 1991): 3-12.
Bawer, Bruce. "Talking Heads: The Novels of Saul Bellow." New Criterion 6.1 (Sep 1987): 8-24.
Birindelli, Roberto. "Tamkin's Folly: Myths Old and New in Seize the Day by Saul Bellow." SBN 7.2 (Sumr 1988): 35-48.
Brauner, David. "Three Solemn Buffoons: Comedy as Alibi in Saul Bellow." SBN 13.1 (Wint 1995): 64-82.
Chavkin, Allan. "The Problem of Suffering in the Fiction of Saul Bellow." Comparative Literature Studies 21.2 (Sumr 1984): 161-72.
- - -. "Fathers and Sons: 'Papa' Hemingway and Saul Bellow." Papers on Language and Literature 19.4 (Fall 1983): 449-60.
- - -. "The Romantic Imagination of Saul Bellow." English Romanticism and Modern Fiction. Ed. Allan Chavkin. NY: AMS, 1993. 113-38.
Demarest, David. "The Theme of Discontinuity in Saul Bellow's Fiction: 'Looking for Mr. Green' and 'A Father-to-be.'" Studies in Short Fiction 6 (Wint 1969): 175-86.
Faraci, Mary. "Saul Bellow and Comparative Politics." SBN 14.1 (Wint 1996): 68-83.
Franza, August. "Saul Bellow: A Turning Point." SBN 9.1 (1990): 36-48.
Gitenstein, R. Barbara. "Saul Bellow of the 1970's and the Contemporary Use of History in Jewish American Literature." SBN 1.2 (Sprg-Sumr 1982): 7-17.
Glenday, Michael K. "Some Versions of the Real: The Novellas of Saul Bellow." The Modern American Novella. Ed. Robert A. Lee. NY: St. Martin's, 1989. 162-77.
Goldman, L. H. "Saul Bellow and the Philosophy of Judaism." Studies in the Literary Imagination 17.2 (Fall 1984): 81-95.
- - -. "The Holocaust in the Novels of Saul Bellow." Modern Language Studies, Potsdam,NY (MLS). 1986 Winter, 16:1, 71 80
Kazin, Alfred. "My Friend Saul Bellow." SBN 4.2 (Sumr 1985): 26-33.
Kraus, Joe. "Dissertations about Saul Bellow: A Supplementary List." SBN 7.2 (Sumr 1988): 84-87.
Morganroth-Gullette, Margaret. "Saul Bellow: Inward and Upward, Past Distraction." SBN 9.1 (1990): 52-78.
Newman, Judie. "From Psyche to Psycho: Saul Bellow and the Degradation of Love." SBN 11.1 (Fall 1992): 9-20.
Nilsen, Helge N. "Saul Bellow and Transcendentalism: From The Victim to Herzog." College Language Association Journal 30.3 (Mar 1987): 307-27.
Opdahl, Keith. "The 'Mental Comedies' of Saul Bellow." From Hester Street to Hollywood: The Jewish American Stage and Screen. Ed. Sarah B. Cohen. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1983.
Pinsker, Sanford. "Saul Bellow, Going Everywhere: History, American Letters, and the Transcendental Itch." SBN 3.2 (Sprg-Sumr 1984): 47-52.
- - -. "Saul Bellow: 'What, in All of This, Speaks for Man?'" Georgia Review 49.1 (Sprg 1995): 79-95.
Rodrigues, Eusebio L. "Beyond All Philosophies: The Dynamic Vision of Saul Bellow." Studies in the Literary Imagination 17.2 (Fall 1984): 97-110.
"Saul Bellow at Eighty." Salmagundi 106-107 (Sprg-Sumr 1995): 31-108.
Siegel, Ben. "Simply Not a Mandarin: Saul Bellow as Jew and Jewish Writer." Traditions, Voices, and Dreams: The American Novel since the 1960s. Eds. Melvin J. Friedman and Ben Siegel. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1995. 62-88.
- - -. "Saul Bellow and the U as Villain." Missouri Review 6.2 (Wint 1983): 167-88.
Trachtenberg, Stanley. "Saul Bellow and the Veil of Maya." Studies in the Literary Imagination 17.2 (Fall 1984): 39-57.
Walden, Daniel. "Urbanism and the Artist: Saul Bellow and the Age of Technology." SBN 2.2 (Sprg-Sumr 1983): 1-14.
Study Questions
"Looking for Mr. Green"
1. (a) What is the purpose in the story of Grebe's supervisor Raynor? What is Bellow's attitude toward Raynor's cynical "wisdom"? Is concern for the individual anachronistic? For philosophical studies?
(b) What is the purpose of the encounter with the Italian grocer who presents a hellish vision of the city with its chaotic masses of suffering humanity?
(c) The old man Field offers this view of money--"Nothing is black where it shines and the only place you see black is where it ain't shining." Discuss. What do you think of the scheme for creating black millionaires? Why does Bellow include this scheme in the story?
(d) What is the purpose of the Staika incident in the story? Raynor sees her as embodying "the destructive force" that will "submerge everybody in time," including "nations and governments." In contrast, Grebe sees her as "the life force." Who is closer to the truth?
(e) The word "sun" and sun imagery are repeated throughout the story. Discuss.
2. (a) Discuss the theme of appearance versus reality.
(b) Bellow ends the story with Grebe's encounter with the drunken, naked black woman, who may be another embodi- ment of the spirit of Staika. Why does Bellow conclude the story this way? Has Grebe failed or succeeded? Is he deceiving himself?
(c) David Demarest comments: "Grebe's stubborn idealism is nothing less than the basic human need to construct the world according to intelligent, moral principles." Discuss.
(d) Believing that "Looking for Mr. Green" needs to be seen "as one of the great short stories of our time," Eusebio Rodrigues argues that the Old Testament flavors it. This story is "a modern dramatization of Ecclesiastes." Discuss.
MLA Style Citation of this Web Page
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 10: Late Twentieth Century: 1945 to the Present - Saul Bellow." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/bellow.html (provide page date or date of your login).
| Top | Chap. 10: Index | Table Of Contents | Home Page | October 8, 2000 |
Copyright © 1999 Infonautics Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Click here
for Terms and Conditions of use.
© 2001, Cándido Pérez Gállego
Página creada y actualizada por grupo "mmm".
Para cualquier cambio, sugerencia,etc. contactar con:
fores@uv.es
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
Universitat de València Press
Creada: 22/02/2000 Última Actualización:
17/01/2001