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Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize laureate
In 1976, Saul Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the
Nobel Foundation called "the human understanding and subtle analysis of
contemporary culture that are combined in his work." In 2001, at the age of 85,
Saul Bellow sits down with CBC Radio's Eleanor Wachtel for this 40-minute
interview to talk about childhood memories and impressions, language, character
names, being Jewish and more.
• Though Bellow spent most of his life in America, he was born on June 10,
1915, in Lachine, Que., and spent his early childhood in suburban Montreal. He
left for Chicago with his family when he was nine years old, and became an
American citizen 17 years later, in 1941.
• English writer James Wood described Bellow's prose as "intensely lyrical
and musical, its rhythms a pressing mingle of Yiddish, American, English, and
Hebrew ... but it was also grounded in speech, and seemed incapable of
preciousness; ... it was witty, metaphysical, sensuous, playful. Above all,
Bellow saw the world anew."
• Bellow is best known for his novels The Adventures of Augie March,
Seize the Day, Herzog, and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize winner Humboldt's
Gift.
• Saul Bellow's writing drew freely and openly on his own experiences as well
as those of his friends and acquaintances. After the death of his friend,
philosopher and writer Allan Bloom, Bellow wrote a tender farewell in the form
of the novel Ravelstein. The novel revealed that Bloom was gay and had
died of AIDS, facts which Bloom had kept private.
• According to Globe and Mail writer Robert Fulford, winning the Nobel Prize
was sometimes considered a bad omen for American writers, signalling the
beginning of the end of their careers. Steinbeck and Hemmingway are cited as
examples. However, in Bellow's case, it only marked the halfway point in a long,
prolific career.
• In 2007 the first PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction
was awarded to Bellow's friend and one-time student Philip Roth.
• When he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1976, Bellow made a pithy speech at
the banquet. Among other things, he said, "the civilized community agrees that
there is no higher distinction than the Nobel Prize but it agrees on little
else, so I need not fear that the doom of universal approval is hanging over
me."
Medium: Radio
Program: Writers & Company
Broadcast Date: March 4, 2001
Guest(s): Saul Bellow
Host: Eleanor Wachtel
Duration: 39:23
Program: Writers & Company
Broadcast Date: March 4, 2001
Guest(s): Saul Bellow
Host: Eleanor Wachtel
Duration: 39:23
Last updated: October 12, 2012
Page consulted on April 2, 2013
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