Letters (45 page)
Authors: Saul Bellow
The bureaucratic machine begins to tie me up—official occasions next Mon. and Tues. You’re lucky not to be here.
But
Herzog
meanwhile is thriving (p. 194 of the
final
version).
Herzog
meanwhile is thriving (p. 194 of the
final
version).
Shils leaves tomorrow morning. I’m taking him to a Chinese dinner tonight, in my opulence. Astonishingly, I wrote that Show Biz piece in two hours and earned two hundred fifty bucks.
There is something that grows for you here under this blue electric blanket.
Kisses and love,
To Susan Glassman Bellow
January 19, 1962 [Chicago]
O Susabella! What a rapid rat-race. These predators of Chicago (U) will leave me no shreds of flesh on my poor bones. I suppose there’s a quick way to handle it all: Yoga, or something. Money takes time. I must abandon
The Noble Savage
. Can’t handle the mail. And I must ever console Keith and assure him (more superfluous letter writing) that he’s a good little Botsford.
The Noble Savage
. Can’t handle the mail. And I must ever console Keith and assure him (more superfluous letter writing) that he’s a good little Botsford.
I miss you, meantime, Susabella. Thank heavens we can observe next Erev Shabbos together.
The heavens are like a flour-sifter. Six inches more of snow today. Great statuary on campus. Streets impassable. [ . . . ]
Love from yr. mate,
Herzog
has rosy cheeks.
has rosy cheeks.
To Susan Glassman Bellow
January 23, 1962 [Chicago]
Dearest Susabreza,
O.K. You’re right—I’m wrong. I suppose it’s one of my unadmirable
spiels
, and you catch me up very responsibly, and like a good wife.
spiels
, and you catch me up very responsibly, and like a good wife.
I’ve made no dates for the weekend. Maybe I’ll pick up Adam on Sunday, but the rest is bed, blanket and you.
A little discouraging last night. Dave Peltz and I took Trilling out slumming. A cold coming we had of it.
Anyway, we’ll rub the whole thing off with erasers of love.
To Anne Sexton
[n.d.] [Minneapolis]
Dear Anne Sexton,
[ . . . ]
I have both your letters now, the good one, and the contrite one next day. One’s best things are always followed by an apologetic seizure. “Monster of Despair” could be
Henderson
’s subtitle. I think you coined this expression. I don’t remember it. At this particular point we seem to have entered into each other’s minds. A marriage of true minds, or meeting arranged by Agapé. (Where has Eros gotten me?) [ . . . ]
Henderson
’s subtitle. I think you coined this expression. I don’t remember it. At this particular point we seem to have entered into each other’s minds. A marriage of true minds, or meeting arranged by Agapé. (Where has Eros gotten me?) [ . . . ]
Your poem [“Old Dwarf Heart”] is genuinely Hendersonian—“breathing in loops like a green hen” is absolutely IT!
Yours in true-minded friendship,
To Susan Glassman Bellow
February 26, 1962 [Chicago]
Dearest Susabousa:
I am seated in my office growling at Life the Tiger. Winter has now turned into a cold fluid—gray. All the old ice looks like Death’s protégé. Even the sparrows are
sick
of this. And the elms. Phooey! [ . . . ]
sick
of this. And the elms. Phooey! [ . . . ]
And I miss you. Your loving
Husband
.
Husband
.
To John Berryman
April 2, 1962 Tivoli
Dear John—
Chicago was colder than the Gold Rush, cliffs of snow and people like Alaskan sourdoughs. I was tempted to fly up to Mpls. but it was even colder there, so I stayed put. [ . . . ] I am writing on a piece of board over my knees. I await spring. You can hear the bushes marking time.
As ever,
To William Phillips
April 5, 1962 Tivoli
Dear William,
It’s true I’ve written something pretty funny and I see no reason why
Partisan
shouldn’t have a look. There’s been some professional interest in the play and while I no longer expect to become an American millionaire, still something may come of this interest. I think maybe the thing to do (for me to do) is to have a talk with my agent and see whether there could conceivably be an objection to publishing a few scenes. I would think not. One of these days I will come into the city for a week of civilized happiness and I’d enjoy having a drink with you.
Partisan
shouldn’t have a look. There’s been some professional interest in the play and while I no longer expect to become an American millionaire, still something may come of this interest. I think maybe the thing to do (for me to do) is to have a talk with my agent and see whether there could conceivably be an objection to publishing a few scenes. I would think not. One of these days I will come into the city for a week of civilized happiness and I’d enjoy having a drink with you.
Best,
To Richard Stern
April 26, 1962 Tivoli
Dear Dick—
I am working like a Polish swine, making bratwurst of myself. [ . . . ] The farce (comedy?) is now entitled
The Upper Depths
and may (n.b.
may
) be produced by Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen. Or perhaps even by Zero Mostel. We live in hope’s eternal purple shade.
The Upper Depths
and may (n.b.
may
) be produced by Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen. Or perhaps even by Zero Mostel. We live in hope’s eternal purple shade.
Susie and Tivoli are blooming. One wife is becoming enough for me (
O Bellowius senex!
) [
70
].
O Bellowius senex!
) [
70
].
Bestow friendly and loving greetings on all.
To John U. Nef
August 10, 1962 Tivoli, N.Y.
Dear Professor Nef,
To be invited to join the faculty of the Committee on Social Thought is a great honor. I gladly accept your offer. I am acquainted with the work of the Committee, and I am happy to know that you think I will be able to contribute something to it.
In my conversations with Edward Shils it was understood that I could not arrange to come for the fall quarter. After some discussion, my wife and I have come to think that we could wind up our affairs in the East by mid-October, and that we could be in Chicago by the end of that month.
I assume it is too late for me to offer a course in the fall quarter. However, I understand that tutoring is also a part of my duties, and I would be happy to make myself available for the balance of the quarter.
I hope you will have no objection to my honoring some previous commitments. They will take me away from the University very seldom, and for brief periods.
I look forward to hearing from you soon, and to seeing you this autumn.
Cordially yours,
To Richard Stern
[Postmarked 22 August 1962; postcard of Menemsha Basin,
Martha’s Vineyard, at evening]
[ . . . ] Play scheduled for Fall ’63 but we’re yukking it up already. Hope you have as much trouble reading this as we had reading yours. [ . . . ] The Vineyard is beautiful—we love it.
Herzog
in final stages—
TNS
put to bed. Freud should have had such a beach—he wouldn’t have had so many theories.
Herzog
in final stages—
TNS
put to bed. Freud should have had such a beach—he wouldn’t have had so many theories.
Love,
To Sondra Tschacbasov Bellow
September 30, 1962 [Tivoli]
Sondra:
The purpose of your letter is evidently to interfere with my right to see Adam. The provisions for visitation in our divorce agreement were not more clearly specified because I assumed you would deal with me in good faith. But on Labor Day you used the child to bargain for some supposed advantage and refused to let him come with me as we had arranged. Adam was greatly disappointed. The violence of that occasion was provoked by you, perhaps deliberately. You tore my clothing, bruised me, and had to be restrained by Ann Berryman from continuing your attack.
I have no desire whatever to see you. I have no plans to interfere with your privacy. But if you persist in your present course, capriciously changing plans, giving me no opportunity to communicate with someone in a position of responsibility about the child, you will leave me no alternative but to go to court to establish my visitation rights. I have in the past been reluctant to seek legal remedies, but you have created an ugly situation. I have no intention of repeating the mistakes I made in Minneapolis when you forbade me to come to the house, my own house, and threatened me with arrest if I came to see the boy. To keep the peace I stayed in a hotel and the child was brought to me by an intermediary. There will be no repetitions of that situation.
Your pugnacity is a matter of record. Even before the divorce you struck me with your fists. You tried to run me down with the car. On the day when you claim to have been assaulted, I came home with bruises. You have been known to do things you could not remember later. My “violence” is probably another one of your hallucinations.
Since you are working, there ought to be someone looking after the child whom I can call. I tried to find out from you who did take care of him after school, but could get nothing but evasions. You have refused to tell me what provisions, if any, have been made for his daily care. On Saturday September 22, 1962 when I phoned to arrange to see Adam, you told me to phone next day to give you time to make arrangements. On Sunday night when I called again you refused me a visit, alleging for the first time that he had an appointment with the dentist. You also cried out, “You can’t see him!” Knowing that I would be leaving soon for Chicago and would be gone for some months, you were simply giving me the runaround. For reasons of your own, you don’t want me to see the boy.
I would like Adam to visit with me this coming weekend and I want you to tell me where I can pick him up on Friday October 5th. I am, as I have always been, prepared to agree to anything sensible but I will not accept your arbitrary conditions. A fixed pattern will be set up for these visits. I shall be coming in periodically during my temporary residence in Chicago. You will have ample notice of my visits. I want to have Adam with me on all holidays—Christmas, Easter and part of every summer. If you do not agree to reasonable arrangements I shall have to go to law to try to obtain my rights.
Quarrels and litigation will do him no good. For his sake I have avoided all conflict with you and I suggest that you try to behave reasonably, as I for my part intend to do. I plan to come to Tarrytown next Friday to pick him up, and I expect to hear from you that he will be delivered to me by someone other than yourself. I will not ask anyone to go in my place while I wait in a restaurant like a wrongdoer. I won’t send anyone for him. I will insist on my rights, and the thing will be done decently and in good order. I expect a reply from you before Friday. I hope you will not compel me to take legal steps.
To Sondra Tschacbasov Bellow
October 11, 1962 [Tivoli]
Sondra:
The fact that you yourself phoned me last week to make the arrangements for seeing Adam amounts to an acknowledgement of the impossibility of doing these things through the complicated system of intermediaries you wanted to force upon me. I myself want as much as possible to avoid direct contact with you, but I don’t want my rights to see Adam questioned, and I won’t tolerate any nonsense. I have asked you questions about the boy which are still unanswered. I want to know who takes care of him while you are at work. Please send me the full name and address of the woman you spoke of. I think I should have also a calendar from Adam’s school so that I can plan to have the child during holidays. In addition, I think you should send me, or have the doctor send me, an occasional medical report. Adam didn’t seem at all well last weekend. He has lost weight and he is not at all cheerful.
I am going to be in New York the weekend of December 7th, and I’d like to pick the boy up on Friday evening and keep him with me for the weekend. If you insist on his attending Sunday School, I can take him there myself and wait for him. With nearly two months’ notice, I hope you will not invent any appointments at the last moment. Two weeks ago you told me Adam could not see me because he had to see the dentist. He told me last Saturday that he’s never been to the dentist.
I shall send you my new address in Chicago and I expect to hear from you about the weekend of the 7th. I hope we have seen the last of these unnecessary vexations and squabbles.
To Toby Cole
October 28, 1962 Chicago
Dear Toby:
The money’s come, and Susie and I have found an apartment on the South Side (address forthcoming; just now the joint’s being painted) and everything is highly satisfactory so far. Can’t say I miss New York. Chicago with its old associations is oppressive at times and will challenge the flexibility of both of us. But we can always go back to Tivoli, if we’re overcome, and spend the rest of our lives in recovering.
Of course I’m highly pleased about the Piccolo Teatro [di Milano]—don’t they want to wait till I’ve rewritten the play? They’re welcome to it as is. Or perhaps [Giorgio] Strehler has ideas that might be of use to me? I’d be glad to hear from him (when I’ve finished my book; all these moves have not advanced it). [ . . . ]
Since Zero [Mostel] is having temperament (an old-fashioned affliction of artists in the last century) why shouldn’t [Jackie] Gleason have a look? Tell Zero from me that what his mood wants is a swift kick in the rear to hasten its departure. We all carry approximately the same load of unwashed plates from life’s banquet. On the weak flat feet of the soul.
Henderson
should make things easier, not harder. Well, don’t repeat this to him at all. Just give him my regards and say “Bellow’s compliments, and please hurry up a little.”
Henderson
should make things easier, not harder. Well, don’t repeat this to him at all. Just give him my regards and say “Bellow’s compliments, and please hurry up a little.”
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