Letters (98 page)
Authors: Saul Bellow
My dear friend Stephen Motika traveled with me to Chicago to help with the early stages of research. Brett Hool, Lindsay Alexander and, especially, Patrick “Memphis” Callihan transcribed endlessly and accurately. Patrick has additionally given yeoman service in securing photographic permissions. My freelance editor, Kristin Camp Sperber, was unfailing in precision and insight. Janet Biehl, my copyeditor, saved me from many a blunder. All those at Viking Penguin who have labored long have my thanks: Carolyn Carlson, Beena Kamlani, Amanda Brower, Shannon Twomey and Francesca Belanger. At
The New Yorker
, where an excerpt from this book appeared, I got to know the surpassing professionalism of David Remnick and Katherine Stirling.
The New Yorker
, where an excerpt from this book appeared, I got to know the surpassing professionalism of David Remnick and Katherine Stirling.
Without the ferocious advocacy of Andrew Wylie and Jeffrey Posternak, agents to the Estate of Saul Bellow, this book could not have come to be. I am also grateful to their colleague Alexandra Levenberg, who cheerfully and expertly addressed issue after issue. Walter Pozen, Saul Bellow’s lawyer, has been an essential guide and occasional Dutch uncle. Good, wise, sharp-eyed Joel Conarroe read every blessed word of the proofs. To Philip Roth, a godfather to these pages, I owe incalculable debts.
I’d like also to thank Saul Bellow’s young daughter Rosie (cat lover, violinist, deep thinker) for her friendship, and for telling me off on one occasion, when I deserved it. To Rosie’s mother, the gifted and indefatigable Janis Freedman Bellow, who photocopied all letters leaving Bellow’s desk during the last twenty-three years of his life, I am boundlessly grateful: for her scholarly foresight, for the trust she has reposed in me, and for her warmth and wit in fair and foul weather. Were it within my purview to dedicate this book I would do so to J. F. B.
Finally, I want to thank Saul Bellow for the privilege of spending each afternoon of the last three years with him.
INDEX
Page numbers in
bold
indicate correspondence with individuals.
bold
indicate correspondence with individuals.
Abel, Lionel
absurdity
The Actual
(Bellow)
(Bellow)
Adams, Alice
Adams, J. Donald
adolescence
The Adventures of Augie March
(Bellow)
(Bellow)
completion and revisions
Dean Borok and
discussions about
Augie March
Augie March
enthusiasm for writing
episodic nature
excerpt
publication of chapters
reviews
“The Adventures of Saul Bellow” essay
age and aging
coping with
death and
fatigue and
forgetfulness
old friends and
old men in novels and plays
thoughts on
Agnon, S. Y.
agnosticism
Air India plane crash
alchemy of writing
alimony
Alison, Barley
Alison, Michael
All Marbles Still Accounted For
(unfinished novel)
(unfinished novel)
All The King’s Men
(Warren)
(Warren)
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
American Communist Party
American writing and writers
Augie March
and
and
Bernard Malamud and
discussion of
Invisible Man
Invisible Man
distinct identity of
Ellison on purpose of fiction
exposing the seeming
Ames, Elizabeth
Amis, Martin
Anderson, Sherwood
Anne Bradstreet
(Berryman)
Anon
(journal)
(journal)
Anthony, Joseph
anthropology
anthroposophy
anti-Semitism
Christopher Hitchens and
Ezra Pound and
Hannah Arendt and
Harvard Shop Club speech
Jerusalem Book Fair and
Jewish writers finding their place and
reviews of
The Dean
and
The Dean
and
Ruth Wisse’s article on
Apple, Max
Arendt, Hannah
Army service
art
artistic principles
emergence vs. imposition of positions in
foundation of
non-definitive answers of
power of individual speech and
“prepared” attitudes and
value of
writers as prophets
Asher, Aaron
atheism
Atlantic Monthly
Atlas, James
Auden, W. H.
Auerbach, John
aging and illnesses
Bellow’s services to the arts award
Bellow’s seventy-fifth birthday
Boston University
discussion of Borges
divorce from Alexandra
each other’s writing
health, writing, and Israel
Kibbutz S’dot Yam
politics
stroke suffered by
visits to Vermont
Austin, Lyn
avant-garde
writing
writing
Baldwin, James
Bard College
Barfield, Owen
Barfield’s judgment of Bellow’s novels
Bellow’s study of Barfield’s writings
death of
discussions of Israel
discussions of Steiner
discussions of writing
meetings with
Barshevsky, Yetta
Barzun, Jacques
Bazelon, David
anthropology
Bellow’s advice about writing fiction to
Bellow’s plans to meet with
discussion of reviews of their writing
discussion of
The Victim
with
The Victim
with
discussions of politics and revolution
mutual friend Margaret
opinion of Bellow’s writing
Paris and France
reading, translating, and writing
remarks on Rome to
University of Minnesota
Beach, Joseph Warren
The Beacon
Begin, Menachim
Behrstock, Julian
Bellevue Hospital
Bellow, Adam (son)
affection for
college career of
conversations with
correspondence with
custody and parenting issues
infancy and childhood
visits with
Bellow, Alexandra Ionescu Tulcea
career in mathematics
divorce from
mentioned
Romanian family of
Bellow, Daniel (son)
affection for
bar mitzvah of
correspondence with
marriage of
mentioned
visits with
Bellow, Gregory (son)
childhood
college and
letter about alimony to
marriage of
mentioned
visits with
Bellow, Janis Freedman
doctoral studies of
marriage to
relationship with
Bellow, Maurice (brother)
Bellow, Naomi Rose (daughter)
Bellow, Sam (brother)
Bellow, Susan Glassman
alimony and child support issues
discussions of writing with
move to Chicago
relationship with
settlement payment
Belo, Abram (father)
arguments with
immigration and career of
money from
reaction to death of
relationship with
respect for
Belo, Liza (mother)
Bentley, Eric
Berghof, Herbert
Berlin, Isaiah
Bernick, Isadore
Berryman, John
alcoholism of
Bellow’s opinion of
children of
discussions of poetry and death
discussions of poetry and writing
friendship with
literary magazine work
suicide of
Berryman, Kate
Best, Marshall
bibliophilia
Billy Phelan
(Kennedy)
(Kennedy)
Birstein, Ann
Blackmur, R.P.
Blake, William
Bloom, Allan
death of
friendship with
illness of
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