Humboldt’s Gift

Saul Bellow

1973

He was a great entertainer but going insane. The pathologic element could be missed only by those who were laughing too hard to look. Humboldt, that grand erratic handsome person with his wide blond face, that charming fluent deeply worried man to whom I was so attached, passionately lived out the theme of Success. Naturally he died a Failure. What…

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Creator Bio

Saul Bellow

1915–2005
Born in Montreal, novelist Saul Bellow moved to Chicago when he was nine; that city became the background for many of his works. A professor of English at Boston University and other institutions, Bellow wrote best-selling and critically acclaimed novels, short stories, memoirs, plays, and novellas. He received the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, a Pulitzer Prize, three National Book Awards, and a Presidential Medal.

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