Bellow, Saul

Collection of 4 ALSs, 1 TLS, and 1 autograph postcard, 8 pp. (size varies), Reno, Chicago, Tivoli NY, and Rome, 10 October 1955–28 July 1979. 6 autograph and typed envelopes.

Carbon typescript of an early version of The Adventures of Augie March, inscribed by Bellow on the first page "The Life of Augie March among the Machiavellians," approximately 220 pp. irregularly paginated, c. 1952–53; frayed at edges, some pages with tears and slight loss of text — Carbon typescripts of chapters 15 and 16 of The Adventures of Augie March, 57 pp., with note from literary agents Russell & Volkening: "Mr. Bellow has asked us to send this to you," c. 1953; slight wear.



Photocopy of a draft of Bellow's Nobel lecture, inscribed by Bellow in ink at the bottom of the first page, "To my dear friends Herb and Mitzie without whom in this vale of tears, I would have wept twice as much. With my best love, Saul," 13 pp. 



Carbon typescript of the short story "Him with His Foot in His Mouth, signed "S. Bellow" on first page, 54 pp + 1 p. photocopy.  Autograph envelope. 

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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A fine collection of letters and carbon typecripts sent by Bellow to his friends Prof. Herbert McClosky and his wife Mitzie of Berkley, California.

The letters begin with a 1955 note from the author in hiding in Reno: "I am taking you into my confidence, since no one knows my where abouts. Dreary, legal nonsense which I'll explain later." This no doubt refers to the dissolution of his marriage to first wife Anita Goshkin. The divorce took place the next year.  In 1959, Bellow divorced his second wife, Alexandra Tschacbasov, and would marry Susan Glassman in 1961. On 7 September 1960, in the midst of this change, he wrote, "Every other year I have to start life completely anew, and I'm getting to be damned good at it. This time I'm out of this world and if I reach the age of 10 in this new existance I'll be the oldest prodigy ever with Buster Brown & bald spot."

In 1978, Bellow asked Herb McClosky to agree to become his literary executor.  McClosky eventually turned Bellow down on this proposal.  On 7 March 1978, Bellow wrote from Chicago, setting out a few thoughts on what the job would entail: "I have many manuscripts on deposit with Robert Rosenthal, curator of Special Collections at the Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago. Most of these are drafts of books I have published and these are available to scholars and archaeologists who are qualified to work in the ruins. None of these earlier versions will be published — I'd sooner have them thrown out. There is nothing now in the Rosenthal collection that deserves printing — I except the letters … Work in progress now may be publishable if I should not be here to complete it. You will have to use your judgement as to that.  From time to time I have kept journals and I occasionally come upon these among the middens of paper in my cupboards. They embarrass me and I generally throw them out. As for movie and television sales, I've never objected to these. Within reason. So far I've been lucky. I've sold movie rights but no films have been made … I think of television programs as mere bubbles and movies as wills-o'-the-wisp over the same swamps."

A fine and previously unknown collection of Saul Bellow material.