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Abel, Lionel, 149
Abishag motif, 171
Above Ground (Ludwig), 136–39
Josh in, 137–38
Louie in, 136, 138
Mavra in, 137–38
“Adam and Eve on Delancey Street” (Rosenfeld), 103
Adventures of Augie March, The (Bellow), 24, 28, 42, 47, 50–62, 65, 71, 74, 106, 121, 155
Augie in, 27, 43–46, 51–56, 58–60, 64, 77, 93
Basteshaw in, 59–60
the Commissioner in, 46
Dingbat in, 46
Five Properties in, 46, 55–57
genesis of, 48–49
Georgie in, 54–55
Grandma Lausch in, 53–55
Mimi in, 26, 58
Mintouchian in, 26–27, 58–59, 76, 92
Modern Library edition of, 60
Mr. Kreindl in, 54
Renee in, 45
reviews of, 51–52, 176
sales of, 61, 62
Simon in, 36, 41, 43–46, 62
Thea Fenchel in, 57
William Einhorn in, 46
African Americans, 13, 27, 72, 88–89
“authenticity” of, 73, 78
in Chicago, 149, 156–57, 201, 202, 205–6
colloquial speech of, 27, 74, 76
criminal, 156–57, 160–62, 164–65, 201–3
ideal of ultimate freedom to, 78
Jews compared with, 77, 79, 89
“primitive energy” of, 160–62
in prison, 201
racial discrimination against, 68–69, 78, 85, 156–57, 162–63, 202
stereotypes of, 89, 156
as students, 154
style and artistry of, 77
survival of, 78
as writers, 65–89, 156–57
see also Black Power; civil rights movement; racism; slaves
Agee, James, 172
Ahab, Captain (Melville character), 72, 114
Aida (Verdi), 182
Aleichem, Sholem, 20, 39, 78
algebra, 198
American Academy in Rome, 82
American Express, 40
An Age of Enormity (Rosenfeld), 95
Anderson, Sherwood, 36, 52
Andrews, Joseph (Fielding character), 51
“Another Rare Visit with Noah Danzig” (Epstein), SB as Danzig in, 14–16
Ansonia Hotel, 122
anti-Communism, 68, 71, 149, 153
antinomianism, 153–54
anti-Semitism, 217
Antony, Mark, 180
Apartment, the (film), 180
Apple, Max, 66
Appleton, Wis., 171
Arendt, Hannah, 21
banality of evil theory of, 164
Arkansas, 85
Atlas, James, 175
avant-garde, European, 72
Babel, Isaac, 20
Bagdasar, Dumitru, 191–93
death of, 192–93
medical career of, 191–92
Bagdasar, Florica, 193, 194, 198
Balzac, Honoré de, 60
Bard College, 65, 84, 125
Ellison as a teacher at, 85
SB as a teacher at, 85, 107, 112, 124, 152
Baron, Salo, 41
Barrett, William, 175
Barrytown, N.Y., 112
Baudelaire, Charles, 31
Bazelon, David, 101
Beats, 50
Beckett, Samuel, 108
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 16
Bellow, Abraham (father), 28, 46
bootlegging of, 35, 38–39
coal business of, 35, 40
death and funeral of, 82, 90, 93, 94
escape from Russian prison by, 35
harsh, angry personality of, 37, 39–40, 41, 62, 91
relationship of Morrie Bellows and, 39–40, 41, 91
relationship of SB and, 37, 61–62, 90–91, 93, 94
SB on, 37, 39, 61–62
SB’s inheritance from, 83, 86
Bellow, Adam (son), 84, 196
birth of, 125
childhood and adolescence of, 127, 129, 141
on Morrie Bellows, 38
on SB, 22, 31, 38, 72, 89, 129, 141, 143
Bellow, Alexandra Ionescu Tulcea (fourth wife), 14, 189–200, 206–7, 218
birth of, 191
Bloom and, 216
character and personality of, 191, 198, 206–7, 213, 216–17
childhood and adolescence of, 192–93, 197
defection to U.S. by, 194
education of, 193, 194
on Edward Shils, 150
family background of, 191–93
first marriage of, 191, 192, 194
as a mathematician, 189–91, 195, 197, 216, 217
memoir of, 192
relationship of SB and, 189–91, 195–99, 204, 207, 215–16
on SB, 189–90, 198–99, 215–16
SB on, 195
as Vela, 213, 215
work ethic of, 190
Bellow, Anita Goshkin (first wife), 36, 41, 48
relationship of SB and, 70–71, 82–83, 89, 96, 216
Bellow, Daniel (son), 143
bar mitzvah of, 196
childhood and adolescence of, 196
on Morrie Bellows, 38
on SB, 38, 196
Bellow, Greg (son), 71, 196
childhood and adolescence of, 83, 84, 96, 127
memoir of SB by, 111
on Morrie Bellows, 41
Bellow, Jane (sister), 35, 36, 121
Bellow, Janis Freedman (fifth wife):
relationship of SB and, 215, 216
as Rosamund, 215, 220
on SB, 38
Bellow, Liza Gordon (mother), 28, 35, 67
Bellow, Saul:
alleged betrayal of friends by, 14–16
anti-Communism of, 68
anti-modernism of, 80
articles by, 22–24, 50, 61
autobiographical characters of, 31, 44, 52, 62–64, 89, 118–19, 135, 171, 177–84, 186
biographies of, 38, 79–80, 123, 139
birth of, 12, 18, 35
book reviews by, 30, 73
calculus study of, 190
centennial of birth of, 12
character and personality of, 11, 18, 20–21, 52–53, 66, 116, 123–24
Chicago apartment of, 194–95
childhood and adolescence of, 11, 18, 21, 28, 35–36, 40, 44, 46–47, 57, 64, 95, 96, 101, 218–19
comedic writing of, 17, 20, 24, 25, 36, 47, 108
constant philandering of, 71, 106, 125, 141–43
cooking pastime of, 152
criticism of, 23, 158–59
criticism of American fiction by, 22–24, 80
depiction of people and personalities by, 12–17, 22, 25–28, 31–33, 36, 41–46, 49, 51–64, 70, 106–12, 221
early novels of, 16, 25, 44, 47–48, 70, 93
early reading of, 36
education of, 18, 28, 36, 40, 57, 96, 98, 109
elegant manners of, 27
extended family relationships (Old System) of, 142–43, 166
failure feared by, 62
fame of, 17, 61, 71, 139
fans of, 12–13
fictional depictions by others of, 14–16, 30–31, 105–6
fifth wife of, see Bellow, Janis Freeman
financial concerns of, 71
first wife of, see Bellow, Anita Goshkin
food poisoning of, 215
fourth wife of, see Bellow, Alexandra Ionescu Tulcea
generosity of, 152, 169
girlfriends of, 141–43, 180
high, inventive language of, 152
influence of, 17
Jewishness of, 18–20, 28–29, 36, 40, 61, 89, 152, 196–97
journal of, 142–43
last words of, 38
lectures of, 134, 158–59
literary and intellectual influences on, 14, 73, 87, 101
marital catastrophes of, 89, 118, 127, 139, 181–82
mood of restless discovery in novels of, 13
National Book Award of, 61, 71
natty attire of, 15, 27, 30, 87
nicknames of, 11, 96
Nobel Prize and address of, 31–32, 36, 106, 195–96
as a “performing writer,” 16
physical appearance of, 11, 15, 27, 133
physique and height of, 30
prose style of, 12–16, 20–21, 26–28, 33, 48, 50–52, 56–57, 60–61, 90–94, 214
Reichian therapy of, 71, 83, 101, 102–3, 107, 121, 124, 125, 153, 177
second wife of, see Bellow, Sondra Tschacbasov
self-confidence and focus of, 47, 62
self-criticism of, 116, 129, 135, 145, 152, 156
short stories of, 16, 29, 41, 71, 83, 97–98, 102, 105, 142, 152
siblings of, 35, 121
teaching of, 27, 84, 85, 107, 112, 122, 125, 139–40, 145, 155, 176, 197, 209
third wife of, see Bellow, Susan Glassman
violin playing of, 195
wealth of, 17, 139
wit and intellect of, 27, 53, 152
work ethic of, 123, 127, 140–41, 190
Yiddish speaking of, 18, 26–29, 36, 52, 66, 79, 131
Bellow, Sondra Tschacbasov (second wife), 32–33, 45
abortion of, 126
attractive appearance of, 122–23
Catholic conversion of, 123, 130–31
character and personality of, 33, 123, 126–27, 129–30
childhood and adolescence of, 123
childhood sexual abuse of, 123
education of, 122
love affair of Jack Ludwig and, 14, 85, 119, 124–26, 129–30, 135–37, 139
relationship of SB and, 82–85, 89, 94, 122–27, 129–30, 134–35, 137, 138–39, 141, 181, 216
unpublished memoir of, 123, 126, 139
Bellow, Susan Glassman (third wife), 40, 133, 189
relationship of SB and, 88, 89, 139–41, 143, 181–82, 196, 216
Bellows, Joel (nephew), 41
Bellows, Lynn (niece), 40, 41
Bellows, Marge, 42
Bellows, Morrie (brother), 14, 35–63, 94
adultery scandal of, 41–42
angry, arrogant personality of, 35–36, 38, 39–41, 43–45, 47, 56, 62, 93, 98, 113
appeal of money and power to, 47
childhood and adolescence of, 39–40, 47
coal business of, 36, 37, 40
death of, 215
education of, 40
relationship of Abraham Bellow and, 39–40, 41, 91
relationship of SB and, 35–41, 43, 44–45, 53, 62, 64, 90, 93
in SB fiction, 36, 41–46, 49, 56, 62–64, 121
SB on, 45
Bellows, Sam (brother), 46
business career of, 35
childhood of, 40
death of, 215
prison term of, 196
in SB fiction, 121
Bellows Coal, 37
Bennington College, 82, 122
Berdyaev, Nikolai, 118
Berkshire Mountains, 128
Berman, Shelly, 105
Berryman, John, 94, 118, 122, 126, 170, 174
relationship of SB and, 155
beryllium, 109, 184
Best, Marshall, 134
Bible, 212
“Black Boys and Native Sons” (Howe), 78
Blackmur, R. P., 178
black panthers, 13
Black Power, 79, 89
Bloom, Allan, 209–17
Alexandra Bellow and, 216
charismatic personality of, 209–10, 216, 220
childhood and adolescence of, 210–11
criticism of America by, 211–12
education of, 210
homosexuality of, 214, 217
illness and death of, 210
Jewish background of, 211
political philosophy of, 217
as Ravelstein, 14, 33, 207, 209–10, 213
relationship of SB and, 209–11, 216, 220–21
teaching of, 209–10, 211
Blue Mask, The, 169
Borok, Dean, 41–43
correspondence of SB and, 42–43
Borok, Marcie, 41–42, 45
Boston, Mass., 113–14, 191
Botsford, Keith, 124, 126, 184
Bovary, Emma (Flaubert character), 124
Brady, Diamond Jim, 170
Brandeis, Irma, 152
Brent, Jonathan, 131
Brent, Stuart, 131
British Guiana, 115
Brothers Karamazov, The (Dostoevsky):
Alyosha Karamazov in, 46
Fyodor Karamazov in, 46–47, 130
Ivan Karamazov in, 46, 206
Bruckner, D. J. R., 194
Buber, Martin, 118
Bucharest, 191, 198–99
U.S. bombing of, 192
Bucharest, University of, 194
Burke, Edmund, 153
Burton, Sir Richard, 109
Bye Bye Braverman (film), 106
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 174
calculus, 190
Callahan, John, 87
Call It Sleep (Roth), 52
Cambridge, 151
Camus, Albert, 26
Canada, 42
cannibalism, 185, 186
Capone, Al, 40
Cather, Willa, 206
Cavanagh’s saloon, 170
Chapman, Chanler, 112–16, 124
character and personality of, 107, 113, 114–16
death of, 114
as Henderson, 14, 107, 112, 114, 115–16
relationship of SB and, 107, 112–13, 114–16
Chapman, John Jay, 113–14, 115
Chapman, Minna, 113–14
“Charm and Death” (Bellow), 102, 105
Cheever, John, 88, 108
Cheever, Susan, 20
Chekov, Anton, 37, 96
Chelsea Hotel, 123
Chicago, Ill., 13, 21, 28, 35–36, 45, 46–47, 49, 53, 61, 88, 96, 99, 100, 104–5, 121, 139–41, 184, 199–201
African Americans in, 149, 156–57, 201, 202, 205–6
crime and poverty in, 199, 201–2, 206
ghettos of, 201–2
Hyde Park in, 141, 199
North Side of, 194
SB’s apartment in, 194–95
South Side of, 40–41
Chicago, University of, 21, 27, 96, 98, 100, 105, 149, 152, 201, 210
Committee on Social Thought at, 16, 145, 146, 150, 153, 196, 209
Hillel Club at, 139
Chicago Bulls, 213, 214
child psychology, 193
Circe the Enchantress (film), 171
civil rights movement, 75
Clemenceau, Georges, 26
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, 180
Closing of the American Mind, The (Bloom), 210–13, 220
Cody, Buffalo Bill, 170
Cohen, Joshua, 17
Columbia Hotel, 170, 187
Columbia University, 159, 176
Commentary, 14, 19, 30, 73, 103
communism, 80, 192, 197, 198
Communist Party, 67–68, 74–75
Compass Players, 105
Coney Island, N.Y., 173, 182
Conrad, Joseph, 58, 72, 85, 107, 108, 151, 155, 200, 201, 205, 209
Cook County jail, 201
Copperfield, David (Dickens character), 51
Cornell University, 154
“Cousins” (Bellow), 41
Covici, Pat, 60, 83, 127, 129–30
Cowley, Malcolm, 48
Crane, Stephen, 85
Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky), 104
Raskolnikov in, 98, 105
Crouch, Stanley, 155, 157
Cudahy Mansion, 171
Culture Wars, 211
Cushing, Harvey, 191
Czechoslovakia, Soviet take over of, 198
Damascus, 178
Dangling Man (Bellow), 16, 44, 47–48, 176, 219
Joseph in, 70
Dannhauser, Werner, 215
Dante Alighieri, 113, 199, 202
Davidson, Harriet, 79
“Dead, The” (Joyce), 93
Dean’s December, The (Bellow), 120, 194
African Americans in, 13, 201–3, 205–6
Albert Corde in, 200–207
Bucharest section of, 198–99, 200
Chicago section of, 199–200
Lucas Ebry in, 201, 204
Maxie in, 204–5
Minna in, 200, 202, 203–4, 206–7
Rick Lester in, 201–2
Rufus Ridpath in, 205
Spofford Mitchell in, 202–3
Toby Winthrop in, 205
Valeria in, 203–4
Vlada in, 206
Death in Venice (Mann), 23
Aschenbach in, 212–13
democracy, liberal, 211
Depression, Great, 58
Dick Cavett Show, The, 31
Dickens, Charles, 13, 51, 60, 72, 151, 153, 183–84
Dissent, 161
Don Quixote (Cervantes), 47
Don Quixote in, 108
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 17, 20, 37, 39, 55, 59, 72, 85, 97, 102, 104, 155, 183–84, 209
works of, 46–48, 68, 130, 206
Douglass, Frederick, 75
Dream Songs (Berryman), 170
Dreiser, Theodore, 36, 45, 50, 53, 81
Du Bois, W. E. B., 74
Edison, Thomas Alva, 185–86
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 177–78
elections, U.S., 1952 presidential, 177–78
Eliade, Mircea, 215, 218
Eliot, George, 151
Eliot, T. S., 21, 98, 170, 184
Elkin, Stanley, 130
Ellison, Fanny, 70, 84–86
Ellison, Lewis, 67
Ellison, Ralph, 65–89, 136, 181
adulterous affair of, 82, 83, 86
as an African American, 27, 65, 68–69, 73, 77–79, 85, 88–89
biography of, 79
character and personality of, 65–66, 70–71, 78, 87–88
childhood and adolescence of, 65, 67, 87
comparison of SB and, 66–67, 68, 70, 77, 90
creative shutdown of, 66, 81, 86, 87–89, 94
death of, 86
early artistic interests of, 67
education of, 67
essays of, 77, 78, 79, 89
fame of, 71, 73
as fellow of American Academy in Rome, 82, 83
genesis of writing career of, 67–68
hard drinking of, 70, 88
liberal politics of, 67–68, 89
Merchant Marine service of, 68
National Book Award of, 71
relationship of SB and, 65–66, 70–74, 79, 82–89, 94, 127
sartorial style of, 85
SB influenced by, 14, 87
SB on, 79–80, 81, 87–88
teaching of, 85
trumpet playing of, 65
unfinished second novel of, 86–87
Yiddish speaking of, 79
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 12, 49, 61, 69, 75, 92
Encounter, 22–24
Engel, Monroe, 44–45, 106
English language, 29, 36, 49
colloquial American, 27, 72
Epstein, Joseph, 153
on SB, 14–16, 150
on Shils, 150–51
Euclid, 190
existentialism, 107
Exodus, Book of, 28
Fairlie, Henry, 151
Farber, Manny, 183–84
Farrell, James T., 52, 172
fascism, 101–2
Faulkner, William, 48, 61, 74, 85, 136
Federal Writers’ Project, 67
Fiedler, Leslie, 19, 21, 77–78
Fielding, Henry, 26, 51, 111
Finnegans Wake (Joyce), 170, 187
Fixer, The (Malamud), 17
Flaubert, Gustave, 25, 32, 60–61, 209
Forest Hills, N.Y., 70
Fox, Eleanor, 44, 99
Franciscans, 98
Freifeld, Sam, 61–62, 176, 204
French language, 36
Freud, Sigmund, 57, 102, 104, 118, 154–55, 171, 174, 193
on memories, 167
superego concept of, 154
Friedman, Milton, 41
Fulbright grants, 178
Gameroff family, 142
Gatsby (Fitzgerald character), 18
Genesis, Book of, 18, 28
Isaac in, 50
Sarah in, 50
Genesis (Schwartz), 174–75
Georgia, 45, 62
German language, 147
Germany, Nazi, 13, 101, 154, 157, 163, 192
Germany, Weimar, 177
Ghost Writer, The (Roth), 66
Malamud as Lonoff in, 30
SB as Felix Abravanel in, 30–31
“Gimpel the Fool” (Singer), SB’s translation of, 29
Glotzer, Al, 149
God, 167
belief in, 98
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 171
Gogol, Nikolai, 15
“Goin’ Home,” 183
Goldberg, Sam, 196
Goldstone, Linda, 203
Goncharov, Ivan, 17
Goodbye, Columbus (Roth), 30
Gorgias (Plato), 213
Gottlieb, Adolph, 123
Great Jewish Short Stories (Bellow, ed.), 18–19
Greek tragedy, 76
Greenberg, Clement, 72
Greenberg, Eliezer, 29
Grene, David, 150
Grew, Philip, 201
Gromer, Crystal, 201–2
Gromer, Mark, 201–2
Guillain-Barré syndrome, 210
Haggard, H. Rider, 109
Hamlet (Shakespeare), 70
Hamlet in, 120
Hanfstaengel, Putzi, 131
Hardy, G. H., 190
Harris, Mark, 159
Hartnett, Edith, 146
Harvard University, 113
Heart of Darkness (Conrad), 107
Kurtz in, 108
Hebrew language, 18, 28
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The, 197
Heidegger, Martin, 118, 119, 154
Heifetz, Jascha, 15–16
Heine, Heinrich, 170, 171
Hemingway, Ernest, 23, 61, 66, 69, 74, 136
Henderson the Rain king (Bellow), 25, 82–83, 94, 127
autobiographical elements in, 89
Henderson in, 14, 44, 51, 66, 83, 106–12, 114, 115–16, 121, 129, 167
King Dahfu in, 106, 111–12
SB’s doubts about, 116
Herbst, Josephine, 116, 127
Herskovits, Melville, 109
Herzog (Bellow), 22, 23, 24, 25, 39, 44, 52, 62, 84, 116–22, 123, 127–37, 139, 140, 218
autobiographical elements in, 118, 119, 135
as bestseller, 17, 71, 117
Jewish themes in, 17
Junie in, 128, 129, 134
Madeleine in, 32–33, 118, 120, 122, 127–32
Moses Herzog in, 17, 31, 33, 47, 51, 53, 66, 93, 118–22, 126, 127–36, 143, 145, 207
philosophic and religious references in, 118, 119
Ramona in, 122, 128, 132–33
reviews of, 134, 136
Sandor Himmelstein in, 40, 134
Shura in, 121
Sondra Bellow-Jack Ludwig affair fictionalized in, 14, 82, 85, 88, 119
Sono in, 128, 132–33
as a thought-monologue, 118
Valentine Gersbach in, 118, 119, 128, 131–32, 134
Hickok, Wild Bill, 171
“Him with His Foot in His Mouth” (Bellow), 152
Hitler, Adolf, 131
HIV, 210
Hoboken, N.J., 171
Hoffa, Jimmy, 40–41
Holiday, 136
Holocaust, 18, 157, 218
Holy Land, 197
Houdini, Harry, 171
Houston, Tex., 66
Howe, Irving, 19, 49–50, 61, 104, 211
on Ellison and Wright, 78
on SB, 29, 51–52
Howells Medal for Fiction, 88
Howland, Bette, 146
Huckleberry Finn (Twain), 176
Huck Finn in, 49, 51, 201
Hudson Valley, 84, 91
Humboldt’s Gift (Bellow), 15, 21–22, 52, 80, 133, 142, 170–73, 176–86, 190, 195
Caldofreddo in, 185
Charlie Citrine in, 31, 44, 62, 63–64, 171, 177–84, 186
courtroom scenes in, 181–82
Demmie Vonghel in, 180
George Swiebel in, 179, 184
Humboldt in, 12, 14, 22, 33, 53, 93, 170–72, 177–86, 210
Kathleen in, 180–81
Menasha Klinger in, 182–83
Murphy Verviger in, 12
Naomi Lutz in, 44
Pierre Thaxter in, 184
Renata in, 177, 180
Richard Durnwald in, 147
Rinaldo Cantabile in, 43, 76, 178–79, 182
Sewell in, 178
Ulick in, 41, 62–64
Waldemar Wald in, 182
Hurston, Zora Neale, 74
Hyman, Stanley Edgar, 19, 87
Ice Cream World, 101
idealism, romantic, 25
Idiot, The (Dostoevsky), 17, 55
India, 151
individualism, 49
“In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” (Schwartz), 172, 173–74
“In questa tomba oscura” (Verdi), 182–83
Invisible Man (Ellison), 65–71, 78, 81
Battle Royal stag party in, 75–76
as best seller, 71
Bledsoe in, 76–77, 90
Brother Jack and Brother Tarp in, 81
final pages of, 75
genesis of, 68–69
low-key style of, 69
nameless hero of, 68, 69–71, 74–77
Rinehart in, 87
SB’s review of, 73
success of, 66, 71, 73, 86
Trueblood in, 76
“Invisible Man: Prologue to a Novel” (Ellison), 71
Ionesco, Eugéne, 133
Iron Guard, 218
Ishmael (Melville character), 49, 50, 51
Israel, 197–98
SB’s tour of, 197
Italy, 171, 185
James, Henry, 25, 80, 119, 200, 207
Jarrell, Randall, 174
Jennie Gerhardt (Dreiser), 81
Jerusalem, 197–98, 210
Jews, 11, 13, 205
African Americans compared with, 77, 79, 89
American, 17–19, 28–30, 72, 73, 77, 79, 89, 117, 145
Austrian, 101
“authenticity” of, 73
“black,” 77–78
Canadian, 124
German, 182
immigrant, 49, 121, 145
intellectual, 20, 49–50, 70, 118, 175, 210
Italian, 152
liberal, 79
in literature, 17–20, 121–22
money vs. culture of, 36
Polish, 145, 156
Russian, 96
SB’s portrayal of, 17–20, 121–22
stereotypes and myths about, 19–20
as writers, 18–20, 49–50, 73, 74, 89
see also anti-Semitism
Johnson, Deola, 201
Johnson, Lyndon B., 89
Johnson, Samuel, 146, 153
Joseph K. (Kafka character), 48
Joyce, James, 25–26, 72, 81, 93, 137
Judaism:
dietary laws of, 40, 103
Hasidic, 20
Orthodox, 103
prayer and Holy days of, 19–20, 97, 182
Juneteenth (Ellison), 87
Kafka, Franz, 26, 48, 75, 108
Kant, Immanuel, 97
Kaplan, Harold “Cappy,” 149
Kaufman, Bel, 118
Kazin, Alfred, 19, 48, 136
on SB, 11
Keaton, Buster, 11
Kennedy, John F., 119
Kenya, 109
Khrushshev, Nikita, 193
Kierkegaard, Søren, 185
“King Solomon” (Rosenfeld), 106
klabyasch (game), 54
Kramer, Hilton, 15, 176
Lake Michigan, 134, 141, 194–95
Lamont, Rosette, 133–34
Landes, Arlette, 142, 180
Lardner, Ring, 171
Laughlin, James, 176, 185–86
Lazarillo de Tormes (anonymous), 110
Leader, Zachary, 38, 39, 43, 44, 123, 124, 139
Lear, King (Shakespeare character), 46
Leaves of Grass (Whitman), 100
le Carré, John, 118
Lermontov, Mikhail, 37
Levin, Harry, 19
Lewis, R. W. B., 122
Lewisohn’s Department Store, 79
liberalism, 68, 79, 89, 101, 167
Lichine, 18
Liebestod (Wagner), 93
Life, 115
“Literary Dictatorship of T. S. Eliot, The” (lecture), 176
Liu, Jonathan, 17
Lolita (Nabokov), 23–24
Charlotte Haze in, 24
Humbert in, 23, 24, 134
Lolita in, 24
Quilty in, 24, 134
London, 134, 157
Lord Jim (Conrad), 58
Lowell, Robert, 174
Ludwig, Jack:
character and personality of, 124
love affair of Sondra Bellow and, 14, 85, 119, 124–26, 129–30, 135–37, 139
physical appearance of, 124
relationship of SB and, 14, 85, 119, 124, 125, 131, 135, 138–39
teaching of, 125, 135–36
as Valentine Gersbach, 118–19, 128, 131–32, 134
Yiddish speaking of, 124, 131
Ludwig, Leya, 125
Lugosi, Bela, 181
Lumet, Sidney, 106
lung cancer, 192
Macbeth (Shakespeare), 206
Macdonald, Dwight, 170
Machiavelli, Niccoló, 45
MacLaine, Shirley, 180
Madison, Wis., 96
Mailer, Norman, 161–63
Malamud, Bernard, 17, 18, 29, 30, 60, 120
malaria, 193
Malraux, André, 72
Man, The (Wallace), 118
Manea, Norman, 28, 156
Mann, Thomas, 141, 212–13
SB on, 23–24
Markfield, Wallace, 105–6
Marshall Plan, 193
Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., 128
Marx, Karl, 31
Massachusetts General Hospital, 114
Massachusetts Review, 134
materialism, 120
Mathematician’s Apology, A (Hardy), 190
mathematics, 189–91, 195, 197, 216, 217
ergodic theory in, 190
see also algebra; calculus
May, Elaine, 105
McCarthy, Mary, 172, 175
McCarthyism, 150
McInnis, Ellis, 201
McKenna, Rollie, 186
Mediterranean Sea, 110
Melville, Herman, 50, 51, 61, 72, 100
“Memoirs of a Bootlegger’s Son” (Bellow), 62
Merchant Marines, U.S., 59, 68
SB’s service in, 58
Mexico, 58, 71, 149, 173
Miami, Fla., 42
Miami Herald, 42
Middle East, 178
Middleton, Daniel, 114, 115
Miller, Arthur, 83
Miller, Ruth, 79–80
Minerva, 152
Minneapolis, Minn., 86, 125–26, 127
Minnesota, 131
Minnesota, University of, 84, 125, 135–36
“Humanities in the Modern World” course at, 136
“Minnie the Moocher,” 196
Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome, A (Burton), 109
Missouri, 73
Moby-Dick (Melville), 100, 105
modernism, 107, 108, 123, 172, 221
Modern Language Association, 136
Modern Library, 60
Moldova, 191, 193
Momigliano, Arnaldo, 152
Monroe, Marilyn, 83
Montreal, 29, 38, 43, 140, 142, 218–19
Napoleon Street, 121–22
Roy Street in, 219
More Die of Heartbreak (Bellow), 209
Mosaic, 133
Moscow trials, 101
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 86, 195
Mr. Sammler’s Planet (Bellow), 52, 155–68
Angela in, 158, 165–66, 168
Eisen in, 165
Elya in, 158, 165–68, 205
inflammatory scenes in, 156–61, 163–65
political and human lessons of, 167–68
racial controversy over, 156–57
rebellious sixties era of, 148, 156, 157, 167, 168
Sammler in, 13, 53, 143, 145–46, 147–48, 156–61, 163–68, 200, 209
Shula in, 158
themes of love and obligation in, 147, 157–58, 165–68
Wallace in, 158
Murdock, Iris, 90
Murray, Albert, 73–74, 86
Murray, Mae, 171
Nabokov, Vladimir, 26, 173
comparison of SB and, 16
SB on, 23–24
Nairobi, 109, 184
National Book Award, 61, 71
nationalism, 80
Native Son (Wright), 74
naturalism, 48, 74
Newfoundland, 112
New Jersey, 181
New Left, 89
New Republic, 101, 103
New York, N.Y., 11, 38, 43, 65, 69, 91, 96–97, 133
Columbus Circle, 160
Greenwich Village, 100
harbor of, 103
Harlem, 67, 70, 74, 75
intellectuals of, 21, 77, 97, 108, 121, 170, 172, 175, 199
late sixties in, 145
Little Italy, 83
Lower East Side, 103
Upper West Side, 90, 100, 122, 157
as visual art capital, 72
Washington Square Park, 186–87
New York Daily News, 187
New Yorker, The, 141
book reviews in, 23
cartoons in, 59
fiction in, 50
New York Giants, 170, 171, 187
New York Times, 27, 186
New York University, 100, 105
Nichols, Mike, 105
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 31, 59, 119, 212, 213, 221
NKVD, 197
Nobel Prize, 31–32, 36, 106, 195–96
North Africa, 115
Northwestern University, 96, 109, 141, 189, 194
Notes from the Underground (Dostoevsky), 68
Oblomov (Goncharov), 17
Odysseus (Homer character), 109–10
Office of Strategic Services (OSS), 149
O’Hara, John, 23
Oklahoma, 67, 87
Oklahoma City, Okla., 65, 66, 67, 79
“Old System, The” (Bellow), 29, 142
Orange Bar, 169–70
Orwell, George, 159–60
Palomar Observatory, 206–7
Paris, 48–49, 72, 217
Paris Herald, 200
Partisan Review, 21, 48, 70, 71–72, 82, 90, 101, 105, 108, 122–23, 172, 175, 176
Passage from Home (Rosenfeld), 97
Passin, Herbert, 149
Passover, 97
Payne Whitney sanatorium, 169–70
Peltz, Dave, 21, 47, 109, 179
Pennsylvania, University of, 149
Perkins, James, 154
Philadelphia, Pa., 148–49, 150
North Side, 149
Rittenhouse Square, 149
philistinism, 151
Picasso, Pablo, 172
“Pigeon Feathers” (Updike), 23
Plath, Sylvia, 174
Plato, 113, 186, 211, 212, 213, 216, 220
Podhoretz, Norman, 51, 52
Poe, Edgar Allan, 69
Poincaré, Jules Henri, 186
Poland, 163, 218
Polish language, 54
Polo Grounds, 187
Pool, Ithiel, 149
Portable Faulkner, The (Cowley, ed.), 48
Portnoy’s Complaint (Roth), 17, 117
Practical Agitation (Chapman), 113
Princeton, N.J., 65
Princeton University, 122, 155, 176, 180, 181, 184
English Department of, 178
Proust, Marcel, 16, 32, 41, 80, 97
Prufrock (Eliot character), 98, 200
psychoanalysis, 154
Puerto Rico, University of, 140
Pushkin, Alexander, 37
Pygmalion (mythology), 126
Pynchon, Thomas, 26
Quebec, 18, 35
Queen of Tasmania, The (film), 171
Rabbit, Run (Updike), Rabbit in, 108
race riots, 75
racism, 68–69, 78, 85, 156–57, 162–63
Rahv, Philip, 19, 82, 122, 175
Rameau, Jean-Phillipe, 98
Rampersad, Arnold, 79
Rashi, 28
Rasputin, Grigori, 136
Ravelstein (Bellow), 147, 213–21
Chick in, 153, 204, 215, 217, 219–20
deliberate repetitions in, 214
Nikki in, 214
Radu Grielescu in, 218
Rakhmiel Kogon in, 153
Ravelstein in, 14, 33, 53, 93, 153, 207, 209–10, 213–15, 217–21
Rosamund in, 215, 220
sketches of SB’s friends in, 215
Vela in, 213, 215, 218
Reading Myself and Others (Roth), 31
Reagan, Ronald, 211
realism, 25
socialist, 19
truth-bound, 32
Red Cross, 193
Reed, Lou, 169
Reich, Wilhelm, 60, 153, 177
orgone box invention of, 101, 102
therapeutic practices of, 71, 83, 101–3, 107, 110, 111, 121, 124, 125
Rektoratsrede (Heidegger), 154
relativism, 212
Reno, Nev., 82–83, 107
Repetition (Kierkegaard), 185
Rice University, 66
Rips, Eliyahu, 197–98
Robert Taylor Homes, 201
Robinson, Marilynne, 26
Rockefeller, John D., 171
Rockefeller family, 169
Roman Catholic Church, 123, 130–31
Romania, 191–94, 200, 202
Soviet annexation of, 193, 197
romanticism, 25
Rome, 82, 83, 86
Rorty, Richard, 151
Rosenberg, Harold, 19
affair of Ullman and, 16
death of, 16
relationship of SB and, 16, 72, 150
Rosenfeld, Isaac, 94–107, 108, 149
biography of, 97
bohemian reputation of, 103
book reviews by, 101
character and personality of, 95–99, 103–4, 110–13, 116
childhood and adolescence of, 95, 96, 97, 101
children of, 104, 105
death of, 82, 83, 94, 95, 99, 104–5, 106, 210
early writing career of, 101
education of, 96, 98, 100, 105
essays of, 95, 101, 103
humor of, 95, 98–99
journal of, 104
physical appearance of, 95, 103–4
prose style of, 97
radical sex life of, 102
Reichian therapy of, 101, 102, 110, 111
relationship of SB and, 14, 71, 82, 94–98, 101, 103, 106–7, 111, 112, 115–16
SB influenced by, 14
SB on, 95–96, 98, 102
SB’s fictional portrayals of, 83, 97–98, 102, 105, 111, 112
short stories of, 106
Rosenfeld, Sam, 97, 105
Rosenfeld, Vasiliki Sarantakis, 84, 99–100, 103–4, 105, 106
Roth, Cecil, 41
Roth, Henry, 52
Roth, Philip, 45, 66, 93, 113, 139
Jewishness of, 18, 30
relationship of SB and, 30–31, 145
SB compared with, 30, 56–57
SB on, 30, 31, 57
works of, 17, 30–31, 66, 117, 182
Rothko, Mark, 123
Rothstein, Edward, on SB, 27
Rouault, Georges, 63
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 211
Royal Navy, 159
Rozanov, Vasily, 218
Rushing, Jimmy, 65
Russia, 35
Russian Revolution, 123
Sabbath’s Theatre (Roth), 182
Saint Martin, 215
St. Paul’s School, 114
Salas, Floyd, 158–59
Samuel, Books of, 28
San Francisco State University, 158–59
San Juan, 140
Schwartz, Delmore, 169–78, 181, 184–87
biography of, 175
character and personality of, 170, 172, 174–76, 187
childhood and adolescence of, 172–73, 175
death of, 170
drinking and drug use of, 170, 175, 176
erratic behavior and paranoia of, 169–70, 175–76, 181, 210
girl friends of, 170
handsome good looks of, 170, 174
high culture posturing of, 184
as Humboldt, 14, 22, 33, 170–72, 177–86
journal of, 175
relationship of SB and, 22, 169–70, 175, 176
teaching and lectures of, 169–70, 176
wives of, see Schwartz, Elizabeth Pollet; Schwartz, Gertrude Buckman
Schwartz, Elizabeth Pollet, 180, 181
Schwartz, Gertrude Buckman, 94, 176
Schwartz, Harry, 172–73
Schwartz, Jonas, 129
Schwartz, Rose, 172–73
Scott, Walter, 60
“Sealed Treasure, The” (Bellow), 61
Seize the Day (Bellow), 25, 83, 89–94, 122
autobiographical elements in, 89, 107
Dr. Adler in, 91, 93
Tamkin in, 90, 92
Tommy Wilhelm in, 90–94, 115, 121, 129, 167
Sheen, Bishop Fulton, 123
Shils, Edward, 145–55, 215
childhood and adolescence of, 148–49
comparison of SB and, 152–53, 156, 163, 166
death of, 146, 153, 166
as an editor, 151–52
education of, 149
Epstein on, 150–51
formidable reputation of, 150
generosity of, 150
haughty formality of, 146
Jewish background of, 146, 152
as a judge of others, 152–53
political and social views of, 149–51, 153–55, 157–58, 162–63, 165, 167–68
reading tastes of, 151, 153, 155
relationship of SB and, 14, 145–47, 148, 149–50, 151, 153, 166
SB influenced by, 14
SB’s fictional portrayals of, 145–46, 147, 153
as a sociologist, 146, 148, 149, 166, 168
speaking manner and accent of, 145, 150, 152, 153
wit and brash conversation of, 151–52
World War II service of, 149
Shoreland Hotel, 40–41
Simmel, Georg, 149
Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 29
Sister Carrie (Dreiser), 53, 171
slaves, 68, 73
Smollett, Tobias, 110–11
socialism, 151
sociology, 74, 146, 149, 166, 168
fiction vs., 148
“Some Notes on Recent American Fiction” (Bellow), 22–24
Sorel, Julien (Stendahl character), 25
Souls of Black Folk, The (Du Bois), 74
Soviet Union, 96, 192–93
Eastern European states taken over by, 193, 198
in World War II, 165, 192
Spinoza, Baruch, 119
Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The (le Carré), 118
Staats, Maggie, 141–43, 180, 216
Stalin, Joseph, 163–64
crimes of, 197
Stalingrad, Battle of, 165
Stalinism, 68, 149, 193
Staples, Brent, 156–57
State Department, U.S., 134, 214
State University of New York (SUNY), at Stony Brook, 136
Stein, Shikka, 28
Steinberg, Saul, 109
Steiner, Rudolf, 177
Stendahl, 25, 209
Stern, Richard, 116
Stevens, Wallace, 172
Stevenson, Adlai, 177–78
Stockholm, 32, 36, 196
“Strangers” (Howe), 49–50
Strauss, Leo, 209–10
stream of consciousness, 81, 137
Studs Lonigan (Farrell), 52
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 171
Syracuse University, 169–70
Tammany Hall, 170
Tarcow, Oscar, 37, 97, 98–100, 104, 106
Teamsters Union, 40–41
Tellegen, Lou, 171
“termite art,” 183–84, 186
Tevye (Aleichem character), 78
Texas, 62–63
Thatcher, Margaret, 211
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Hurston), 74
Thomasville, Ga., 45
Three Days Before the Shooting (Ellison), 87
Thucydides, 211
Tivoli, N.Y., 83–88, 94, 112, 124–26, 133
To an Early Grave (Markfield), 105–6
To Jerusalem and Back (Bellow), 197–98
Tolstoy, Leo, 25, 32, 37, 54, 72, 80, 81
“Tom shows,” 68
Topics in the Theory of Lifting (Tulcea), 189, 194
Torah, 28
Torment of Secrecy, The (Shils), 150
Trilling, Diana, 97
Trilling, Lionel, 19, 21, 172, 176, 211
on SB, 60
Trotsky, Leon, 96
assassination of, 149
Trotskyites, 149, 153
Tschacbasov, Nahum, 123, 130
Tuckatarby (dog), 88
Tulcea, Cassius Ionescu, 191, 192, 194
Tuley High School, 40, 57–58, 96, 97
Turgenev, Ivan, 37
Tuskeegee Institute, 67, 74
Twain, Mark, 51, 61, 72–73
typhus, 191, 193
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe), 68
Uncle Tom in, 79, 184
Underground Man (Dostoevsky character), 48, 68
Updike, John, 24, 108
negative reviews of SB’s books by, 23
SB on, 23
Up the Down Staircase (Kaufman), 118
Valhalla cemetery, 182
Verdi, Giuseppe, 183
Verlaine, Paul, 186
Vermont, 31, 68–69, 191
Victim, The (Bellow), 16, 44, 47–48
Asa Leventhal in, 70
Vidal, Gore, 85
Vietnam War, 89
Viking Press, 134
Villa, Pancho, 173
Vogue, 174
Volkening, Henry, 107
Wagner, Richard, 67, 93, 171
Waitsville, Vt., 68
Wallace, David Foster, 26
Wallace, Irving, 118
Wapshot Scandal, The (Cheever), 88
War and Peace (Tolstoy), 72, 80
Levin in, 81
Warsaw, 218
Wasserman, Harriet, 191, 211
Weber, Max, 149, 151
Weiss, Ted, 85
Wells, H. G., 158, 159
West Side Story (Berstein and Sondheim), 196
“What Are Writers Doing in the Universities?” (Bellow lecture), 158–59
“What Can We Do About Fagin?” (Fiedler), 19
“What Kind of Day Did You Have” (Bellow), 16
“What’s Wrong with the American Novel?” (panel discussion), 74
“white elephant art,” 183, 184
“White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art” (Farber), 183
White House, 177
“White Negro, The” (Mailer), 161–62
Wieseltier, Leon, 20–21, 216
Wilde, Oscar, 175
Williams, Hernando, 202–3
Wilson, Edmund, 47–48, 115, 172, 175
Wisconsin, University of, 36, 96
Wissenschaft, 172
Witz (Cohen), 17
Wolfowitz, Paul, 215
Wood, James, 13
Woolf, Virginia, 81
Wordsworth, William, 219
“World and the Jug, The” (Ellison), 78, 79
World War I, 191
World War II, 17, 58, 69, 96, 115, 149, 192, 217
Wright, Richard, 68, 74, 78
Wrong Attitude, The: A Bad Boy at a Good School (Chapman), 114
Wu, Michael, 214
Yale University, 141, 194
Yiddish language, 18, 26–27, 28–29, 36, 49, 87, 96, 124, 131, 140, 145, 147, 150
SB’s fluency in, 18, 26–29, 36, 52, 66, 79, 131
translation of, 29, 54
writing in, 29
Zaloziecki, Alexis, 192
Zaloziecki, Roza Samet, 192, 197
“Zetland: By a Character Witness” (Bellow), 83, 97–98, 105
Zetland in, 210
Zipperstein, Steven, 97, 99