Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin (1944).Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (1943).In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (1942).The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1940).The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1939).

The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand (1938).Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1937).Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson (1935).Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Pafford Miller (1934).The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling (1933).Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes (1931).Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (1929).The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1928).Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (declined) (1926).Throughout much of the book, Bellow also analyzes, through the voice of Citrine, his thoughts on spirituality, poetry, and success in America.Īlvin Kernan, in his 1982 book The Imaginary Library, included a chapter on Humboldt's Gift, arguing that the novel is representative of the declining relevance of the Romantic conception of literature to contemporary life.

Some critics, including Malcolm Bradbury, see the novel as a commentary on the increasing commodification of culture in mid-century America. When asked about the description after winning the prize, Bellow laughed and said that he would accept the award 'in dignified silence'. In the novel Humboldt says, and Citrine agrees, that the prize is 'a dummy newspaper publicity award given by crooks and illiterates'. Humboldt's Gift won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Bellow's first after three previous works were finalists. Because his career advice to Citrine is commercially fixated, it is directly opposed to advice from Citrine's former mentor, Humboldt Fleisher, who prioritizes artistic integrity. By contrast, Charlie Citrine makes a lot of money through his writing, especially from a Broadway play and a movie about a character named Von Trenck – a character modeled after Fleisher.Īnother notable character in the book is Rinaldo Cantabile, a wannabe Chicago gangster, who tries to bully Citrine into being friends. Fleisher yearns to lift American society through art, but dies a failure. This theme is addressed through the contrasting careers of two writers, Von Humboldt Fleisher (to some degree a version of Schwartz) and his protégé Charlie Citrine (to some degree a version of Bellow himself). It explores the changing relationship of art and power in a materialist America. The novel, which Bellow initially intended to be a short story, is a roman à clef about Bellow's friendship with the poet Delmore Schwartz.

It won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and contributed to Bellow's winning the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year. Humboldt's Gift is a 1975 novel by Canadian-American author Saul Bellow.

ჰენდერსონი, წვიმის მეფე by Saul Bellow