 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saul Bellow | ||||
_(cropped).jpg) "for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work" | ||||
| Date |
| |||
| Location | Stockholm, Sweden | |||
| Presented by | Swedish Academy | |||
| First award | 1901 | |||
| Website | Official website | |||
| ||||
The1976Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Canadian-American novelistSaul Bellow (1915–2005) "for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work".[1][2][3] He is the sixth American recipient of the prize. The previous American recipient wasJohn Steinbeck in1962.[3]
Bellow made his debut with the novelDangling Man in 1944, but his literary breakthrough came in 1953 withThe Adventures of Augie March. Considered one of the innovators of the American novel, he gained wider readership withHerzog (1964),Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970), andHumboldt's Gift (1975). His themes include the disorientation of contemporary society, and the ability of people to overcome their frailty and achieve greatness or awareness. Bellow saw many flaws in modern civilization, and its ability to foster madness, materialism and misleading knowledge. Often his characters are Jewish and have a sense of alienation or otherness.[3][4] He won aPulitzer Prize in 1976 and the only writer to win theNational Book Award for Fiction three times.[5]
Bellow was first nominated for the prize in 1967.[6] He was shortlisted as one of the final candidates for the 1973 and 1974 prizes.[7][8] In 1973, Bellow was competing against the subsequently awarded Australian novelistPatrick White after Nobel committee chairmanKarl Ragnar Gierow had recommended Bellow as his first proposal for that year's prize.[9] In 1974, the committee again recommended Bellow as a main contender for the prize, or alternatively a shared prize withNorman Mailer.[8]
At a news conference inChicago, Saul Bellow spoke of his fears and humility at being awarded with the prize. He said, "A primitive part of me, the child in me is delighted. The adult in me is skeptical."[3] He also expressed his hope that the award would not be a burden, as it was forJohn Steinbeck, who died in 1968. He said, "I knew Steinbeck quite well, and I remember how burdened he was by the Nobel Prize. He felt that he had to give a better account of himself than he had done."[3]
Asked by the press what he would do with the prize money, Bellow said, "I don’t have any plans for the money. At this rate--considering the publicity and attention--my heirs will get the money in a day or two."[3]
Bellow had been a favourite to win the prize in previous years and was a clear favourite in 1976.[3] Before the announcement, a Swedish newspaper predicted that Bellow would be awarded the 1976 literature prize.[3]Malcolm Bradbury ofUniversity of East Anglia stated that it would "be hard to fault the choice for 1976, Saul Bellow; difficult to find a contemporary writer who shows the same richness and variety, along with same sharp modernity, of achievement".[10]
At the award ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 1976,Karl Ragnar Gierow of theSwedish Academy said:
Bellow’s own mixture of rich picaresque novel and subtle analysis of our culture, of entertaining adventure, drastic and tragic episodes in quick succession, interspersed with philosophic conversation with the reader-that too very entertaining-all developed by a commentator with a witty tongue and penetrating insight into the outer and inner complications that drive us to act or prevent us from acting and that can be called the dilemma of our age.
First in the new phase cameThe Adventures of Augie March (1953). The very wording of the title points straight to the picaresque, and the connexion is perhaps most strongly in evidence in this novel. But here Bellow had found his style, and the tone recurs in the following series of novels that form the bulk of his work:Henderson the Rain King (1959),Herzog (1964),Mr Samler’s Planet (1970) andHumboldt’s Gift (1975). The structure is apparently loose-jointed but for this very reason gives the author ample opportunity for descriptions of different societies; they have a rare vigour and stringency and a swarm of colourful, clearly defined characters against a background of carefully observed and depicted settings, whether it is the magnificent facades of Manhattan in front of the backyards of the slums and semi-slums, Chicago’s impenetrable jungle of resourceful businessmen intimately intertwined with obliging criminal gangs, or the more literal jungle, in the depths of Africa, where the novel,Henderson the Rain King, the writer’s most imaginative expedition, takes place. (...)
His “anti-heroes” are victims of constant disappointment, born to defeat without end, and Bellow (it cannot be over-emphasized) loves and is able to transform the fate they find worthwhile into superb comedies. But they triumph nonetheless, they are heroes nonetheless, since they never give up the realm of values in which man becomes human.[11]
