In the May 8 edition, Neal Gendler reviewed a volume of Saul Bellow’s nonfiction writing. Readers interested in the illustrious author’s life and work may want to check out Zachary Leader’s authoritative biography, The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune 1915-1964 (Knopf). Of special interest to Jewish World readers is Chapter 8, which is titled “Minneapolis.” Bellow came to teach in the University of Minnesota’s English Department, in 1946. Other Jews had taught in the department previously (Arnold Stein, Leonard Unger, et al.), according to Leader; but renowned author Robert Penn Warren (All the King’s Men) “helped to smooth [Bellow’s] way with the WASP grandees of the department.” — M.S.
(American Jewish World, 6.5.15)