Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulA successful writer remembers his poet mentor
Humboldt's Gift
by Saul Bellow
A successful writer looks back on his friendship with a failed poet
Charlie Citrine is a writer who has made a fortune from his work. Years earlier his mentor was the poet Von Humboldt Fleisher, who wanted art to uplift American society. The novel sets the two men against each other and examines how art and power relate in a commercial culture. A would-be Chicago gangster, Rinaldo Cantabile, also plays a role.
More about this book
Who
Charlie Citrine, a successful writer; his mentor, the poet Von Humboldt Fleisher; and Rinaldo Cantabile, a would-be Chicago gangster.
World
Chicago and a materialist America of the 1970s.
What makes it different
It is a roman a clef about Bellow's friendship with the poet Delmore Schwartz. Bellow first meant it to be a short story. It won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and contributed to his 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Feel
Talkative, funny and full of ideas. It asks for patience.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Behind the book
Bellow first meant the work to be a short story. It is a roman a clef about his friendship with the poet Delmore Schwartz.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Humboldt's GiftWikipedia