This is the first comprehensive biography of Saul Bellow and the first to receive his co-operation over the complete, ten-year span of its writing. The author, James Atlas, whose biography of Delmore Schwartz appeared in 1977 and who is the general editor of the Penguin Lives Series, was given full access to Bellow's letters and unpublished manuscripts and final permission to quote all the passages he wanted to use. He was free to interview anyone willing to talk to him. He did not, however, want his book to be called an 'authorised biography', and aside from approving the packet of quotations from letters shown him before publication, Bellow did not read the final manuscript.

LRB 2 November 2000 | PDF Download