Letters
Page 72
Bellow’s relationship with
divorce from
dream of Ann (Birstein) Kazin
Jack Ludwig and
marriage to
pregnancy of
Tulcea, Alexandra Ionescu, see Bellow, Alexandra Ionescu Tulcea
Tuley High School
Tumin, Melvin Marvin
advice from Bellow regarding women
apology for not writing sooner
on comedic writing
correspondence with
loss of contact with
news of friends from Bellow
on possible move to Europe
reaction to Augie March
report on Anita’s family to
on writing process and Army service with
on writing and having an agent
Tumin, Sylvia
Tureck, Rosalyn
“Two Morning Monologues” (story)
Ulysses (Joyce)
Unancestral Voice (Barfield)
the Unconscious
Unger, Leonard
unhappiness
University of Chicago
University of Minnesota
University of Puerto Rico
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Updike, John
The Upper Depths (working title for The Last Analysis)
Vanguard Press
Vargas Llosa, Mario
Vermont residence
The Very Dark Trees
The Victim (Bellow)
critiques of
dramatization of
financial failure of
Guggenheim fellowship application and
naturalism in
second draft of
Bellow’s evaluation of
Vidal, Gore
Vietnam War
Viking Press
advance installments
Bellow’s correspondence with Marshall Best
Bellow’s departure from
Bellow’s loyalty to
contracts for novels with
Monroe Engel and
publication of Augie March
Village, Greenwich
Volkening, Henry
Augie March discussions
becomes Bellow’s agent
Bellow’s fantasy story about F. Scott Fitzgerald
Bellow’s love for
Bellow’s recommendations of to other writers
complaints about Henle to
correspondence with
divorce from Anita
dramatization of The Victim and
editors and censorship of writing
progress reports on writing
publication of Bellow’s short stories
summer travels
writing and publication discussions
Voltaire
Wade, Grace
Wagner College
Walden, George
Walden, Sarah
Walker, Nancy
Wallach, Eli
Walsh, Chris
Walter, Anne Doubillon
Wanamaker, Sam
War and Peace (Tolstoy)
Warren, Robert Penn (“Red”)
Bellow’s eulogy of
Bellow’s nomination for Nobel Prize
correspondence with
Eleanor Clark and
living in Manhattan
news of mutual friends
opinion of The Victim
Warren, Rosanna
Warsaw Ghetto
Wasserman, Harriet
Waugh, Evelyn
Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Weidenfeld, George
Weingrod, Bracha
Weiss, Theodore
“The Wen” (play)
West, Anthony
“What Kind of Day Did You Have?” (story)
Wheelwright, Jeff
White, Katharine Sargent Angell
Wieseltier, Leon
Wilde, Oscar
Wilkins, Sophie
Willingham, Calder
Wilson, Edmund
“Winter in Tuscany” (article)
Winters, Shelley
wisdom
Wiseman, Joseph
Wisse, Ruth
Wolff, Kurt
women’s liberation
Wood, James
Woolf, Virginia
World Jewish Congress
world view
World War
“The Wrecker” (play)
writers
Alice Adams
Bernard Malamud
Cynthia Ozick
Harold Brodkey
imagination and
Jean Stafford
Martin Amis
Meyer Schapiro
motivations of
opinions of
Philip Roth
as prophets
Stanley Elkin
thoughts on being a writer
writers’ organizations, avoidance of
writing
arguments in
authenticity and
Bellow’s evaluation of
Bellow’s views on narrative
as business
cognitive writing
conformity as threat to
craft of
as cure for unhappiness
desire to write freely
“exposing the seeming” and
fatigue and
finding time for
growing confidence in
ideas as palpable element in
Old and New Testaments and
process of
reclaiming of unreality
rejection of
short stories turning into novels
sources of material for
Symbolist approach to
writer’s block
Wylie, Andrew
Yaddo (artists’ colony)
Yehoshua, A. B.
“The Yellow House” (story)
Yiddish
Yiddish Courier
Young, Kimball
Yugoslavia
Zeisler, Peter
“Zetland: By a Character Witness” (story)
Zionism
1
French: Nothing is simpler.
2
Yiddish: Bit by bit, he’s coming into his own.
3
French: nightmare
4
Yiddish: in a fugue state, spaced-out
5
Yiddish: in general
6
Spanish: fucking son of a bitch
7
French: Judge for yourself.
8
French, then Spanish: To hell with the Whit Burnetts and other little bitches. May you lose your pecker one bloody day, W[hit] B[urnett].
9
French: There’s life’s purpose.
10
Yiddish: He proposes to fix me up with his daughter.
11
German: brotherhood
12
Russian: Farewell.
13
Yiddish: pain or woe
14
Yiddish: story
15
French: punching bag; fall guy
16
Yiddish: Just imagine!
17
Hebrew: May the name be blotted out!
18
In Macbeth, when Banquo and Fleance are ambushed, Banquo holds off the assailants and cries, “Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! / Thou mayst revenge.”
19
Yiddish: It pleases me
20
Yiddish: pure, clean
21
Yiddish: Enough.
22
Yiddish: mental aggravation
23
Yiddish: problem or trouble
24
French: But let’s move on.
25
French: What are you up to? All’s well?
26
French: It’s rather funny, in a comic-operatic way.
27
French: the general level
28
French: I say it myself.
29
German: vanished, sunk without a trace
30
German: the damnable Cameroons; fig., the boondocks
31
French: lit., at the foot of the wall; impoverished, up against it
32
French: which pleases me very much
33
French: extravagantly
34
German: and so on
35
French: worthy, meritorious
36
Yiddish: happy
37
Yiddish: exile
38
French: One has no business complaining.
39
French: without knowing it
40
French: sculpted funereal figures, lying supine
41
French: So I shrug it off.
42
French: That’s not so serious.
43
Italian: What will we do?
44
French: What besides?
45
French: the roving eyes
46
Yiddish: bastard
47
Latin: I will not serve.
48
French: Beware!
49
Hebrew: holy man or righteous man
50
Spanish: penitential garment worn to the stake
51
French: wonderland
52
Yiddish: loser
53
lucky
54
French: well and good
55
French: profession
56
French: your addled friend
57
German: Don’t be scared.
58
French: at first sight; lit., thunderbolt
59
Latin: Do not despair.
60
German: Please don’t forget me.
61
German: Ever thine
62
Yiddish: a sweetened dish of stewed fruits and vegetables; fig., an imbroglio
63
Italian: Answer, friend!
64
creeping, crawling
65
Latin: Let us therefore rejoice.
66
French: as he is
67
Yiddish: I’m barely getting by.
68
German: blood sausage and horseradish
69
French: For want of better company, one goes to bed with manuscripts.
70
Latin: old man Bellow
71
Yiddish: family
72
German: politics in the higher sense
73
German: and ready
74
French: lit. on the moon; unrealistic, out to lunch
75
Yiddish: hoodlums, thugs
76
Yiddish: cozy, down-to-earth, unpretentious
77
Latin: I love because it is absurd—a modification of Tertullian’s Credo quia absurdum , I believe because it is absurd.
78
French: Still pursued by women; worried nonetheless. An amusing situation. They’re all furious—north, west, and even here, but I continue to do my duty.
79
French: Above all, reasonable.
80
French: Type me a letter.
81
French: I’m eager to read what you’ve written.
82
Spanish: big problems
83
The bride is too beautiful? Fig., What am I complaining about?
84
Latin: moment of death
85
Yiddish: filth
86
Latin: De mortuis (nil nisi bonum dicendum est)—Speak no ill of the dead.
87
Yiddish and Hebrew: a worry
88
Yiddish: May you use it well.
89
French: under threat of penalty
90
Hebrew: friends
91
French: bent back
92
German: what it all means
93
Yiddish: impossible woman, ballbuster
94
French: It is necessary to be absolutely modern.
95
Warms (the heart) a little.
96
Latin: A word (is enough) to the wise.
97
French: I’m holding up pretty well.
98
French: nerve or cheek; lit., forelock
99
French: Bad taste leads to crimes.
100
Hebrew: “Strength unto you!”
101
Hebrew: “Be strong!”
102
French: “Everything passes . . . everything breaks.”
103
Yiddish: pests, bothersome people
104
Hebrew: the quorum of ten men required for public prayer three times daily
105
Yiddish: whores
106
German: sloppiness
107
Hebrew: soul
108
Yiddish: joy
109
Latin: While I breathe, I hope.
110
German: old-fashioned thermal spa or cure resort, e.g., Karlsbad, Marienbad, Baden-Baden, etc.
111
Yiddish: But it’s not a matter of life or death to me.
112
French: pipeline; fig., connections, pull
113
Hebrew: “Here am I.” When called by God in Genesis, Abraham says the same.
114
Hebrew and Yiddish: people of the city; here, more specif., dignitaries or worthies
115
Spanish: “Indignities of Old Age”: Goya’s etching shows an elderly man struggling to rise from his chamber pot.
116
pathological shortening of the stride and quickening of the gait; more loosely, frenetic activity
117
Latin: Make haste slowly!
118
French: the disordering of all the senses
119
French: No kidding!
120
French: want of manners
121
French: thanks a million
122
French: out of commission
123
Yiddish: pests, bothersome people
124
French: Let us go on!
125
French: relaxed, nonchalant
126
French: to cheer you up, old buddy
127
French: felled oaks, a phrase from Victor Hugo given currency by Les chênes qu’on a bat (1971), André Malraux’s account of his final afternoon with de Gaulle.
128
French: crippled veteran
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
PART ONE - 1932-1949
1932
1937
1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
PART TWO - 1950-1959
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
PART THREE - 1960-1969
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1966
1967
1968
1969
PART FOUR - 1970-1982
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
PART FIVE - 1983-1989
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
PART SIX - 1990-2005
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2004
EDITOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOW LEDGMENTS
INDEX