Nobel Prize winning author and acclaimed playwright Bellow has an indelible place in American letters. This compendium, the second in a series edited by Wood, follows a 1944-1953 collection, and includes three prominent novels-Seize the Day, Henderson the Rain King and Herzog-considered some of the finest examples of post-war American literature. Dark, devastating and funny, Bellow's writing reflects the solitude and isolation of the immigrant experience-a Russian-Jewish émigré, Bellow grew up in the Jewish ghettos of Canada, and then Chicago-as well as the troubled predicament of Judaism in post-war society. Wood, a senior editor of the New Republic, co-taught with Bellow at Boston University; he provides annotation and a helpful chronology of Bellow's life, placing these three works into context.
