Saul Bellow is considered one of the greatest writers America has ever produced, having won every major writing award available, including the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born on June 10, 1915, in Lachine, Quebec, Canada. His parents, who had recently emigrated from Russia, moved the family to Chicago in 1924. After high school, Bellow attended the University of Chicago for two years then graduated with honors from Northwestern University in 1937, taking degrees in sociology and anthropology. He went on to do some post-graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, but soon returned to Chicago, which is the city that he has been most closely associated with throughout his long lifetime.

For most of Bellow's life, he was a teacher. His first position was at Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College in Chicago, from 1938 to 1942. During World War II, he served with the Merchant Marines. With money from a Guggenheim fellowship...