122

BELLOW, SAUL. Typed Letter Signed, "Saul," to his English instructor at Northwestern, Edward Buell Hungerford ("Dear Ted"),

REACTING TO HIS COLLEGE ENGLISH PROFESSOR'S FEEDBACK ABOUT "HUMBOLDT'S GIFT" BELLOW, SAUL. Typed Letter Signed, "Saul," to his English instructor at Northwestern, Edward Buell Hungerford ("Dear Ted"), expressing joy that he is pleased by Bellow's novel, Humboldt's Gift (1975), remarking that he learned from George Bernard Shaw the technique of using comedy to make "unpalatable things" acceptable, reflecting that what is exhausting in writing is resisting one's natural talents, contemplating the possibility of giving up writing as a means of livelihood, agreeing that Charlie [Citrine, character in Humboldt's Gift] gives the stream of consciousness technique "a new twist," and explaining that he cannot visit because he must accompany his wife on her trip to Jerusalem where she will deliver lectures at the Hebrew University. 1¼ pages, 4to, written on recto and verso of single sheet; folds, faint scattered staining to verso. Np, 11 August 1975

"So you like Humboldt. I won't take cover under words like 'pleased', I'm overjoyed. And it wasn't as hard to write such a thing as I'd always thought. It gave me less trouble than less rewarding books have given. I should have found the way sooner. But perhaps God wanted me to be a goose until I was approaching sixty. When I give in to the comic impulse I can glide into anything at all. I remember reading Shaw years ago and learning from him (I think it was his Ibsen book) that unpalatable things have to have a comic sauce. Kidding my way to Jesus, was what I always called it. But Shaw's hard truths were only Fabianism, now the daily breakfast food of the British. He wasn't as tough and wicked as he dreamt of being. The bad boys of the Waugh generation were much wickeder, without even trying. Anyway, what is most exhausting is not the writing of such a book but the endless resistance to what comes natural, to one's talent. When Charlie said that people seldom followed their real abilities but were challenged only by their shortcomings, I should have had him add that this is what kills them and injures all of us. The Teddy Roosevelt syndrome--the ailing, bookish boys who become Bull Moose chieftains, etc.
"Humboldt is making a great big splash. Sometimes I think of doing what Muhammad Ali proposes to do--hang up my gloves. I don't mean that I shan't write anymore. That would probably be impossible. But I've been a professional (perhaps even before I signed up for your course--was it C12?--I was already thinking of myself as one)--a professional for a very long time and I wonder what kind of things I might write if I didn't feel obliged to turn out books. I believe I may try sitting still and see what my soul is moved to do.
"As for the stream of consciousness, I think you're right, Charlie does give it a new twist. But then he thinks of Freud-Jung-Joyce consciousness as fairly elementary stuff. That's his supererogation (or chutzpah). . . ."

  • Provenance:

    "So you like Humboldt. I won't take cover under words like 'pleased', I'm overjoyed. And it wasn't as hard to write such a thing as I'd always thought. It gave me less trouble than less rewarding books have given. I should have found the way sooner. But perhaps God wanted me to be a goose until I was approaching sixty. When I give in to the comic impulse I can glide into anything at all. I remember reading Shaw years ago and learning from him (I think it was his Ibsen book) that unpalatable things have to have a comic sauce. Kidding my way to Jesus, was what I always called it. But Shaw's hard truths were only Fabianism, now the daily breakfast food of the British. He wasn't as tough and wicked as he dreamt of being. The bad boys of the Waugh generation were much wickeder, without even trying. Anyway, what is most exhausting is not the writing of such a book but the endless resistance to what comes natural, to one's talent. When Charlie said that people seldom followed their real abilities but were challenged only by their shortcomings, I should have had him add that this is what kills them and injures all of us. The Teddy Roosevelt syndrome--the ailing, bookish boys who become Bull Moose chieftains, etc.
    "Humboldt is making a great big splash. Sometimes I think of doing what Muhammad Ali proposes to do--hang up my gloves. I don't mean that I shan't write anymore. That would probably be impossible. But I've been a professional (perhaps even before I signed up for your course--was it C12?--I was already thinking of myself as one)--a professional for a very long time and I wonder what kind of things I might write if I didn't feel obliged to turn out books. I believe I may try sitting still and see what my soul is moved to do.
    "As for the stream of consciousness, I think you're right, Charlie does give it a new twist. But then he thinks of Freud-Jung-Joyce consciousness as fairly elementary stuff. That's his supererogation (or chutzpah). . . ."
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