A collection of treasured stories by the unchallenged master of American fiction
Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow has deservedly been celebrated as one of America’s greatest writers. For more than sixty years he stretched our minds, our imaginations, and our hearts with his exhilarating perceptions of life. Here, collected in one volume and chosen by the author himself, are favorites such as “What Kind of Day Did You Have?” “Leaving the Yellow House,” and a previously uncollected piece, “By the St. Lawrence.” With his larger-than-life characters, irony, wisdom, and unique humor, Bellow presents a sharp, rich, and funny world that is infinitely surprising. With a preface by Janice Bellow and an introduction by James Wood, this is a collection to treasure for longtime Saul Bellow fans and an excellent introduction for new readers.
Saul Bellow (1915–2005), author of numerous novels, novellas, and stories, was the only novelist to receive three National Book Awards. He also received the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, Bellow served as a war correspondent for Newsday. He taught at New York University, Princeton, and the University of Minnesota and was chairman of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
Janis Bellow teaches literature at Tufts University. She was married to Saul Bellow from 1989 until his death in 2005. She spends as much time as possible in Vermont, where she lives for several months each year with her daughter.
James Wood is a staff writer at the New Yorker and a visiting lecturer in English and American literature at Harvard. Previously he taught literature with Saul Bellow at Boston University and, in 1994, served as a judge for the Booker Prize. He is the author of How Fiction Works, several essay collections, and the novel The Book against God.
Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. Named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013 and the recipient of several Earphones Awards, he has narrated over 250 audiobooks.
Read by Malcolm Hillgartner, Richard Poe, Kate Reading, Dawn Harvey, Robert Fass, Grover Gardner, Arthur Morey, Suzanne Toren, Donald Corren, Elisabeth Rodgers, Sean Runnette, and Joe Barrett
Kate Reading is an Audie Award–winning narrator and has received numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine. Other Spoken Realms audiobooks: The Letters of Jane Austen; Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey; The Prophet, co-narrated with husband Michael Kramer, who also narrated Wanderer of the Wasteland. Kate and Michael record at their studio in Maryland.
Dawn Harvey has been performing for as long as she has been able to walk and talk and sing. She was already a stage and film actress when she began her voice-over career and now is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator.
Robert Fass is the two-time winner of the prestigious Audie Award, numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a veteran actor who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. He has worked on projects from authors such as Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, T.S. Eliot, Joyce Carol Oates, Carlos Fuentes, Jeffrey Deaver, and Lee Child, as well as bestselling and prize-winning nonfiction works in history, politics, health, journalism, philosophy, business, and memoir.
Grover Gardner, a professional actor, director, and teacher, has narrated over 650 audiobooks. He was named one of the Best Voices of the Century by AudioFile magazine as well as a Golden Voice, and he has received over twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards. He has also won two coveted Audie Awards, as well as being a three-time finalist. In 2005, Publishers Weekly named him Audiobook Narrator of the Year.
Read by Arthur Morey, Joe Barrett, Adenrele Ojo, Pam Ward, Ann Richardson, Roxanne Hernandez, Mirron Willis, Robin Miles, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Caroline Shaffer, Pamela Almand, Janina Edwards, Hillary Huber, Nancy Wu, Mark Branhall, Karen White, Neil Shah, and Erica Sullivan
Suzanne Toren, award-winning narrator, has over thirty years of experience in narration. She was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. She has won the American Foundation for the Blind’s Scourby Award for Narrator of the Year, AudioFile magazine named her the 2009 Best Voice in Nonfiction & Culture, and she is the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards. She performs on and off Broadway and in regional theaters and has appeared on Law & Order and in various soap operas.
Donald Corren is a stage, television, and voice actor whose work has been featured on and off Broadway, in regional theaters, and behind animated characters. He was trained in the theater division of the Juilliard School.
Elisabeth Rodgers is an actress and AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. After graduating from Princeton University, she completed a two-year program at William Esper Studio, where she studied with Maggie Flanigan. Her audiobook narration training came from Robin Miles, who has also directed her in several productions. She has recorded dozens of books for a multitude of publishers.
Sean Runnette has earned two Audie nominations and five Earphones Awards for his narrations. He has also directed and produced more than 200 audiobooks, including several Audie Award winners. He has toured with The American Repertory Theater and Mabou Mines, and his film and television credits include Two if by Sea, Copland, Sex and the City, Law & Order, and Third Watch.
Joe Barrett is an Audie and Earphones award-winning narrator who has recorded over two hundred titles. He began his acting career at the age of five in the basement of his family's home in upstate New York and has gone on to play numerous roles on television, film, and stage, including on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally. He has also appeared in hundreds of television and radio commercials. He is married to actor Andrea Wright, with whom he has four very grown children.