"Saul Bellow, one of the 20th century's great writers, was born 100 years ago next month. The publishing world is marking the anniversary with a flurry of books — a Library of America edition of Bellow's fiction, a hefty tome of collected nonfiction, and a big new biography."

"Another way to remember the author, of course, is to go back to the original books. His best-known work is probably Humboldt's Gift,the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1975 novel based on his own friendship with poet Delmore Schwartz."

"In one scene, the narrator and the poet drive through the Holland Tunnel:

The car went snoring and squealing through the tunnel and came out in bright sunlight. Tall stacks, a filth artillery, fired silently into the Sunday sky with beautiful bursts of smoke. The acid smell of gas refineries went into your lungs like a spur. The rushes were brown as onion soup."