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Saul Bellow, real name Solomon Bellows, is a Jewish American writer and Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner.
Sol Bellow was born in Canada to Jewish immigrant parents from St. Petersburg, Russia, and grew up in Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, majoring in anthropology and sociology. Chicago was the setting for many of his novels of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1993, he took a position in the English Department at Boston University.
Bellow wrote his first book, The Dangling Man (1944), while serving in the Merchant Marine during World War II, and he published the novel The Victim in 1947. Saul Bellow is considered one of the most important Jewish American writers who wrote after World War II. Like his predecessors, he offers a Jewish perspective on the themes of alienation and otherness in the difficult postwar era of fragmentation, translating the Yiddish American experience into English.
Bellow has received the world's highest honors for his works. In 1954, his novel The Adventures of Augie March won the National Book Award for fiction. In 1975, the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Humboldt Gift; the International Herzog Literary Award; and the Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, France's highest literary honor for non-citizens. In 1976, Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
William Makepeace Thackeray was a British writer of satire and a master of the realist novel.
William was born in Calcutta, and after the death of his father, an administrator for the East India Company, he was sent to England at the age of five. He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, studying law and painting, then traveled with adventure, socializing, and gambling, earning a living as a journalist and illustrator.
It was not until the serial publication of his novel Vanity Fair in 1847-1848 that Thackeray gained fame and success, and from then on he became a recognized writer in Britain.
William Thackeray then lectured in the United States, which were published in the collections The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century (1853) and The Four Georges (1860). After 1856 he settled in London, ran unsuccessfully for Parliament the following year, and in 1860 founded the Cornhill Magazine, becoming its editor.
Thackeray's other well-known works are The Story of Henry Esmond, Esquire (1852), The Virginians (1857-1859), The Widower's Trap (1860), and The Adventures of Philip (1861-62). He also wrote exquisite secular poetry, ballads, and parodies. Thackeray was considered by his contemporaries to be Dickens's only possible rival. His works are filled with wit, humor, satire and pathos. In creating them Thackeray relied on his own experience. "Vanity Fair" is still his most interesting and readable work, maintaining its place among the great historical novels in the English language.
David Wojnarowicz was an American artist known for his multifaceted work, which included painting, film, video, performance, writing, and music. His art often addressed themes such as society's fragmentation, consumerism, and the juxtaposition of natural and industrial landscapes. After being diagnosed with AIDS at 33, Wojnarowicz's work became more activist-oriented, focusing on his sexuality and his illness, as exemplified in his piece "Untitled," also known as "One Day This Kid".
David Wojnarowicz's childhood was tumultuous, marked by abuse and neglect, which profoundly influenced his later work. Despite dropping out, he eventually completed his high school education and immersed himself in New York's underground art scene. His art from the 1980s, particularly after the death of his mentor and close friend Peter Hujar, increasingly addressed AIDS and became more politically charged.
His legacy includes notable works like "A Fire in My Belly," which sparked controversy and highlighted the ongoing struggles of the LGBTQ+ community and those affected by AIDS. Wojnarowicz's work continues to inspire and provoke, as seen in exhibitions like the Whitney Museum's retrospective, "David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night," and his influence on various artists and cultural movements.
For those interested in exploring the depth and breadth of David Wojnarowicz's work, staying informed about upcoming exhibitions and available collections can provide valuable insights into his impactful legacy. Subscribing to updates from art galleries and museums that feature his work is an excellent way to stay connected to the evolving appreciation and interpretation of his art.