The subject of divided critical opinion because of the experimental nature of his writings and his use of radical subject matter, Jerzy Kosinski, author of such novels as The Painted Bird and Being There, nevertheless ranks among the most celebrated of contemporary American authors. By the time of his death in May 1991, 70 million copies of his novels were in circulation. He received various academic posts, awards, and fellowships during his lifetime--these and the immense popularity of his writings confirm Kosinski as a major figure in modern American literature. The range of critical response is in evidence in this carefully annotated bibliography. It comprises listings of both primary and secondary sources on Kosinski through 1990. The primary sources provide editions of his novels, recordings, nonfiction books, miscellaneous writings, and interviews. Secondary sources include reference materials, books and monographs, biographical sources, dissertations, and criticism and reviews specific to particular works. Access is facilitated by author and subject indexes. The work will be of special value to those interested in Holocaust and expatriate fiction as well as to students of twentieth-century American and American-Jewish literature in general.

Saul Bellow is one of the twentieth century's most influential, respected, and honored writers. His novels The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Mr. Sammler's Planet won the National Book Award, and Humboldt's Gift was awarded the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In addition, his plays garnered popular and critical acclaim, and some were produced on Broadway. Known for his insights into life in a post-Holocaust world, Bellow's explorations of modernity, Jewish identity, and the relationship between art and society have resonated with his readers, but because his writing is not overtly political, his politics have largely been ignored.

A Political Companion to Saul Bellow examines the author's novels, essays, short stories, and letters in order to illuminate his evolution from liberal to neoconservative. It investigates Bellow's exploration of the United States as a democratic system, the religious and ideological influences on his work, and his views on race relations, religious identity, and multiculturalism in the academy. Featuring a fascinating conclusion that draws from interviews with Bellow's sons, this accessible companion is an excellent resource for understanding the political thought of one of America's most acclaimed writers.

Challenging the notion that Jewish American and Holocaust literature have exhausted their limits, this volume reexamines these closely linked traditions in light of recent postmodern theory. Composed against the tumultuous background of great cultural transition and unprecedented state-sponsored systematic murder, Jewish American and Holocaust literature both address the concerns of postmodern human existence in extremis. In addition to exploring how various mythic and literary themes are deconstructed in the lurid light of Auschwitz, this book provides critical reassessments of Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Philip Roth, as well as contemporary Jewish American writers who are extending this vibrant tradition into the new millennium. These essays deepen and enrich our understanding of the Jewish literary tradition and the implications of the Shoah.

The full range of literary traditions comes to life in the Twayne Critical Essays Series. Volume editors have carefully selected critical essays that represent the full spectrum of controversies, trends and methodologies relating to each author's work. Essays include writings from the author's native country and abroad, with interpretations from the time they were writing, through the present day.

Each volume includes:

-- An introduction providing the reader with a lucid overview of criticism from its beginnings -- illuminating controversies, evaluating approaches and sorting out the schools of thought

-- The most influential reviews and the best reprinted scholarly essays

-- A section devoted exclusively to reviews and reactions by the subject's contemporaries

-- Original essays, new translations and revisions commissioned especially for the series

-- Previously unpublished materials such as interviews, lost letters and manuscript fragments

-- A bibliography of the subject's writings and interviews

-- A name and subject index