Humboldt's Gift
The novel, which Bellow originally conceived as a short story, is the story of Bellow's friendship with the poet Delmore Schwartz. He explores the changing relationship of art and power in materialistic America. This theme is addressed through the opposing careers of two writers, von Humboldt Fleischer and his protégé Charlie Citrine (to some extent a version of Bellow himself). Fleischer seeks to uplift American society through the arts, but fails. In contrast, Charlie Citrine makes a lot of money from his writings, especially Broadway plays and films about a character named Von Trenk, a character modeled after Fleischer.