2. As is widely known, Saul Bellow was in the habit of shanghaiing his wives, mistresses, & friends into his fiction. Let's look at one case
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. 1957: Hilton Kramer was an up-and-coming art critic, Delmore Schwartz an increasingly troubled poet whose wife wanted out of marriage.
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4. Elizabeth Pollet, Schwartz's wife, wrote him note saying she would leave him if he didn't get help.
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5. Pollet's note mentioned in passing she might write some reviews for Art News, edited by Kramer.
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6. Schwartz came to the (completely false and absurd) conclusion that Kramer was having an affair with his wife.
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7. Schwartz launched a campaign of harassment against Kramer, including a lawsuit.
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8. At one point Kramer is at Chelsea Hotel & Schwartz bangs on door. Kramer opens a little, see Schwartz has a gun.
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9. So, a hugely traumatic experience for Kramer. Then Saul Bellow figures a way to make it worse.
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10. Bellow's 1975 novel Humboldt's Gift is based very closely on life of his beloved late friend Delmore Schwartz.
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11. Bellow retells Schwartz/Kramer struggle in ways that make Kramer look bad. In novel he's critic named Magnasco.
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12. Magnasco/Kramer is opportunist "overweight, roundfaced, young in years only, steady, unflappable, born to make progress in cultural NY"
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. In novel, Magnasco/Kramer is rescued from enraged poet by group of lesbians dressed as longshoremen.
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14. Last fanciful plot point was perhaps Bellow's dig at Kramer's well known homophobia.
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