Mr. Sammler’s Planet

novel by Bellow

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Awards And Honors:: National Book Award

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Mr. Sammler’s Planet, novel by Saul Bellow, published in 1970. It won the National Book Award for fiction in 1971.

The setting is New York City during the politically tumultuous late 1960s. The intellectual Mr. Sammler, an elderly Polish Holocaust survivor, has been damaged both physically and psychologically; he has lost his vision in one eye and suffers from a sense of emotional and intellectual alienation. With his intact eye, he views the world, its people, and their insanities. With his blind eye, he internalizes current events, using his historical and philosophical training to analyze and synthesize.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.