Thousands of admirers of Saul Bellow, the Jewish-American Nobel laureate, greeted him in a ceremony yesterday in which officials of Lachine, Bellow’s birthplace, honored him by dedicating Lachine’s new public library, named for Bellow.
Israeli, American and Quebec flags flew, and brass bands played during the sunny day as Bellow’s admirers applauded him on a day which was also Bellow’s 69th birthday.
A major display of pictures of Abraham Bellow, the laureate’s father, and his family had been placed at the main entrance of the new library. On display in glass cases were Bellow’s books in English and in translations into European languages and into Hebrew and Yiddish.
Guy Descary, mayor of Lachine and members of the municipal council, as well as representatives of the province and local authorities formally greeted Bellow. Lachine is a small town near Montreal.
Bellow told the assemblage that “If (President) Kennedy said ‘Ich Bin Ein Berliner'” on his visit to Berlin, “I say ‘Je Suis un Lachinois’ (I am a Lachiner).” Continuing in English, Bellow said he had enjoyed his childhood in Lachine where he said, full harmony always existed between all elements of the city.
Alain Marcoux, mayor of Rimouski, a city in Quebec more than 50 miles distant from Montreal, came to pay his respects and said Bellow should come back again so that French-speaking Canadians would develop a better acquaintance with his writings.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
