Roth, Philip, National Medal of Arts, 1998
William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Light in August, Saul
Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March and Herzog
"In my opinion, the two most powerful, most original forces--the writers
who together form the backbone, the spine of twentieth-century American
fiction--have been William Faulkner, in the first half of the century, and
Saul Bellow, in the second. I think you ought to select two books by each
of them to stand for the greatness of their achievement. I suggest
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Light in August and Bellow's The
Adventures of Augie March and Herzog."
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