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University of Chicago Library

Preliminary Inventory to the Saul Bellow and Mary Otis Seize the Day Manuscript circa 1960s

© 2025 University of Chicago Library

Descriptive Summary

Title:

Bellow, Saul and Mary Otis. Seize the Day. Manuscript

Dates:

circa 1960s

Accession Number:

2023-098

Size:

.25 linear feet (1 box)

Repository:

Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.

Abstract:

Saul Bellow (1915-2005) was a writer, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Nobel laureate whose best-known works include the novel, Seize the Day. This collection includes a typescript play entitled Seize the Day adapted from Bellow’s novel and written with writer Mary Otis (1922-2022).

Information on Use

Access

This collection is open for research.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Bellow, Saul and Mary Otis. Seize the Day. Manuscript, Acc #, Box #, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

Saul Bellow (1915-2005) was a writer, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Nobel laureate whose best-known works include the novel, Seize the Day. This collection includes a typescript play entitled Seize the Day adapted from Bellow’s novel and written with Mary Otis. The play has notations in the text and pages tucked into the binding with edits.

Mary Otis Hivnor (1922-2022) was a graduate of The Brearley School, Vassar College, and Columbia University. She was a writer who published essays and theatre reviews. She was married to playwright Robert Hivnor. She was a part of a writers and artists group called The Theatre of Living Ideas, where she heard Bellow give a reading of a play.

Seize the Day was performed in February of 1967 and 1968.

Related Resources

Browse finding aids by topic.

Bellow, Saul. Papers, 1926-2015

Viking Penguin. Collection of Saul Bellow, 1988-1999

INVENTORY

Box 1

Bellow, Saul and Mary Otis. Seize the Day. New York, NY: The HB Playwrights Foundation, Inc., n.d.