Tchernihovsky, Saul, 1873-1943, Russian poet who wrote in Hebrew. He was a practicing physician. His sonnets and idylls eschew the didacticism of typical Hebrew poetry and show a pantheistic outlook, derived from the Greek classics, which he admired and translated into Hebrew.

Steinberg, Saul, 1914-99, American artist-cartoonist, b. Samnicul-Sarat, Romania. He attended the Univ. of Bucharest (1932) and the Reggio Politecnico, Milan (doctorate in architecture, 1940). Steinberg's work began to appear in The New Yorker in 1941, a year before he arrived in the United States, and was featured in the magazine's pages throughout his life. Since the 1940s his work also has been exhibited in museums and galleries. A superb draftsman with a singular vision, he elevated the cartoon to a fine art. Employing humor often tinged with irony, he portrayed the richness of the American scene, treated questions of identity and mutability, and visually commented on various political, social, and philosophical questions. Frequently his work is self-referential (as in his simplified paper-bag mask self-portraits), filled with visual puns, and includes art-historical references. One of his most famous images is a New Yorker's shortsighted world view (large Manhattan, small world). His work has been published in numerous collections, such as All in Line (1945), The New World (1965), and The Discovery of America (1992).

Saul of Tarsus: see Paul, Saint.

Saul, first king of the ancient Hebrews. He was a Benjamite and anointed king by Samuel. Saul's territory was probably limited to the hill country of Judah and the region to the north, and his proximity to the Philistines brought him into constant conflict with them. The Bible tells his story dramatically, for it is really the story of David, first the protégé, then the rival, and finally the successor, of the king. Saul's son Jonathan was David's friend—a fact that adds pathos to the story of Saul's attempts to destroy David. David would not harm Saul, who nevertheless met a melancholy end after he went to the witch of Endor and heard his defeat and death prophesied. Saul, defeated and wounded in battle with the Philistines on Mt. Gilboa, committed suicide rather than be captured. Though Saul was unsuccessful in defeating the Philistines, he paved the way for enhanced national security and unity under David. The Saul of the Book of Genesis is elsewhere called Shaul.

Bellow, Saul, 1915-2005, American novelist, b. Lachine, Que., as Solomon Bellow, grad. Northwestern Univ., 1937. Born of Russian-Jewish parents, he grew up in the slums of Montreal and Chicago. His fiction features uniquely telling characterizations and is frequently darkly comic. His novels typically deal with large philosophical issues: the search for meaning, the conflicts between moral anomie and the quest for a personal ethic, and the tensions between the imaginative individual and a sometimes indifferent, sometimes entangling world. One of the most distinguished novelists of the mid-20th cent., he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976. His novels include Dangling Man (1944), The Adventures of Augie March (1953; National Book Award), Seize the Day (1956), Henderson the Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964; National Book Award), Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970; National Book Award), Humboldt's Gift (1975; Pulitzer Prize), The Dean's December (1982), and Ravelstein (2000). He also published four books of stories, Mosby's Memoirs (1968), Him with His Foot in His Mouth (1984), Something to Remember Me By (1991), and Collected Stories (2001); a novella, The Actual (1997); a memoir, To Jerusalem and Back (1976); a play, The Last Analysis (1964); and an essay collection, It All Adds Up (1994). Bellow taught at a number of universities, including Northwestern Univ., the Univ. of Chicago, and Boston Univ.

orig. Saul Jacobson

(born June 15, 1914, Râmnicu Sārat, Rom.—died May 12, 1999, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Romanian-born U.S. cartoonist and illustrator. He studied architecture in Milan, meanwhile publishing cartoons in Italian magazines. Settling in New York City in 1942, he worked as a freelance artist, illustrator, and cartoonist, mainly for The New Yorker. His extraordinarily original and instantly recognizable works are often surrealistic or whimsically nightmarish visions of contemporary America and frequently employ odd versions of pop-culture icons. His subject matter ranges from the whimsical (e.g., a wicker chair overtaken by its curlicues) to the satirical (sinister, overgrown gadgets) to the philosophical (a tiny figure perched on a giant question mark balanced at the edge of an abyss).

Learn more about Steinberg, Saul with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 24, 1581, Pouy, France—died Sept. 27, 1660, Paris; canonized 1737; feast day September 27) French religious leader. Educated by the Franciscans at Dax, he was ordained in 1600 and graduated from the University of Toulouse in 1604. It is said that he was captured at sea by Barbary pirates but escaped. In 1625 he founded the Congregation of the Mission (also called Lazarists or Vincentians) in Paris as a preaching and teaching order. He also established the Confraternities of Charity, associations of laywomen who nursed the sick. With St. Louise de Marillac he cofounded the Daughters of Charity (Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul).

Learn more about Vincent de Paul, Saint with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Saul

(born AD 10?, Tarsus in Cilicia—died 67?, Rome) Early Christian missionary and theologian, known as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Born a Jew in Tarsus, Asia Minor, he was trained as a rabbi but earned his living as a tentmaker. A zealous Pharisee, he persecuted the first Christians until a vision of Jesus, experienced while on the road to Damascus, converted him to Christianity. Three years later he met St. Peter and Jesus' brother James and was henceforth recognized as the 13th Apostle. From his base in Antioch, he traveled widely, preaching to the Gentiles. By asserting that non-Jewish disciples of Christ did not have to observe Jewish law, he helped to establish Christianity as a separate religion rather than a Jewish sect. On a journey to Jerusalem, he aroused such hostility among the Jews that a mob gathered, and he was arrested and imprisoned for two years. The circumstances of his death are unknown. Paul's ministry and religious views are known largely from his letters, or epistles, collected in the New Testament, which are the first Christian theological writing and the source of much Christian doctrine. It was due to Paul more than anyone else that Christianity became a world religion.

Learn more about Paul, Saint with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Hebrew Shaul

(flourished 11th century BC, Israel) First king of Israel (r. 1021–1000 BC). All that is known of Saul comes from the biblical books of Samuel I and II. He was anointed king by the prophet Samuel, as a concession to popular pressure, after delivering the town of Jabesh-Gilead from Ammonite oppression. Samuel's rejection of Saul and Saul's jealousy of David led to Saul's decline. He died battling the Philistines at Mount Gilboa; David delivered the Israelites and paid tribute to the fallen Saul.

Learn more about Saul with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 10, 1915, Lachine, near Montreal, Que., Can.—died April 5, 2005, Brookline, Mass., U.S.) Canadian-born U.S. novelist. Born to an immigrant Russian Jewish family, he was fluent in Yiddish from childhood. His family moved to Chicago when he was nine; he grew up and attended college there and, after some years in New York, returned to teach in Chicago. His works, which make him representative of the Jewish American writers whose works became central to American literature after World War II, deal with the modern urban dweller, disaffected by society but not destroyed in spirit; his originality lay partly in his combination of cultural sophistication and street wisdom. His works include The Adventures of Augie March (1953, National Book Award), Seize the Day (1956), Henderson the Rain King (1959), Herzog (1964, National Book Award), Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970, National Book Award), Humboldt's Gift (1975, Pulitzer Prize), The Dean's December (1982), and Ravelstein (2000). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976.

Learn more about Bellow, Saul with a free trial on Britannica.com.