Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow Dies

04/05/2005 at 07:00 PM EDT

Nobel laureate Saul Bellow, best known for such classic novels as Herzog, Humboldt's Gift and The Adventures of Augie March, died Tuesday at his home in Brookline, Mass., his literary agent said. He was 89.

Bellow's close friend and attorney, Walter Pozen, said the writer had been in declining health, but was "wonderfully sharp to the end." Bellow's wife and daughter were at his side when he died.

Bellow and his fifth wife, Janis Freedman, had a baby girl Dec. 23, 2000, when the author was 84 years old. He has three adult sons from previous marriages.

Bellow was one of the most acclaimed Jewish writers of the 20th century. He won the National Book Award three times: in 1954 for The Adventures of Augie March, in 1965 for Herzog and in 1971 for Mr. Sammler's Planet.

In 1976, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt's Gift and was also awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

"The backbone of 20th-century American literature has been provided by two novelists – William Faulkner and Saul Bellow," writer Philip Roth said Tuesday. "Together they are the Melville, Hawthorne and Twain of the 20th century."