His cover for the latter novel – shown in this post – is strikingly different from the simple, somewhat impressionistic illustration featured on the cover of the novel’s 1958 Fawcett Crest edition, which I first posted in April of 2019. In the latter, the emphasis is on an un-named New York City street, with the protagonist and his father, Tommy Wilhelm and “Dr. Adler”, appearing as diminutive, nondescript figures.
For the book’s 1985 edition, Ellsworth rendering of father and son shows them as distinct individuals, with a notable resemblance. Curiously, as he did for Henderson the Rain King, his cover coveys a mood of lightheartedness and whimsy, more than a little at variance (!) with the novel’s utter seriousness.
I labor,
I spend,
I strive,
I design,
I love,
I cling,
I uphold,
I give way,
I envy,
I long,
I scorn,
I die,
I hide,
I want.
On Broadway it was still bright afternoon and the gassy air was almost motionless under the leaden spokes of sunlight, and sawdust footprints lay above the doorways of butcher shops and fruit stores. And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible currents of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of every age, of every genius, possessors of every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence –
______________________________
Faster, much faster than any man could make the tally. The sidewalks were wider than any causeway; the street itself was immense, and it quaked and gleamed and it seemed to Wilhelm to throb at the last limit of endurance. And although the sunlight appeared like a broad tissue, its actual weight made him feel like a drunkard.
– Saul Bellow –
Adapted for film by Fielder Cook and Robert Ribman, “Seize The Day” was released on September 9, 1986 at the Toronto International Film Festival, as a made-for-television film for PBS’ Great Performances series, with the late Robin Williams starring in the role of Tommy Wilhelm.
A caveat: I’ve neither (yet) read the book, nor (just yet) fully viewed the movie – though after the creation of “this” post, I well may. I do recall sitting down to view the film on PBS, but – due to the sheer pathos of the story, particularly Tommy’s repellent, if not loathsome father, “Dr. Adler” (played by Joseph Wiseman), and his entirely unsympathetic wife, “Margaret” (played by Katherine Borowitz) – I gave up early: I couldn’t bring myself to watch the production in ts entirety.
The video below, a composite of different scenes from the film (at the YouTube channel of hannahskaye) gives a glimpse of the power and intensity of Williams’ performance.
Tommy’s life is a series of walls, which can neither be surmounted nor demolished. He is left with one thing only: Himself.
If the story is not a happy one, well, somehow, it nonetheless is a tale that can be appreciated.
Roy Ellsworth, who created cover art for the 1977 edition of Mr. Sammler’s Planet, and the 1983 release of Henderson the Rain King, was also the artist for the 1985 publication of Seize the Day – all authored by Saul Bellow; all published by Penguin Books. 
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