boys, Robert and Russell. Savage secured a teaching position at Suffolk University in Boston where he taught from 1947–1948. His daughter Elizabeth was born in 1949, the same year he began teaching at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, founded just a year earlier. One of the few non-Jewish faculty members, he was promoted to assistant professor in his third year. In 1953, he published his third book, A Bargain with God, his most popular success, confirmed when republished in a condensed version by Reader's Digest. By 1955, Savage was able to leave Brandeis and devote himself to writing full-time. In 1955, the Savages purchased a home in Georgetown, Maine, where they would remain for nearly thirty years. Tom wrote a total of 13 novels. Elizabeth Savage's ambition to be a novelist was also realized, once their children were sufficiently raised. She wrote nine novels, including the famous Last Night at the Ritz. She also helped edit her husband's novels, a task at which he thought she excelled. In 1982, the Savages built a home on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, on property given to him by his sister. Savage published his last novel in 1988. Set in Montana, The Corner of Rife and Pacific follows the founders of a tiny Montana town over several generations. Elizabeth Savage died on Whidbey Island in 1989. Savage kept a photo of her by his bedside until his death. He observed that any loving partnership required laughter and good conversation, and after her death he often complained that he missed her conversation. While married, Savage had several long-term and close relationships with men, only after he began slowly coming out in the late 1950s. His wife was aware of his homosexuality before they married. Late in life, he told his daughter he should not be characterized as bisexual. Manohla Dargis, in her New York Times review of the 2021 film based on Savage's The Power of the Dog, described him as "a closeted gay man." Decline and death After the death of his wife in 1989, Savage lived briefly in Seattle and San Francisco, before moving to Virginia Beach, Virginia, to be near his daughter. His son, the writer Robert Brassil Savage, was struck and killed by a vehicle in 2001 while walking on Virginia Beach Boulevard. In 2001, the Montana Book Festival featured a panel on Savage and his work, but Savage—then 86