PHILIP ROTH
Philip Roth (born March 19, 1933) is a Jewish-American novelist who is best
known for his sexually explicit comedic novel Portnoy's Complaint (1969).
Roth was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, the oldest child of first
generation Jewish-American parents of Galician descent. After graduating from
high school at the age of 16, Roth went on to attend Bucknell University,
earning a degree in English. He then pursued graduate studies at the University
of Chicago, receiving a M.A. in English literature and then working briefly as
an instructor in the university's writing program.
It was during his Chicago stay that Roth met the novelist Saul Bellow, who
briefly became his mentor, and Margaret Martinson, who eventually became his
first wife. Though the two would separate in 1963, and Martinson would die in a
car crash in 1968, Roth's dysfunctional marriage to her left an important mark
on his literary output. Specifically, Martinson is the inspiration for female
characters in several of Roth's novels, including Mary Jane Reed (aka "the
Monkey") in Portnoy's Complaint.
Between the end of his studies and the publication of his first book in 1959,
Roth served 2 years in the army and then wrote short fiction and criticism for
various magazines, including movie reviews for The New Republic. His first
novella, Goodbye Columbus, won the prestigious National Book Award in 1960, and
afterward he published two long, bleak novels, Letting Go and When She Was Good;
it was not until the publication of his third novel, Portnoy's Complaint in 1969
that Roth enjoyed widespread commercial and critical success.
During the 1970s Roth experimented in various modes, from the political satire
Our Gang to the Kafkaesque fantasy The Breast. By the end of the decade, though,
Roth had created his Nathan Zuckerman alter-ego. In the series of highly self-referential
novels that have followed since, Zuckerman almost always appears as either the
main character or at least as an interlocuter. The number of books published
during this period as well as the prestigious awards several of them have won
lead many to consider it the most productive in Roth's career.
Events in Roth's personal life during the same time, though, were more mixed.
According to his pseudo-confessional novel, Operation Shylock, Roth suffered a
nervous breakdown in the late 1980s as a result of pain-killers prescribed to
him after a difficult knee operation. On April 19, 1990, he married long-time
companion and English actress, Claire Bloom. In 1994 they separated and in 1996
Bloom published an embarrassing memoir detailing their relationship called
Leaving a Doll's House. It is rumoured Roth was infuriated by his unflattering
depiction there, and that to exact revenge he caricatured Bloom as the poisonous
Eve Frame character in I Married a Communist.
Philip Roth is inarguably the most decorated writer of his era: three of his
works of fiction have won the National Book Award; two others were finalists.
Two have won the National Book Critic's Circle Award; another two were finalists.
He has also won two PEN/Faulkner Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In
2002, he was awarded the National Book Foundation's Award for Distinguished
Contribution to American Letters. Most remarkably, four of his last six novels
have either won or been named finalists for one or more of America's four most
prestigious literary awards, a phenomenal achievement for a writer now entering
his seventh decade. Literary critic Harold Bloom has named him as one of the
four major American novelists still at work, along with Thomas Pynchon, Don
DeLillo, and Cormac McCarthy. In early 2004, the Philip Roth Society announced
publication of the Philip Roth Studies journal. The inaugural issue will be
released in fall 2004.
Philip Roth (born March 19, 1933) is a Jewish-American novelist who is best
known for his sexually explicit comedic novel Portnoy's Complaint (1969).
Roth was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, the oldest child of first
generation Jewish-American parents of Galician descent. After graduating from
high school at the age of 16, Roth went on to attend Bucknell University,
earning a degree in English. He then pursued graduate studies at the University
of Chicago, receiving a M.A. in English literature and then working briefly as
an instructor in the university's writing program.
It was during his Chicago stay that Roth met the novelist Saul Bellow, who
briefly became his mentor, and Margaret Martinson, who eventually became his
first wife. Though the two would separate in 1963, and Martinson would die in a
car crash in 1968, Roth's dysfunctional marriage to her left an important mark
on his literary output. Specifically, Martinson is the inspiration for female
characters in several of Roth's novels, including Mary Jane Reed (aka "the
Monkey") in Portnoy's Complaint.
Between the end of his studies and the publication of his first book in 1959,
Roth served 2 years in the army and then wrote short fiction and criticism for
various magazines, including movie reviews for The New Republic. His first
novella, Goodbye Columbus, won the prestigious National Book Award in 1960, and
afterward he published two long, bleak novels, Letting Go and When She Was Good;
it was not until the publication of his third novel, Portnoy's Complaint in 1969
that Roth enjoyed widespread commercial and critical success.
During the 1970s Roth experimented in various modes, from the political satire
Our Gang to the Kafkaesque fantasy The Breast. By the end of the decade, though,
Roth had created his Nathan Zuckerman alter-ego. In the series of highly self-referential
novels that have followed since, Zuckerman almost always appears as either the
main character or at least as an interlocuter. The number of books published
during this period as well as the prestigious awards several of them have won
lead many to consider it the most productive in Roth's career.
Events in Roth's personal life during the same time, though, were more mixed.
According to his pseudo-confessional novel, Operation Shylock, Roth suffered a
nervous breakdown in the late 1980s as a result of pain-killers prescribed to
him after a difficult knee operation. On April 19, 1990, he married long-time
companion and English actress, Claire Bloom. In 1994 they separated and in 1996
Bloom published an embarrassing memoir detailing their relationship called
Leaving a Doll's House. It is rumoured Roth was infuriated by his unflattering
depiction there, and that to exact revenge he caricatured Bloom as the poisonous
Eve Frame character in I Married a Communist.
Philip Roth is inarguably the most decorated writer of his era: three of his
works of fiction have won the National Book Award; two others were finalists.
Two have won the National Book Critic's Circle Award; another two were finalists.
He has also won two PEN/Faulkner Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In
2002, he was awarded the National Book Foundation's Award for Distinguished
Contribution to American Letters. Most remarkably, four of his last six novels
have either won or been named finalists for one or more of America's four most
prestigious literary awards, a phenomenal achievement for a writer now entering
his seventh decade. Literary critic Harold Bloom has named him as one of the
four major American novelists still at work, along with Thomas Pynchon, Don
DeLillo, and Cormac McCarthy. In early 2004, the Philip Roth Society announced
publication of the Philip Roth Studies journal. The inaugural issue will be
released in fall 2004.