Philip roth biography
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Philip Roth Biography
Courtesy of Salem Press, a Division of EBSCO Publishing
Originally published in Critical Insights: Philip Roth, Edited by Aimee Pozorski ()
Roth, Philip
Mar. 19, Writer
Philip Roth first achieved prominence in with the publication of Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories, for which he won the National Book Award. Delineating the conflict between traditional and contemporary morals as manifested in a young, Jewish American man’s search for identity, the title novella revived an enduring controversy (which had begun two years earlier with Roth’s first New Yorker story) over whether his satirical treatment of Jewish themes constituted anti- Semitism. That controversy reached a fever pitch with his novel Portnoy’s Complaint, which created a sensation in because of its explicit recounting of a young lawyer’s sexual autobiography, consisting largely of compulsive attempts to free himself from the strict confines
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Philip Roth: The Biography
As a Roth scholar, or Roth-adjacent scholar, I felt compelled to read it. And, as I read, I felt Blake Bailey must have felt compelled to write it. After all, how could he have passed up the opportunity once it came: to have arguably the most controversial writer of the era agree to participate in an authorized biography?
What’s more, I figure Roth must have felt compelled to take part in it himself. As someone who famously avoided getting pinned down on the particulars of his own life – preferring to explore a range of fictions around his experience – he must finally have conceded to the obvious: with so many people wondering about what “really happened,” there would be both intellectual curiosity and the urge for gossip. Such a book would be – as this is – one of the literary events of its seasons.
And that’s to say nothing of his now well-documented impulse to grind his axe; much of this feels l
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Philip Roth: The Biography
book by Blake Bailey
Philip Roth: The Biography is a book bygd biographer Blake Bailey. It is the authorized biography of American novelist Philip Roth (–). It was first published on April 6, , by W. W. Norton & Company.[1] Norton, however, later cancelled publication of the book following allegations of sexuell misconduct against Bailey. Three weeks later, in May , Skyhorse Publishing announced that it would release paperback, ebook, and audiobook versions of the biography.[2]
Background
[edit]In , American novelist Philip Roth enlisted Ross Miller, a professor at the University of Connecticut and nephew of playwright Arthur Miller, to write an authorized biography of Roth. In , however, they mutually agreed to abandon their arrangement. [3] Roth and Miller, who were close friends,[4] had a falling out over the direction in which the project was going.[5][6][7] Roth report