Philip Milton Roth
12 min read
Reading time
2,209
Words
Published
58
Books
27
Awards
Philip Roth won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1998 for American Pastoral, one of over 25 novels he wrote. He also won two National Book Awards, for Goodbye, Columbus 1960 and Sabbath’s Theater 1995, and the International Booker Prize in 2011. Roth was married to actress Claire Bloom and taught at the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop before retiring in 1992.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Philip Roth — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Philip Roth by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Philip Roth — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Born on March 19, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey, Philip Roth grew up in the Weequahic neighborhood. He graduated from Weequahic High School before attending Bucknell University for his bachelor’s degree and the University of Chicago for a master’s in English literature. His grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Galicia and Russia, and his family background deeply influenced his writing.
Roth’s first major success came in 1960 with the novella Goodbye, Columbus, which won the National Book Award. His controversial 1969 novel Portnoy’s Complaint became a bestseller and was adapted into a film starring Richard Benjamin. Roth later won the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral in 1998 and the International Booker Prize in 2011. Many of his works were adapted into films, including The Human Stain 2003 starring Anthony Hopkins, and the HBO series The Plot Against America 2020.
Roth was married twice: first to Margaret Martinson from 1959 until her death in a car crash in 1968, and to actress Claire Bloom from 1990 to 1995. He had no children but was stepfather to opera singer Anna Steiger during his marriage to Bloom. Roth maintained residences in New York City and Warren, Connecticut.
Roth’s impact on American literature is evident in his many major awards, including the National Medal of Arts in 1998 and the National Humanities Medal in 2010. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2010. His works continue to be adapted and studied. Roth is remembered for his unflinching exploration of American identity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Philip Roth — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Philip Roth's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Philip Roth — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
This Will Come as a Great Shock to Young People, but in 1951 You Could Make It Through College Unscathed by Oral Sex.
With the Draft, Everybody Was Involved. Everybody Was Fodder. When You Got to Be 21, 22 and Graduated from College, for Two Years Your Life Stopped. If You Had Been Running in the Direction of Your Life, You Had to Stop and Do This Other Thing Which Was, If Not Menacing, Just Plain Boring.
You Know, I Needed My Life as a Springboard for My Fiction. I Have to Have Something Solid Under My Feet When I Write. I’m Not a Fantasist. I Bounce up and Down on the Diving Board and I Go into the Water of Fiction. but I’ve Got to Begin in Life so I Can Pump Life into It Throughout.
As I See It, My Focus Has Never Been on Masculine Power Rampant and Triumphant but Rather on the Antithesis: Masculine Power Impaired. I Have Hardly Been Singing a Paean to Male Superiority but Rather Representing Manhood Stumbling, Constricted, Humbled, Devastated and Brought Down. My Intention Is to Present My Fictional Men Not as They Should Be but Vexed as Men Are.
Whoever Looks for the Writer’s Thinking in the Words and Thoughts of His Characters Is Looking in the Wrong Direction. Seeking Out a Writer’s ‘Thoughts’ Violates the Richness of the Mixture That Is the Very Hallmark of the Novel. the Thought of the Novelist That Matters Most Is the Thought That Makes Him a Novelist. the Thought of the Novelist Lies Not in the Remarks of His Characters or Even in Their Introspection but in the Plight He Has Invented for His Characters – in the Juxtaposition of Those Characters and in the Lifelike Ramifications of the Ensemble They Make: Their Density, Their Substantiality, Their Lived Existence Actualized in All Its Nuanced Particulars, Is in Fact His Thought Metabolized.
It’s Been a Good Time for the Novel in America, but I Can’t Say I Know What Accounts for It. Maybe It’s the Absence of Certain Things That Somewhat Accounts for It. the American Novelist’s Indifference To, If Not Contempt For, ‘Critical’ Theory. Aesthetic Freedom Unhampered by All the High-and-mighty Isms and Their Humorlessness.. Writing That Is Uncontaminated by Political Propaganda – or Even Social Responsibility. the Absence of Any ‘School’ of Writing. in a Place so Vast, No Single Geographic Center from Which the Writing Originates. Anything but a Homogeneous Population, No Basic National Unity, No Single National Character, Social Calm Utterly Unknown, Even the General Obtuseness About Literature, the Inability of Many Citizens to Read Any of It with Even Minimal Comprehension Confers a Certain Freedom. and Surely the Fact That Writers Really Don’t Mean a Goddamn Thing to Nine-tenths of the Population Doesn’t Hurt. It’s Inebriating.
‘Existential’ Is a Bullshit Word to Be Avoided at All Costs.
Little-known facts about Philip Roth — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Roth read only novels by deceased authors like Franz Kafka and Henry James, along with nonfiction.
He taught at the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa.
His parents were Bess Finkel and Herman Roth, both born in New Jersey; his grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Galicia and Russia.
Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for American Pastoral.
A candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature for many years.
Graduated from Weequahic High School in the Weequahic section of Newark, New Jersey.
His estranged wife Margaret Martinson was killed in a car crash in Central Park in New York City; the man responsible attended her funeral.
Biography/bibliography appears in Contemporary Authors 2005 and 2008.
Awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1998 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.
Taught creative writing and comparative literature at several universities before retiring in 1992.
After earning a degree in English at Bucknell University, he studied at the University of Chicago, receiving an M.A. in English literature.
His first wife Margaret Martinson, who died in 1968, inspired characters such as Maureen in My Life as A Man 1974.
Former stepfather of opera singer Anna Steiger.
Won the National Book Award twice: in 1960 for Goodbye, Columbus and in 1995 for Sabbath’s Theater.
Owned homes in New York’s Upper West Side and Connecticut.
Nominated for the 2008 New Jersey Hall of Fame for services to literature.
Inducted into the 2010 New Jersey Hall of Fame for services to literature.
Born at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.
Awarded the 2010 National Humanities Medal for contributions to American letters; author of 24 novels including Portnoy’s Complaint and American Pastoral.
Celebrated his 75th birthday at the Miller Theater at Columbia University in New York City.
Split his time between New York City and Warren, Connecticut.
Friends with Ross Miller, son of Kermit Miller, and nephew of Arthur Miller and Joan Copeland; Miller served as Roth’s editor on three books of short stories.
Characters meant to stand in for Roth have been played by Richard Benjamin, Gary Sinise, Ben Kingsley, Al Pacino, David Strathairn, Logan Lerman, and Azhy Robertson in film and television adaptations.
The most successful feature film adaptation of his work was the first, Goodbye, Columbus 1969, a huge box office hit that made Ali MacGraw a star; Roth initially skeptical, he later called it his favorite adaptation.
Brother of Sandy Roth.
Roth visited Czechoslovakia many times during the Cold War; dissident author Ivan Klíma, when interrogated by secret police about Roth’s visits, replied: ‘Don’t you read his books? He’s here for the girls.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Philip Roth.
Celebrities similar to Philip Roth — same craft, ranked by reach.
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