biography
| name: |
Roth, Philip (Milton)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1933– )
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| biography:
| Writer, born in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He studied at Rutgers (1950–1), Bucknell (1954 BA), and the University of Chicago (1955 MA; further study, 1956–8). He gained overnight acclaim for Goodbye, Columbus (1959, National Book Award), a novella, and five short stories, but for many years he combined his writing career with teaching at such institutions as the University of Iowa (1960–2), the University of New York, Stony Brook (1967–8), Princeton (1962–4), and the University of Pennsylvania (1965–80). Many of his writings brought him criticism from his fellow Jewish-Americans for his satirical views of their lives, while his Portnoy's Complaint (1969) gained him notoriety in broader circles for its frank sexuality. In The Great American Novel (1973) he tried his hand at mythologizing baseball. His trilogy, beginning with The Ghost Writer (1979), features his alter-ego, Nathan Zuckerman, and in these and subsequent books he plays with the notions of what is fiction and what is real about his own public self. He was also drawn to issues of censorship and intellectual freedom, and for many years edited a series of translations of writers from Eastern European countries. Later books include Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993), American Pastoral (1998, Pulitzer), and The Human Stain (2000, PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction). Whatever his final standing in American literature, he has clearly entertained and enraged readers in equal measure. |
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