Newark-born Philip
Roth, author of more than a score of successful books, and hailed by the
National Book Foundation as "One of America's most acclaimed and inventive
authors," grew up in Newark's Weequahic section and was educated in Newark
public schools.
He is a two-time
winner of the National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize winner, a recipient of the
National Medal of Arts, given in a White House presentation, and has been on the
short list for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
He was born March 19,
1933 to Herman and Bess Roth, middle-class American-born Jews, and the grandson
of Yiddish-speaking European immigrants who settled in Newark in the 1890s.
My Roth Connection
Philip Roth burst on
the American literary scene in 1959 with the publication of his first book, a
novella, "Goodbye, Columbus."
It was hailed as "A
masterpiece" by Newsweek and for it, Roth was given the 1960 National Book
Award.
At the time of his
book's publication, Roth was an unknown 26-year old and just nine years beyond
his 1950 graduation from Weequahic High School. But it was soon evident
that this was an important new writer of explosive wit, and merciless insight
and fierce compassion for his characters ... a writer of great promise.
At the time Roth won
the National Book Award in 1960, I was in charge of marketing, sales, and
promotion for the Hillside-based Baker & Taylor Company1,
then the nation's largest wholesale supplier of books to bookstores and
libraries.
I recall, at that
time, I made a special effort to promote "Goodbye, Columbus" to our major
bookstore accounts, not only because of its flavorful and familiar Newark
locale, but also because the author's father, Herman, and I were both members
and acquaintances at the Newark "Y" Health Club at 255 Chancellor Avenue.
It was just a few steps away from his author-son's high school, Weequahic High,
at No. 279 Chancellor Avenue2.
The senior Roth and I
felt a sort of bond at that time as we sat side by side in the "Y" steam room.
His son was a recently published author, and I was a book industry marketing
professional.
Further, Herman Roth
found me a willing listener and he loved to talk about his son's almost instant
success as an author, and his pleasure at the attention his son's book was
getting at that time3.
Herman Roth, like
myself, had lived in Newark through the 1930s and had worked Newark's streets
collecting premiums for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He knew
the city intimately.
Elevation to Celebrity Status
Although Philip Roth
continued to turn out new and favorably received books, he did not achieve
super-stardom until ten years after the appearance of "Goodbye, Columbus."
He did it with
"Portnoy's Complaint" in 1969. The New York Times described "Portnoy" at
that time as "A deliciously funny book, absurd and exuberant, wild and
uproarious.
It offered an
uninhibited blend of nostalgia for Roth's Weequahic neighborhood with ribald,
delirious accounts of sexual adventures.
At the end of 1969,
"Portnoy" had sold 3,866,488 copies. It was the year's biggest-selling
book and elevated Newarker Roth to celebrity status.
"Portnoy" was an
intensely personal novel4 that many readers and reviewers
considered as much of a social document and depiction of life in a middle-class
Newark Jewish neighborhood (Weequahic) as a work of fiction.
Back to Pop and the "Y"
By the time of Roth's
triumph with "Portnoy" the riots in Newark had come and gone. The
Chancellor Avenue "Y" building, virtually abandoned after the 1967 riots, had
been sold to the Newark Board of Education and become a school annex. The
YM-YWHA movement in Newark was dead after nearly a century.
Both Herman Roth and
myself had now become members of the Health Club at the Union YMHA at 501 Green
Lane.
My last contact with
Herman was in 1988 when I was writing a book on book titling and wanted to
contact his son about his book titling practices.
However, in the years
leading up to Herman Roth's death on October 25, 1989, at the age of 86, I had
learned from conversations with him that he and his wife, Bess, enjoyed basking
in the glow of their son's literary success and accompanying notoriety, and
Philip, always the dutiful son, tried to share as much of it as he could with
them.
The senior Roths
celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1977, the same year their son saw
his seventh book published -- "The Professor of Desire." Bess Roth died in
1981 and Herman managed to make a new life without her, engaging a
housekeeper/cook to keep his apartment running. He died eight years later.
Father's Death Sparks a Bestseller
Two years after
Herman Roth's passing in 1989, son Philip wrote and published an unsentimental
portrait of his father's life, his final illness and physical decline from a
brain tumor, and the author's close relationship with his father.
The book: "Patrimony:
A True Story" was hailed by many critics as one of Roth's best books and became
a national bestseller.
In life, Herman had
been an insurance salesman for Met Life. In death, he became a literary
partner of his son, providing the source material for yet another of his son's
award-winning literary triumphs.
"Patrimony" A True
Story" won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.
The New York Times
called "Patrimony" "...a highly moving and beautifully rendered portrait of a
father and son."
The Washington Post
review said "His father emerges as one of the genuinely indomitable figures in
American literature."
Sven Birkirts wrote
in the Chicago Tribune: "Roth has looked past all comfort and condolences to
find the truth about himself and his father; about death and the fear of it."
* * *
Inside Story Behind Patrimony Dinner Guest
More than five
percent of the printed pages in "Patrimony" are related to author Roth's
experience while having a Friday night dinner at his father's apartment with a
surprise guest -- a Union 'Y' Health Club friend of Herman -- who author Roth
said had been invited by his father -- "to tell us his story while we ate our
dinner -- particularly to me."
Roth describes the
guest in "Patrimony" as a Newarker, "Walter Herrman" who had been a Holocaust
survivor of two concentration camps who found success in America and had become
a wealthy furrier.
The guest had brought
with him a manuscript of a book he had written about his Nazi-era survival.
Roth apparently read
portions of the manuscript later and told his father "It's pornography."
Herman responds to
his son' "Maybe it'll be a bestseller like Portnoy."
That visit with Roth
happed in 1985 when Herman, then a widower for 4 years, had both a
housekeeper/cook and a steady lady friend, both of whom were present.
Facts About Visit and Visitor
I am closely familiar
with the visit described in "Patrimony" because that 1985 Holocaust author was
then, and still is, a friend who had kept me informed about his book while
writing it.
He was hurt and
incensed with his depiction in Patrimony" and felt the facts on his survival
memoir had been sharply distorted, improperly presented, and misrepresented as
to its content.
He told me he had
given thought to suing Roth, but I assured him there would be no basis for it as
a fictitious name was used and his true occupation as jeweler was changed to
furrier. Roth had fictionalized the meeting to make it more interesting,
and even a bit hilarious.
The Holocaust memoir
was subsequently published in the United States in 1996 and its author wrote in
my copy "Here is the true story of and about Walter Herrman."
* * *
What His High School Yearbook Said
In Philip Roth's
Weequahic High School Yearbook5, The Legend, the caption under the photo of the
16-year old Philip says "A boy of real intelligence, combined with wit and
common sense."
Little did the writer
of the caption in the yearbook know that this former Assistant Editor of the
School Annex News would go on to more literary awards than any other American
author, including a Pulitzer Prize, and would be on the short list for the Nobel
Prize in Literature.
* * *
Newarkers Used as Book Characters
A former Weequahic
High classmate recalls that Philip had a gift for taking fragments of several
people and weaving them into a fictional but believable character.
It was a popular
pastime during Roth's early years as an author for former Weequahic High
schoolmates, teachers, neighbors, girlfriends, and relatives to scrutinize his
newly-published books to see if they could recognize themselves or someone they
knew.
A distant cousin told
me for this recollection that Philip Roth had also used relatives as
characters in his books.
Further Clues to Roth's Writing Philosophy
For more information
about Philip Roth and his personal outlook on "Writing as a Profession," see:
"The Joy of Publishing' Fascinating Facts, Anecdotes, Curiosities, and Historic
Origins about Books and Authors, Editors and Publishers, Bookmaking and
Bookselling" by Nat Bodian. Published 1996 by Open Horizons Publishing Co.
(ISBN 0-912411-47-3).
* * *
Roth's Words Given an Accent
In 1999, forty years
after its initial publication, Roth's first book, "Goodbye, Columbus", was
re-released in audio cassette with Theodore Bikel and Elliott Gould as the
readers.
I recall the Library
Journal review on the release of the audio cassette. The review praised
the excellence of Bikel and Gould in "capturing the characteristics of
Jewish-American speech in their accented renditions."
As the locale of the
book was largely Newark's Weequahic neighborhood where Roth spent his formative
years, I was led to wonder what a "Weequahic accent" sounded like. If any
of you recall that cassette, perhaps you can tell me.
* * *
Roth's Novels on the Silver Screen
-
Goodbye, Columbus (1969 film)
-
Portnoy's Complaint (1972 film)
-
The Human Stain (2003 film)
-
American Pastoral (film announced for 2005)
Roth Novel as Television Adaptation
-
The Ghost Writer (1984)
* * *
Philip Roth Today
Today, at age 70,
after two failed marriages, author Philip Roth lives alone, a veritable recluse,
in his 18th century farmhouse in Warren, Connecticut. he spends his days
at a writing studio about 60 yards from his house. he also maintains a
writers studio on the upper West Side in New York City.
Email this memory to a friend.
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