Philip Roth: A Novelist in Crisis

Philip Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1933. He was educated at Bucknell university and the university of Chicago. He began his career with Goodlrye, Columbus, winner of the national book award for fiction in 1960, in 1987 he won the national book critics circle award for his novel The Counter life. With his last three books, each of them published in the 1990s, Roth has won three major American literary awards. For Patrimony, he won the national book critics circle award in 1991. In 1993, for Operation Shylock, he won the Pen/Faulkner award. In 1995, for Sabbaths theatre, he won the national book award. Mr. Roth has served as a visiting lecturer on the faculties of several American universities including Princeton, the state university of New York at Stony Brook and the university of Pennsylvania. He was the distinguished professor of literature at Hunter College in New York. Since 1972 he has lived in Connecticut. American Pastoral his latest work of fiction is his twenty-second book.