What Happens to Philip Rothâs Legacy Now?
His single authorized biography is mired in controversy. Scholars say it shouldnât be the last word, but they are struggling for access to his vast and in some cases inaccessible private archives.
Philip Roth at his New York City home in 2018. His friends worry that the controversy around his biography, published this year, has affected his legacy.Credit.Philip Montgomery for The New York Times
June 4, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
Late in his life, Philip Roth occasionally joked that he had two great calamities ahead of him: death and a biography. âLetâs hope the first comes first,â he said in a 2013 interview.
The row over a new biography of Philip Roth has exposed the way agents and estates restrict access and manage archives to maintain a writer’s posthumous good name