Ethnicity 1: Jewish

Nationality 1: American

Birthdate: 1933

One of America's leading novelists of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, Philip Roth explores the conflicts and tensions in American Jewish life. Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey, on March 19, 1933, the eldest son of Herman and Bess Roth, who were Jewish immigrants from Europe. Roth was raised in the Weequahic area of Newark, during the Depression. He graduated from high school at the age of sixteen and then earned a bachelor's degree in English from Bucknell University in 1954 and a master of arts degree, also in English, from the University of Chicago in 1955.

Roth served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1956 and married Margaret Martinson in 1959; they separated in 1963. His first book, Goodbye, Columbus, and Five Short Stories (1959), won the National Book Award in 1960. After two novels that received comparatively little attention, Roth wrote one of...