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Roth, Philip (Author/Subject) & Pierpont, Claudia Roth (Author) : Roth Unbound: A Writer And His Books

Farrar Straus & Giroux, New York City, NY, 2014

ISBN 0374280517

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 355 pages. Book-length critical biography on subject. The best such account on the life and achievement of Philip Roth in his lifetime. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Claudia Roth Pierpont's "Roth Unbound: A Writer And His Books". An immersive experience and an illumination, the only account of its kind published while the author was still alive and with his explicit approval. Please note: She is NOT related to Philip, who granted her interviews, but did not otherwise take an active role. This despite his nagging awareness that it may be - and turned out to be - the only book-length appraisal of his work that has credibility: Critically independent of and yet had access to him at the same time. "Drawing on conversations with Roth and featuring insightful close readings of his entire oeuvre, New Yorker writer Pierpont offers a dazzling chronicle that traces moments from the author's life and explores the life of his art. Pierpont develops the story of Roth's writing chronologically, summarizing the plots and critical reception of each of his novels, from 'Goodbye, Columbus' (1959) to 'Nemesis' (2010). Pierpont declares 'Sabbath's Theater' a masterpiece of twentieth-century American literature: Coursing with life, dense with character and wisdom, it gives us the deepest experiences we face: Dying, remembering, holding on to each other, the startling impact of first knowledge. Her luminous and graceful study achieves what all good criticism should: It drives us to read and re-read Roth's work anew" (Robert Cornfield). While the (dull and boring) life of many other writers does not drive their work, Roth Pierpont shows us how in the case of the greatest American writer of our time, his life has had an almost deterministic effect on his work: It is the subject, not just the source of inspiration, of his oeuvre. Both the verisimilitude (in all of its concrete detail) and fabulism (in all of its imaginativeness) of the Rothian universe come from Roth's seemingly ordinary and truly extraordinary American life. Philip Roth died on May 22, 2018 of congestive heart failure, literally of heartbreak, at the age of 85. An absolute "must-have" title for Philip Roth and Claudia Roth Pierpont collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in blue ink-pen on the title page by Claudia Roth Pierpont. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. It is also very boldly and beautifully imprimatur-signed in black pen-marker on the title page (underneath Roth Pierpont's signature) by Philip Roth himself. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know, this is the only such double-signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Philip Roth signed only a few copies of the book towards the end of his life. A rare signed copy thus. Six of Philip Roth's novels were selected as among the Top 20 works of American fiction of the last 25 years: "American Pastoral", "The Counterlife", "Operation Shylock", "Sabbath's Theater", "The Human Stain", and "The Plot Against America". One of the greatest writers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER PHILIP ROTH TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374280517.

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