Philip Roth turns 80 this month, and though he startled the literati last year by announcing that he was done writing fiction, the Pulitzer Prize winner is still an eminence, revered by readers and fellow writers everywhere.
So beloved is Roth that when he celebrates his birthday on March 19 in his hometown of Newark, an international parade of scholars will be there in force.
“People from Switzerland, India, Germany—they’re all coming to Newark,” says Aimee Pozorski, president of the Philip Roth Society, a group of academics she leads from Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, where she is a professor of contemporary American literature. The roughly 80 members of the society who will descend on Newark do not expect to mingle with the famously private author, who lives in Connecticut—although he is scheduled to speak at an invitation-only party at the Newark Museum on the evening of his birthday.
They’re coming to soak up atmospheric vestiges of the Newark Roth depicted in novels such as The Plot Against America, Nemesis and Portnoy’s Complaint. (In Portnoy, Roth recounted a cheer from his alma mater, Weequahic High School: “Ikey, Mikey, Jake and Sam/We’re the boys who eat no ham/We play football, we play soccer—and we keep matzohs in our locker!/Aye, aye, aye, Weequahic High!”)
The scholars—and anyone else who wants to celebrate the newly minted octogenarian—will have plenty of help with sightseeing and commemorations. The Philip Roth Society and the Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee will host a conference called Roth@80, March 18 and 19 at Newark’s Robert Treat Hotel (rothat80.blogspot.com). At the Newark Public Library, an exhibit running March 19 through August 31 will include roughly 100 photographs of Roth, many taken in Newark.
The Preservation and Landmarks Committee is also mounting a tour of Rothian haunts, including Washington Park, the Essex County Courthouse and spots in the Weequahic neighborhood where Roth was raised. Readings from relevant Roth novels will accompany each stop, says Liz Del Tufo, president of the committee. The tour, which leaves from the library at noon on March 19, costs $35; reservations are required (newarklandmarks.org).
Del Tufo has been running the hour-long tour on request since 2003—“mostly for literary people or people who have some history in Weequahic.” The present occasion raises every step of the way to a new level of immediacy. “The fact that he has chosen to come for his birthday is a great thing,” she says. “Philip is one of the most positive things ever to come out of Newark.”
