Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20200804

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 4 augusT 2020
Blake Bailey's 880-page Philip Roth bio to arrive in April

"Our association was some- to Roth's private papers, cording to Bailey, Roth was
times complicated, but including a 295-page re- part conformist, part rebel
rarely unhappy and never buttal to an unflattering and part "monk devoted to
dull," Bailey told the AP. memoir written by ex-wife his art."
Roth's novels include Claire Bloom, that will oth- "Chekhov said that he had
"American Pastoral," "Port- erwise be destroyed or to squeeze the serf out of
noy's Complaint" and many sealed until 2050. He said himself drop by drop, and
other works of classic, con- that his agreement with for his part Philip said he had
tentious fiction, and his Roth was similar to those he to squeeze the nice Jewish
dystopian "The Plot Against had with the literary estates boy out of himself drop by
America," about a fascist of his previous subjects, all drop," Bailey said. "But he
U.S. presidency in the 1940s, of whom had died before never quite succeeded; he
was adapted into an HBO he began biographies of remained both a nice Jew-
series that aired this year. them. Bailey would have ish boy and something very
He had been thinking of full creative control but unlike a nice Jewish boy to
a book about his life since would allow his manuscript the end."
the 1990s, originally asking to be vetted for accuracy. Roth had heart troubles for
University of Connecticut "They can't tell me what to decades and would speak
professor Ross Miller to be think or how to interpret," fatalistically of not being
his biographer, for a pub- said Bailey, who added alive for the book's release.
lication scheduled for re- that he hopes readers find His emails to Bailey reflect
lease by Harcourt Hough- his book "page turning" and his dedication to the biog-
ton Mifflin. But Roth and that whatever perceptions raphy, to the point of ob-
Miller, the nephew of Roth's they have of Roth would session, and his awareness
friend Arthur Miller, had dif- become "far more nu- of time and mortality. In a
ferent ideas for the book anced." message sent in November
and parted ways in 2009. Among the most ac- 2012, not long after Hur-
At the suggestion of fellow claimed and talked about ricane Sandy, Roth notes
literary biographer James authors of his time, Roth that he has come upon
Atlas, Bailey got in touch was protective of his life some correspondence
This mage released by W.W. Norton shows "Philip Roth: The Biog- with Roth. and work, even openly from his great contempo-
raphy" by Blake Bailey, expected next April. "Why should a gentile from confronting Wikipedia rary, John Updike, who had
Associated Press
Oklahoma write the biog- about errors on its page died a few years earlier. "I'll
By HILLEL ITALIE April 6, 2021, W.W. Norton raphy of Philip Roth?" Bailey for his novel "The Human get them to you in the next
AP National Writer & Company announced remembered Roth asking Stain." Bailey says that Roth post-storm-clean-up UPS
NEW YORK (AP) — In the Thursday. Its 880 pages are him. "certainly did try" to shape package," Roth writes. "This
Fall 2012, as the willing the finished result of an un- "I'm not an a bisexual alco- the book's narrative, but is a hard job, man. I may go
subject of one of the most dertaking that pre-dates holic with an ancient Puri- "always responded well" back to writing."
anticipated literary biog- not just Roth's death in tan lineage, but I still man- when Bailey pushed back In another email, Roth ad-
raphies in recent memory, 2018, at age 85, but Roth's aged to write a biography with "civility and profession- vises Bailey to get in touch
Philip Roth joked that he retirement from public writ- of John Cheever," Bailey alism." Biographers have a with an 87-year-old friend
had surrendered power ing after 2010 and the in- responded. long history of disenchant- from his alma mater Buck-
over his own life to author volvement of Bailey. The Biographies of living sub- ment with their subjects, nell University who had
Blake Bailey. book is also the outcome jects come in different but Bailey says he came "sounded slightly disorient-
"I trust you have been get- of an intricate relation- categories: authorized, in away with great affection ed" when they last spoke.
ting all the windy emails I've ship between Roth, the which the subject partici- for Roth, and that for his He provides a phone num-
been sending you," Roth relentless son of Jews from pates and often has final book's epigraph he uses a ber and informs Bailey that
wrote to his biographer in Newark, New Jersey, and approval; unauthorized, suggestion made by the his friend is expecting his
correspondence shared by Bailey, a Catholic school written without the sub- author: "Don't try to reha- call. Roth also lists recom-
Bailey with The Associated graduate from Oklahoma ject's cooperation, and bilitate me; just make me mended subjects, every-
Press. "My whole writing life City previously known for those like Bailey's that land interesting." thing from his former land-
now revolves around you. his acclaimed books on fic- in between. Roth's life and literary sensi- lady, to the "mores and
Anything to make Blake tion writers Richard Yates, Bailey began working on bility differed in many ways ethos" of Bucknell to the
happy. This is madness." Charles Jackson and John the biography in 2012 and from Cheever's, but Bailey McCarthy era of the 1950s.
Bailey's "Philip Roth: The Cheever, whom Roth knew received broad access says both compartmen- "After all that," Roth tells him,
Biography" is coming out and admired. to Roth, to his friends and talized their behavior. Ac- "you are on your own."q

Burns outlines 8 projects; PBS launches documentary service

By DAVID BAUDER in the works, half of them ready in 2025.
AP Media Writer in-depth looks at the four He's also doing documen-
NEW YORK (AP) — What personalities. taries on the United States'
do Ernest Hemingway, The da Vinci project is the actions during the Holo-
Muhammad Ali, Benjamin first one Burns has done on caust, the comeback of
Franklin and Leonardo da a non-American subject, the buffalo and the history
Vinci have in common? he said. of President Lyndon John-
All are getting the Ken The next great conflict that son's Great Society.
Burns treatment in the next the maker of "The Civil War" PBS announced an online
few years. The PBS docu- is turning to is the Ameri- home for Burns' work and
mentarian said Tuesday can Revolutionary War, a many of its documentary
that he has eight projects project he hopes to have projects. q