Philip Roth 1933–

American novelist and short story writer.

Roth exhibits in his fiction a brilliant satirical wit. His work explores problems of contemporary Jewish life. Roth has a flair for reproducing the speech patterns of American dialect, whether it is the idiomatic Yiddish quality of Jewish conversation or the cliché-ridden speech of a midwestern WASP. Roth has had the good fortune to achieve both critical acclaim and the fame of a best-selling novelist. His recent novels, The Ghost Writer and Zuckerman Unbound, examine the artist's interaction with society.

(See also CLC, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed., and Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 2: American Novelists since World War II.)