Philip Roth, the legendary American novelist who died in 2018, bequeathed $2 million to his hometown library, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Roth, best known for his novels like Portnoy’s Complaint, Sabbath’s Theater, and The Human Stain, arranged the large endowment to benefit the library system of Newark, N.J., where he was born and raised. The money will go toward the library’s general collections.
The author also left another sum of money to bankroll the Philip Roth Personal Library, which will be home to his personal collection of thousands of books.
Roth lived in New York, but held a lifelong fascination with his hometown, which served as the setting for many of his novels, including American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, and The Plot Against America.
Blake Bailey, the author of a forthcoming biography of Roth, told the Wall Street Journal that the novelist was hoping for a comeback by his poverty-stricken hometown.
“Philip wanted to do his part to bring Newark back,” Bailey said. “This was the single most significant gesture he could make.”
It’s unclear who the other beneficiaries of Roth’s will are. Last month, his estate put up for sale a Warren, Connecticut, home that he owned; the property is listed for just under $3 million.
Roth’s friend Julia Golier said the author wanted to keep Newark “revitalized and relevant.”
“There’s a view that in addition to contributing to people who live in Newark, that this would attract literary tourists and festivals,” Golier said.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
