Exhibit Offers Retrospective on Philip Roth's Life

To mark the 80th birthday of Philip Roth, the famed Newark novelist whose upbringing in Weequahic serves as the backdrop to many of his works, the Newark Public Library has launched an exhibition of photos taken throughout his life. 

“Philip Roth: An Exhibit of Photos from a Lifetime” will be in view through Aug. 31 on the second-floor gallery of the main branch at 5 Washington St. The exhibit is free  and open during regular library hours:  Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 9 am to 5:30 pm; and Wednesday: 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

This exhibit is comprised of photographs from Roth’s own collections, most never before seen by the public, along with images from the Library’s Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center, curated by James Lewis with guest curator Rosemary Steinbaum.  With many captions by Roth himself, the photographs tell the story of his life from his youth in Newark to contemporary times, with images of his family, his friends from the Weequahic community and his fellow writers.

Steinbaum has selected passages from Roth’s books that complement the photographs and captions..

“From Goodbye, Columbus to Nemesis, from the Newark Public Library to the Chancellor Avenue playground, Newark has been to Roth’s writing what whaling was to Melville’s: setting, theme, metaphor, and moral compass,” she said. 

The Newark Public Library has enjoyed a long and close relationship with Roth. As a student, he used the Weequahic Branch Library on Osborne Terrace. Goodbye, Columbus, his first published book, featured the library prominently. In 1991, John Cunningham, as President of the Friends of the Newark Public Library, invited Roth to give the first John Cotton Dana Lecture here. When the late Charles Cummings, former Newark City Historian, supervised the New Jersey Information Center in the Main Library, he became friends with Roth and often supplied him with information about Newark’s history.

A 24-page catalogue based on the exhibit will be published in May and can be ordered for $15 at the Library or from the Library website at www.npl.org.  Proceeds from the sale of the booklet will be used to support the fiction collections at The Newark Public Library.