American literary giant Philip Roth dies at 85

Philip Milton Roth

Prolific novelist Philip Roth, a dominant force in American literature throughout the latter half of the 20th century, has died, US media said. He was 85. The New Yorker magazine first reported the death of Roth, who won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his acclaimed novel "American Pastoral." The New York Times, citing a close friend, confirmed the death of the writer, who lived in New York and Connecticut.

A prolific essayist and critic, Roth was best known for mining the Jewish-American experience in his work. His titanic stature on the post-World War II literary scene came from the universality of his message - in his own words: "I don't write Jewish, I write American."

He long managed to sustain his literary output both in terms of quality as well as quantity, as exemplified by his widely admired political trilogy that included "American Pastoral" as well as "I Married a Communist" (1998) and "The Human Stain" (2000). The decorated author won most top literary honors.Philip Milton Roth was born on March 19, 1933 in New Jersey, the grandson of European Jews who were part of the 19th-century wave of immigration to the US.

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