Novelist Philip Roth dies at 85

Philip Roth, one of the most prolific and celebrated writers of his generation, died Tuesday. He was 85. A close friend, Judith Thurman, said the cause of death was congestive heart failure. Between his first collection of stories, Goodbye, Columbus (1959), and his final novel, 2010's Nemesis, Roth won two National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, the Man Booker International Prize, two National Book Critics Circle awards, and three PEN/Faulkner Awards. He is best known for 1969's Portnoy's Complaint, and his literary explorations of sex and life as an American, a Jew, and a man. Many of his protagonists were thinly veiled versions of himself — Nathan Zuckerman, Alexander Portnoy, David Kepesh — and his work explored and blurred the lines between truth and fiction.

Source: The New York Times

Editor's Note: I know so many of you were shocked to hear Philip Roth had died. Seriously though, I feel like they are truly looking for certain numbers to publish. Just so you know, and to be clear, I get most of these stories from Ten Things You Need to Know Today, from The Week magazine. So, according to them, we need to know this.

See also: futile.work/ten