The Joel Conarroe Collection of Philip Roth Material

Professor, editor and foundation president Joel Osborne Conarroe (b. 1934) and American writer Philip Milton Roth (b. 1933) met in the mid-1960s when both were teaching literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Their friendship lasts until this day and is memorialized with a line in the lengthy chronology within the Library of America’s editions of Roth’s collected work: “1965: [Roth] begins to teach comparative literature at University of Pennsylvania. Meets professor Joel Conarroe, who becomes a close friend”1 and in the dedication of Roth’s 2006 novel Everyman “To J.C.”2

Conarroe, a graduate of Davidson College (BA 1956), Cornell University (MA 1957) and NYU (PhD 1966), was a freshly minted PhD when he began his academic career at Penn. His studies had been interrupted only briefly with a tour of duty in the United States Army (1957-1958). Roth, a graduate of Bucknell University (BA 1954) and the University of Chicago (MA 1955), planned to pursue further graduate studies after his stint in the army (1955-1956). Roth did enter the PhD program at the University of Chicago, but withdrew almost immediately. Despite leaving the PhD program within a semester, Roth continued as an instructor in the University of Chicago English department for two years.

The success of Roth’s first novel, Goodbye, Columbus (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959), which won the National Book Award among other accolades, propelled him toward a career as a writer. Over the years Roth taught briefly at several universities and writing programs. His longest stretch of teaching, however, was at Penn (1965-1980). According to Conarroe, Roth had an “extraordinary capacity as a teacher … a terrific rapport with students.”3

Both Conarroe, the son of Elvin Conarroe and the former Elizabeth Lofland, and Roth, the son of Herman Roth and the former Bess Finkel, are natives of New Jersey. Roth was born and raised in the city of Newark, the setting for many of his novels; Conarroe grew up twenty miles northwest of Newark in the suburban Borough of Mountain Lakes. Their fathers were insurance men. Elvin Conarroe was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, an “expert accountant for industrial firms” and an executive of Metropolitan Life in New York. He dropped dead at his New York office in 1953 at the age of 57.4 Herman Roth, with a less formal education, fought anti-semitism to rise from salesman to district manager over the course of his career, also at Metropolitan Life.

Conarroe's career trajectory was that of a successful academic. At Penn he advanced from assistant professor to Chair of the English Department within seven years, and for two years was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. During his time at Penn Conarroe served also as Executive Director of the Modern Languages Association(1978-1983) and editor of PMLA. In 1985 Conarroe left Penn to become President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, a position he held until 2002. Throughout his career Conarroe has written and edited books and articles about American poetry and fiction. He has also chaired the National Book Awards and served as president of the PEN American Center.

Roth’s success obviously was as a writer. He has written nearly thirty novels as well as numerous short stories, essays and reviews; several of his novels have been adapted as movies. A few of his many awards include The National Book Award in 1960 and 1995 (Goodbye Columbus and Sabbath’s Theater, respectively); the Pulitzer Prize, 1998 (American Pastoral); the National Medal of Arts, 2002; and the National Humanities Medal and the Man Booker International Prize, both in 2011.

Count Conarroe among Roth’s many fans: "Ten years ago, I would have said it was a toss-up between Updike and Roth [regarding the Nobel Prize] … Today, I'd say he's certainly the most deserving of the Nobel Prize in America. I put him in a class with Bellow, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner. I know that sounds extreme. But both in terms of quality of work and productivity, he simply has no peer right now. He's the king of the cats.”5

For a more thorough biography of Philip Roth and a complete list of his works, see: "http://www.philiprothsociety.org.

1 Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “The Book of Laughter: Philip Roth and his friends.” The New Yorker27 October 2013. Web March 2017. 2 Roth, Philip. Everyman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 3 Suplee, Curt. “Philip Roth, at Ease Mid-Journey.” The Washington Post. 30 October 1983. Web March 2017. 4 “Elvin Conarroe, Ex-official, Dies.” Philadelphia Inquirer., October 16, 1953, page 27. 5 Senior, Jennifer. “Philip Roth Blows Up." New York 1 May 2000. Web March 2017.