Roth, Henry

Writer Henry Roth is best known for his literary classic Call it Sleep, published in 1934 when Roth was twenty-eight. Through the eyes of a young boy, the autobiographical novel chronicles the Lower East Side in the early decades of the twentieth century, then home to many Eastern European Jewish immigrants. The novel was well received at publication, but enjoyed even greater acclaim in the 1960s when it was rediscovered and critics labeled it a literary classic. Roth published very infrequently after the publication of Call it Sleep until the 1990s. In 1994, A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park appeared, the first novel in the Mercy of a Rude Stream series. According to novelist Leonard Michaels, the publication of the autobiographical series, which follows the life of protagonist Ira Stigman, was akin to J.D. Salinger writing a sequel to A Catcher in the Rye 1 .

As a writer, Henry Roth drew heavily upon the events of his own life. He was born in Tyszmenicz, Galicia (now the Ukraine) on February 8, 1906. Roth’s father immigrated to New York City in 1907 and his mother followed with rest of the family in 1908. They settled in the Lower East Side where they lived until 1914 when the family relocated to Harlem. Roth began writing while a student at the City College of New York. While there, Roth met poet and literature professor Eda Lou Walton. Walton supported him financially while he finished school and the novel that would be Call it Sleep in 1928. They maintained their relationship until 1938 when Roth met his future wife, composer Muriel Parker. Parker and Roth married in 1939.

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