Philip Roth Personal Library Now Open @ NPL
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Goodbye, Columbus,
Hello, Philip Roth Personal Library
Author’s Gifts of Books
and Endowments Provide Funding to Benefit
Newark Public Library’s
Collections, Programs and Services and Create a Literary Destination
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The Philip Roth Personal
Library is Now Open for Visits,
Tours and
Research
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The Newark Public Library (NPL)
has transformed a second floor space into the home of the Philip Roth Personal Library
(PRPL), an installation that captures the author’s engagement with reading,
writing and Newark. Researchers will be able to consult Roth’s books and manuscript
collections by appointment, and visitors may tour the public gallery where
the inaugural Philip Roth exhibit is on view.
The
ribbon cutting was held Monday, June 7th, for this important destination for
visitors and scholars and the space is now open to visitors during regular
library hours.
With
many of Roth’s books on display (often with annotations and marginalia) and
exhibits about the author, the PRPL conveys how reading shaped his
intellect and writing.
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In
2016 Roth announced he was leaving his personal collection of 7,000 books,
to the Newark Public Library. A Newark native, Roth benefited from NPL's
collections as a youth and student and drew on his life in Newark to inform
several of his novels, including Goodbye, Columbus; American Pastoral; and
Nemesis. “As a librarian I am thrilled with this incomparable gift of
books that mattered to him,” said Joslyn Bowling Dixon, director of the
library. She added, “He believed in the power of reading to educate,
inspire and transport, and he wanted to share this with the people of
Newark and beyond.”
At
his death in 2018, Roth’s estate created two endowments at the Community
Foundation of New Jersey for the benefit of the Newark Public Library. Roth
directed that interest from these endowments be used to support programs
and services at both the Main Library and branches. Interest from the
endowments was already being used to meet community needs, including
acquiring a digital media service that significantly expands NPL’s e-book
offerings.
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All photos © Maxim Ryazansky
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Nadine
Sergejeff is supervising librarian and curator of the PRPL.
Ann
Beha Architects designed the space, Shawmut Design and Construction handled
the renovation of the double-height room and C&G Partners designed the
room’s exhibition and graphics.
Rosemary
Steinbaum, chairman of the Newark Public Library Foundation and instrumental
in shepherding Roth’s gifts to the library, said, “We are proud and honored
to be the steward of Roth’s extraordinarily generous gifts to Newark and
the Newark Public Library.”
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The Newark Public Library • 5
Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102
