Henry Roth Collection
Scope and Content Note
The bulk of the Henry Roth Collection documents the evolution of the first two volumes of the Mercy of a Rude Stream series from their original drafts to their final versions. The collection consists of thirteen manuscripts of the four volumes of the Mercy of a Rude Stream series, taking the form of original drafts, revisions, and bound galleys. The collection includes annotations of the manuscripts written by Robert Weil, Roth’s editor at St. Martin’s Press. Also of interest is Roth’s Webster New Collegiate Dictionary containing a handwritten list of real and invented words defined by Roth, a memorial booklet written by Hugh Roth for his parents, and the Isaac Bashevis Singer Prize in Fiction.
Dates
- Creation: 1959, 1992-1999
Language of Materials
The collection is in English and Italian.
Access Restrictions
The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.
Use Restrictions
No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.
For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org
Biographical Note
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.
As a writer, Henry Roth drew heavily upon the events of his own life. He was born in Tyszmenicz, Galicia (now in 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.
LEFT OFF
Henry and Muriel Roth moved to Boston and then to Maine in 1946. Roth held different jobs including cutting wood for a paper company and working for the Augusta State Mental Hospital as an attendant. Muriel Roth taught at an elementary school. Eventually the two purchased a farm in Maine where they raised two sons and Roth bred ducks and geese. The renewed interest in Call it Sleep in the 1960s enabled the Roths to travel and eventually to settle in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Muriel Roth began to compose again and Henry Roth began to write again. In 1979, Roth commenced a decade’s worth of writing that evolved into the Mercy of a Rude Stream series. Roth did much of this writing while severely debilitated by arthritis.
Muriel Roth died in 1990 and Henry Roth followed her in 1995 having seen the first two volumes of the Mercy of a Rude Stream series published.
Note: For more detailed biographical information about Henry Roth, see the finding aid for the Henry Roth Papers (collection number P-702).
Footnotes
- 1. Obituary, New York Times, 15October 1995.
Extent
9 Boxes
Abstract
The Henry Roth Collection contains papers pertinent to Henry Roth's writing, but was collected and donated by other individuals. Items in this collection include: early drafts, revisions, and bound volumes of his "Mercy of a Rude Stream" series, with notes by Roth and his editor, Robert Weil. In addition to these manuscripts, the collection includes Roth's Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, which contains a list of words hand-written and defined by Roth. Other items in the collection consist of awards and a booklet from Roth's son, Hugh Roth, given to his parents.
Arrangement
Folders are arranged numerically and chronologically in Series I and alphabetically in Series II.
The materials are organized in two series:
Provenance
The Society acquired the collection through three accessions, one (1999.025) a gift from Henry Roth’s editor Robert Weil and the others (2000.0017 and 2000.018) donated by Hugh Roth, Henry Roth’s son.
- Title
- Guide to the Henry Roth (1906-1995) Collection, 1959, 1992-1999 P-694
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Rachel Keegan
- Date
- © December 2001
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from HenryRothCollection02.xml
Revision Statements
- April 2005.: Converted to EAD 2002. Revised as HenryRothCollection02.xml by Tanya Elder. Removed deprecated elements and attributes, updated repository codes, added language codes, changed doctype declaration, etc.
- January 2006.: Entities removed from EAD finding aid.
- October 2020: EHyman: post-ASpace migration cleanup.
Repository Details
Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository