Henry Roth's
Call It Sleepwas published in 1934; then, save for a collection of shorter works collected in
Shifting Landscapeand published in 1987, Roth remained virtually voiceless in the literary world for nearly sixty years. However, when his
Mercy of a Rude Streamseries of four novels was published in the 1990s, it demonstrated Roth's continuing power as a novelist.
In the early part of the twentieth century, European political maps still showed what was known as the Austro-Hungarian empire. From this empire, from a village called Tysmenitz in the province of Galitzia, came Henry Roth. Born February 8, 1906, Roth spent only about eighteen months in the small village before he and his mother Leah emigrated to America to join Roth's father Herman, who had come to the United States in
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Citation: Mulder, Stacy. "Henry Roth". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 October 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3858, accessed 02 December 2024.]