Norton To Publish Philip Roth Biography

September 28, 2012, 3:19 pm

By CHARLES MCGRATH

W.W. Norton & Company will publish the previously announced authorized biography of Philip Roth, the press announced on Thursday.

The press won the rights to the book, to be written by Blake Bailey and tentatively titled “Philip Roth: The Biography,” at auction. Mr. Bailey is the author of biographies of Richard Yates, John Cheever, and, forthcoming, Charles Jackson, who wrote “The Lost Week-End.”

Norton also announced that it had purchased a memoir by Mr. Bailey, “The Splendid Things We Planned,” which it plans to bring out in 2014. A publicist said the memoir was acquired earlier and was not part of a two-book deal. She would not disclose what Norton had paid for the biography.

Matt Weiland, the senior editor who acquired the book, said in an e-mail: “Like so many others, I've devoured Roth all my reading life â€" oh the vitality, the electricity! - and I revere Blake Bailey's biographies of Yates and Cheever. Who could resist the combination? Not me.”