Philip Roth, Towering Novelist Who Explored Lust, Jewish Life and America, Dies at 85

Philip Roth, the prolific, protean, and often blackly comic novelist who was a pre-eminent figure in 20th-century literature, died on Tuesday night at a hospital in Manhattan.

He was 85.

• Charles McGrath
• The New York Times

The cause was congestive heart failure, said the writer Judith Thurman, a close friend.

Mr. Roth had homes in Manhattan and Connecticut.

In the course of a very long career, Mr. Roth took on many guises — mainly versions of himself — in the exploration of what it means to be an American, a Jew, a writer, a man.

He was a…

• Philip Roth, Towering…