Philip Roth Personal Library

Philip Roth Lecture, November 5, 2026
The Newark Public Library at 5:30 PM - 9:00 PM

The Newark Public Library welcomes George Packer, an award‑winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic, whose work examines the intersections of literature, politics, and free expression.

Packer is the author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, which received the National Book Award, and The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. His biography Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century earned both the Hitchens Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His newest book, The Emergency: A Novel, continues his exploration of American life through fiction. He has also written two additional novels and a play, and he edited a two‑volume collection of George Orwell’s essays.

His work is widely recognized for its political insight, narrative depth, and its sustained engagement with the complexities of American democracy. The evening’s conversation will reflect these themes and offer a thoughtful look at the role of storytelling in public life.

An audience Q&A with the author will follow the presentation.

Free admission. Registration required.
Visit prpl.npl.org/events to register or visit the link in bio.

Writing About History with Philip Roth Personal Library✒️📚

Beginning Wednesday, July 8, 2026 • 6–7:30 PM, join Philip Roth Personal Library historian Joshua Prager for a seven part writing workshop designed to help you turn the past into powerful stories.

Each week focuses on a core skill:

✒️Week 1: The Idea — How do you choose your story
✒️Week 2: The Structure — How to organize your narrative
✒️Week 3: Research — Using the library as your partner
✒️Week 4: Documentation — Finding text or images that support your story
✒️Week 5: Interviewing — Identifying and speaking with sources
✒️Week 6: Writing — Crafting sentences that keep readers engaged
✒️Week 7: Editing — Strengthening and refining your work

👉More info: [email protected] or 973 733 3614

Writing Through Our Wounds: PRPL Workshop with Paul LaTorre

Please join us next Thursday, 6/25 at 8 PM, for a poetry workshop featuring

This workshop is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.

Philip Roth loved the Newark Public Library 📚
He called it “a place of grandeur,” and entrusted it with his personal collection of 7,000 books.

Those books are now preserved in the Philip Roth Personal Library. The books —filled with underlinings and annotations — offer scholars and students of Roth direct access to the sources that shaped his thinking and his fiction.

The Philip Roth Personal Library is open during regular library hours and available by appointment.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with Joshua Prager at 973‑733‑3614 or [email protected].

Read what Roth wrote. Read what Roth read.