FROM THE guardian.co.uk
Paris Review honours Philip Roth with Hadada award
Roth, who made his literary debut in the journal more than half-a-century ago, follows Norman Mailer, John Ashbery and Joan Didion as recipient of the award
Alison Flood
Philip Roth missed out on the Literary Review's bad sex in fiction prize last year to Jonathan Littell but the grand old man of American letters was yesterday honoured with a somewhat less embarrassing award: the Paris Review's Hadada prize.
Given annually to "a distinguished member of the literary community who has demonstrated a strong and unique commitment to literature", the prize comes in the form of a bronze statuette and has gone in the past to Norman Mailer, John Ashbery and Joan Didion.
The Hadada was dreamed up in 2003 by the Paris Review's founder George Plimpton to honour a writer, reader, editor, publisher or organisation. The statuette is of the Paris Review bird which appears on every issue, an eagle perched on a pen. Because doubts have been raised over the image's resemblance to an eagle, it was decided to name the award after Plimpton's favourite bird, the hadada – an ibis.
Roth, who was honoured in New York last night with the Hadada for his "lifelong commitment to the literary arts", made his first literary appearance in the Paris Review. His story The Conversion of the Jews was published in the magazine's spring 1958 issue, a year before his debut novel Goodbye Columbus was released.
He was interviewed by Hermione Lee for the magazine in 1984, when she asked him if he had a Roth reader in mind when he wrote. "No. I occasionally have an anti-Roth reader in mind," the author replied. "I think, 'How he is going to hate this!' That can be just the encouragement I need."
Paris Review honours Philip Roth with Hadada award
Roth, who made his literary debut in the journal more than half-a-century ago, follows Norman Mailer, John Ashbery and Joan Didion as recipient of the award
Alison Flood
Philip Roth missed out on the Literary Review's bad sex in fiction prize last year to Jonathan Littell but the grand old man of American letters was yesterday honoured with a somewhat less embarrassing award: the Paris Review's Hadada prize.
Given annually to "a distinguished member of the literary community who has demonstrated a strong and unique commitment to literature", the prize comes in the form of a bronze statuette and has gone in the past to Norman Mailer, John Ashbery and Joan Didion.
The Hadada was dreamed up in 2003 by the Paris Review's founder George Plimpton to honour a writer, reader, editor, publisher or organisation. The statuette is of the Paris Review bird which appears on every issue, an eagle perched on a pen. Because doubts have been raised over the image's resemblance to an eagle, it was decided to name the award after Plimpton's favourite bird, the hadada – an ibis.
Roth, who was honoured in New York last night with the Hadada for his "lifelong commitment to the literary arts", made his first literary appearance in the Paris Review. His story The Conversion of the Jews was published in the magazine's spring 1958 issue, a year before his debut novel Goodbye Columbus was released.
He was interviewed by Hermione Lee for the magazine in 1984, when she asked him if he had a Roth reader in mind when he wrote. "No. I occasionally have an anti-Roth reader in mind," the author replied. "I think, 'How he is going to hate this!' That can be just the encouragement I need."
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