The Autumn 1956 edition of “The American Scholar” magazine listed 43 novels that literary experts had submitted as deserving more attention than they had received in the past 25 years.

The only novel mentioned more than once was “Call It Sleep,” Henry Roth’s story of a small Jewish immigrant boy trying to adjust to life in a poor New York City neighborhood.

The book’s mention in the journal caused increased interest in it by Jewish literary scholars and others. They read (or re-read) it and came to realize what a dynamic novel it was.

After having issued the book in 1934, Roth had published a few short stories in magazines and had begun to work on a second novel.

Soon, however, he abandoned the idea of pursuing a literary career and instead concentrated on doing other work that would allow him to support himself – and, eventually, his wife and two sons.

Meanwhile, the country’s Jewish literary community (located to a great extent in New York City) had no idea what had happened to Roth; he had dropped completely out of sight.

One night, a local Jewish novelist named Charles Angoff gave a talk to a community audience about “Call It Sleep.” In the course of his presentation, Angoff noted that no one had been able to locate Roth; that, in fact, no one seemed to know if he was still alive!

At the end of the novelist’s speech, a woman in the audience came forward and introduced herself to him. She was Rose Roth Broder, Henry’s little sister!

Rose told Angoff that Henry was very much alive, living in rural Maine and working as a tutor while raising ducks and geese to sell to meat markets and restaurants.

This was welcome news to the Jewish literary community. Before long, some of them contacted Roth and told him that they would like to help get his novel back into print.

Thus, it was that Henry Roth and his outstanding novel both became well known again—as we will see next week!