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But Bailey the author of three definitive books about John Cheever, Richard Yates, and Charles Jackson persisted.
In the subsequent days, everyone (including me) wanted to talk to Bailey about Roth.
I dont write a word of finished prose until everything else is in place.
I dont find that Ive left anything out, and that makes me very happy.
I have too much information.
Theres a warehouse of Philip Roth stuff at the Library of Congress.
Plus Philip, many, many times.
Was Roth a saver?Not in the sense of being a pathological hoarder.
Medical records, appointment books thats the kind of thing he sent me.
Then there was Notes for My Biographer, which Philip was going to publish.
Its really his last book a rebuttal of Claire Blooms memoir practically syllable by syllable.
There are two copies in the world.
One is in a safe, and one is in my possession.
And finally, theres notes on … can we go off the record for a moment?
[Discusses a juicy document.]
He would not respond to any of my queries.
The two of them must have fallen out pretty badly.Oh, yeah.
You said you interviewed Roth many times.
Had you become close?Yes, we had.
We had a written agreement, the same agreement that I have with the estates of my previous subjects.
And that is that he must cooperate in every reasonable way.
He has to allow me to quote freely from letters and other documents.
He has a reputation for ferocity.Philip doesnt suffer fools, and Philip is most certainly not a fool himself.
So I became very fond of him.
And he wants to keep the public at arms length.
But Philip takes things very, very hard.
Then that tapered off, because hed given me all he had.
It was delicious work to him, a trip down memory lane.
I dont want to use the word manipulated, but …Thats exactly it.
Bob Baker and I met at the University of Chicago in 1955, et cetera.
This is how our friendship progressed and ended, all that kind of stuff.
All of it is skewed toward a self-advocacy, lets say.
I mean, hes essentially writing his biography by proxy.
I have all those tapes, and all the letters.
But I was quietly going my own way.
It is absolutely accurate.
But we agreed I would ask six basic questions.
Well, she had disappeared for three days.
Theyd called the police, and so on.
Finally she shows up, pretends nothing much is amiss.
They sit down for their first dinner and all hell breaks loose.
Whereupon Philip separated them and said, You cannot ever say that again in my presence.
So I said [to Claire Bloom] Did that happen?
Did it happen that way?, the way Philip had reported it.
She was furious and categorically denied it.
Anna Steiger categorically denied it.
And Philip was furious at their denials.
He wrote notes about it, which I have, so he wouldnt forget.
I have one last question for you, a little off topic.
Ive written one biography, and another book that largely centers on one guy.
And he gets cancer.
And I didnt even have a father when I had a father.
That desperation breaking through I remember bursting into tears as I was writing that.
