Mariner Books is giving Philip Roth's complete works a new coat of paint, the publisher announced today.
Peter Hubbard, SVP and publisher of Mariner Books, negotiated rights to Roth's catalog with Andrew Wylie of the Wylie Agency. Mariner, an imprint of HarperCollins, will reissue all 31 of Roth's books under the Mariner Books Classics line, beginning this May with his landmark American Trilogy, encompassing American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000).
“We are deeply honored to be entrusted with Philip Roth’s extraordinary books, which together constitute one of the treasures of American literature,” Hubbard said. “Our ambition for this comprehensive reissue program is to introduce Roth’s remarkable novels and nonfiction to new generations of readers—and to inspire fresh interest in his entire catalog even among longtime admirers.”
With the acquisition, Roth is posthumously reunited with his longtime hardcover publisher, the now-defunct Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which was acquired in 2021 by HarperCollins and rehoused most of its backlist under the Mariner Books banner. Roth, who switched publishers multiple times over the course of his career, died in 2018 having run the gamut of U.S. literary honors, including two National Book Awards, three PEN/Faulkner Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral, among many others.
The vivid colors and iconography of the Mariner reissue covers were devised by Will Stehle, who said he was aiming to create designs that were as singular as Roth himself.
In a statement, Julia Grolier, co-trustee of the Roth Trust, said, “We are pleased that the Roth catalogue will be reintroduced by Mariner in its entirety—a body of work that feels as relevant now as when it was first written.”
