NEW YORK (AP) – Philip Roth was the star attraction, by words alone.
Annotated copies of the novels “Portnoy’s Complaint” and “American Pastoral” brought in more than $130,000 Tuesday night at a PEN American Center benefit auction hosted by Christie’s. PEN raised $1 million overall, a major boost for the literary and human rights organization, which officials say has an annual budget of around $4 million. Other popular items included annotated editions of Don DeLillo’s post-World War II epic “Underworld,” which had a winning bid of $57,000, and Robert Caro’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of municipal builder Robert Moses, “The Power Broker,” purchased for $26,000.
“It was a great night for literature. People keep saying the book is dead, but that clearly isn’t true,” Caro said afterward, adding that he had been nervous enough about the appeal of “The Power Broker” to delay his arrival until bidding for it was over.
The actual bids Tuesday brought in just under $920,000, but a PEN supporter, who the organization declined to identify, kicked in enough to bring the total to $1 million.
The auction was called “First Editions/Second Thoughts,” for which writers and visual artists reflected upon previous works and added notes and illustrations. The 75 offerings ranged from an old Woody Allen stage and film comedy, “Play It Again, Sam,” to Gillian Flynn’s million-selling thriller “Gone Girl.” Roth, who has announced his retirement from both fiction writing and public speeches, was not in attendance. But his “American Pastoral,” a Pulitzer winner released in 1997, was easily the most popular work, selling for $80,000.