American literary giant Philip Roth dead at 85     

NEW YORK - AFP

Prolific novelist Philip Roth, a dominant force in American literature throughout the latter half of the 20th century, has died at the age of 85.

Roth's death on May 21, first reported by the New Yorker and The New York Times, was later confirmed by Roth's literary agent Andrew Wylie. He said the cause was congestive heart failure.

Roth won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his acclaimed novel "American Pastoral."

Philip Milton Roth was born on March 19, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey, the grandson of European Jews who were part of the 19th-century wave of immigration to the United States.

He first achieved fame for his 1969 novel "Portnoy's Complaint," about a horny teenager named Alexander Portnoy.

The decorated author won most top literary honors, but the coveted Nobel Literature Prize eluded him.