Lena Dunham has led online tributes to author Philip Roth following his death on Tuesday (22May18).
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist passed away at a hospital in Manhattan, New York from congestive heart failure at the age of 85. Following news of his death, fans of the author took to Twitter to pay tribute to his career.
Lena shared a still from her TV series Girls, in which her budding writer character Hannah clutches Roth's novel When She Was Good to her chest, and wrote in the caption, "Always sort of thought I’d wind up with Philip Roth..."
"Haven’t grasped the words yet to explain Roth’s influence, which I feel everywhere from my writing to my dating, and we are so lucky for the stack of books he left us with," she continued. "Rest In Peace, sweet prince of Newark (praying hands emoji)."
Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn also posted a picture of a Roth novel, The Counterlife, and added: "This one hurts, both me and all of literature. He taught me when I was at Columbia and was a huge influence, impressing upon me the importance of writing through the hard times. I have many favorite books by Roth, but this is one of them."
The Wire creator David Simon called Roth "the great American novelist of our postwar world" and revealed they had met a few months ago to talk about an adaptation of his novel Plot Against America.
"At 85, he was more precise and insightful, more intellectually adept and downright witty than most any person of any age. What a marvelous, rigorous mind," he added.
Monty Python star Eric Idle told fans he was "so sad" to hear about the death of such an "amazing novelist", How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor said Roth was the most important writer to him during his 20s, while British comedian David Baddiel praised how "funny" Roth was.
The author was best known for works including Portnoy's Complaint, American Pastoral and The Human Stain.
