Differing reactions to their deaths and ambivalence of their immediate reputations. Shift in reception and emergence of new assessments. Reaction to the death of Proust, creating national distress, and that of Roth, national attention but without complete admiration. Importance of biography in establishing reputation. Proust arranged for friends and artists to visit his body; three days of mourning followed and then an elaborate ceremony at a Parisian church attended by James Joyce and members of the exclusive Jockey Club. Roth’s death was kept quiet until the press got hold of it, recalling missteps and criticism of his work. Non-religious burial at Bard College in upstate NY not far from the grave of Hannah Arendt. A military escort accompanied Proust’s coffin before burial at Père-Lachaise cemetery joining Molière, Chopin, and Oscar Wilde. Only invited friends attended Roth’s service.