In 1995 the New York Times reported that one of its readers had noted the similarity of 6 passages in Theroux's 1994 survey of The Primary Colors with a 1954 book Song of the Sky (by Guy Murchie). Theroux attributed the matter to "stupidity and bad note taking," noting that he had read hundreds of books for The Primary Colors. Theroux's editor said that future editions would credit Murchie's work, or remove the passages.

Novels

• Three Wogs: A Novel (1972)
• Darconville's Cat
• An Adultery
• Laura Warholic or, The Sexual Intellectual, Fantagraphics Books , Seattle, 2007.

Fables

• The Schinocephalic Waif
• The Great Wheadle Tragedy
• Master Snickup's Cloak

Poetry

• The Lollipop Trollops and Other Poems

Other

• Theroux Metaphrastes: An Essay on Literature
• The Primary Colors: Three Essays
• The Secondary Colors: Three Essays
• The Strange Case of Edward Gorey
• The Enigma of Al Capp

Critical studies

• Steven Moore, "Alexander Theroux's Darconville's Cat and the Tradition of Learned Wit." Contemporary Literature 27.2 (Summer 1986): 233-45.
• "Alexander Theroux/Paul West", The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Spring 1991

Newspaper stories

• "The Theroux Family Arsenal", James Atlas, New York Times Magazine, April 30, 1978
• "The Man Who Knows Too Much", M. R. Montgomery, The Boston Globe, September 14, 1994