Updike, John, 1932–, American author, b. Shillington, Pa., grad. Harvard, 1954. His novels and stories, written in a well-modulated prose of extraordinary beauty and dazzling fluidity, usually treat the tensions and frustrations of middle-class life, often mingling the joys and sorrows of suburban life with a current of existential dread. The classic novel Rabbit Run (1961), set in Pennsylvania in the 1950s, concerns a young man who yearns for his days as a high school athlete and deserts his wife and child. In Rabbit Redux (1971), the same hero confronts racial tension, job obsolescence, sexual freedom, drugs, violence, and the alienation of the young. The quartet continues with Rabbit Is Rich (1981; Pulitzer Prize) and ends with Rabbit at Rest (1990; Pulitzer Prize). The Rabbit characters are brought up to date in Rabbit Remembered, a novella-sequel included in the volume Licks of Love (2000).

The remarkably prolific author's other works include the novels The Poorhouse Fair (1959), The Centaur (1962), Couples (1968), The Coup (1978), The Witches of Eastwick (1984), In the Beauty of the Lilies (1995), Seek My Face (2002), and Terrorist (2006) and volumes of poetry such as The Carpentered Hen (1958), Facing Nature (1985), and Americana (2001). Among his many short-story collections are Pigeon Feathers (1962), Museums and Women and Other Stories (1972), Problems (1979), The Afterlife and Other Stories (1994), and the linked stories that feature Updike's Jewish alter ego, Henry Bech: Bech: A Book (1970), Bech Is Back (1982), and Bech at Bay (1998). The Early Stories: 1953–1975, a compilation, was published in 2003. Updike has also written the play Buchanan Dying (1974); literary criticism, e.g., Hugging the Shore (1983), Odd Jobs (1991), and More Matter (1999); and art criticism, e.g., Just Looking (1989) and Still Looking (2005).

Bibliography

See his memoirs, Self-Consciousness (1989); J. Plath, ed., Conversations with John Updike (1994); J. De Bellis, The John Updike Encyclopedia (2000); studies by D. Thorburn and H. Eiland, ed. (1979), W. R, Macnaughton, ed. (1982), J. Detweiler (rev. ed. 1984), J. H. Campbell (1987), J. Newman (1988), R. M. Luscher (1993), J. A. Schiff (1998), J. Yerkes, ed. (1999), W. H. Pritchard (2000), J. De Bellis, ed. (2005), and P. J. Bailey (2006).

Updike, John (Hoyer)

(born March 18, 1932, Shillington, Pa., U.S.) U.S. writer. He attended Harvard University and in 1955 began a long association with The New Yorker. His works are known for careful craftsmanship and for their subtle depiction of American middle-class life. His famous “Rabbit” tetralogy—Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981, Pulitzer Prize), and Rabbit at Rest (1990, Pulitzer Prize)—follows a very ordinary American man through the decades of the later 20th century. A Jewish novelist named Bech is the subject of three other novels. Updike's other fiction includes The Centaur (1963), Of the Farm (1965), Couples (1968), The Witches of Eastwick (1984; film, 1987), and In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996). He has also published short-story collections, including Pigeon Feathers (1962), several volumes of reviews and essays, and light verse.

Updike, John (Hoyer) (1932– ) writer, poet, critic; born in Shillington, Pa. He studied at Harvard (B.A. 1954) and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Arts, Oxford (1954–55); although he would not develop his youthful talents as an artist, he never lost his interest in art. He worked on the staff of the New Yorker for two years; while maintaining his relationship with that periodical, he became, over the years, a highly successful novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist, eventually settling in Georgetown, Mass. His first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1957), initiated the critical dispute about his writing: some critics would praise his wit, style, use of language, and his affinity for the middle class and their spiritual and sexual angst; others complain about his plots, the sexual content of his work, and the alleged lack of substance. For most readers, Updike became associated with such popular works as The Witches of Eastwick (1989) and his contemporary American Everyman, Harry "Rabbit" Angstron in Rabbit Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990). Some readers and critics feel that The Centaur (1963), an early mythic novel about a teacher in a small town, is his best work. He is also admired for his many reviews and essays on a wide range of writers, artists, and cultural issues.