Only Child of a Math Teacher and His Wife

John Updike (1932- )

Bio:

·  Only child of a math teacher and his wife.

·  At age 13 moved to a farmhouse outside of town where the isolation encouraged his creative pursuits.

·  Received a scholarship to Harvard, graduated summa cum laude in 1954.

·  Later took a one year fellowship for visual arts in England.

·  Originally hoped for a career as a cartoonist.

·  Married twice (first marriage 1953-77).

Work:

·  Known as a keen social observer.

·  Incessant chronicler of post-war American morals.

·  Known for “vividly descriptive passages, carefully wrought in a striking, allusive, often esoteric vocabulary that reveals the author’s infatuation with language itself.”

·  Many critics have objected to Updike’s portrayal of women and suggested he is obsessed with sex.

·  Wrote over 20 novels, short stories, poetry and essays.

·  Much of his short works have been published in The New Yorker.

Comments on his work:

·  “Updike alternately finds humor, tragedy, and pathos in the small crises and quandaries of middle-class existence.”

·  According to Joseph Epstein, “Updike simply cannot pass up an opportunity to tap dance in prose.”

·  Joseph Kanon explains in Saturday Review: "The debate . . . has long since divided itself into two pretty firmly entrenched camps: those who admire the work consider him one of the keepers of the language; those who don't say he writes beautifully about nothing very much." Updike responds: "There is a great deal to be said about almost anything," he explained to Jane Howard in a Life magazine interview. "Everything can be as interesting as every other thing. An old milk carton is worth a rose. . . . The idea of a hero is aristocratic. Now either nobody is a hero or everyone is. I vote for everyone. My subject is the American Protestant small town middle class. I like middles. It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules."

Other Resources:

·  New York Times Page on Updike’s work with audio links: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/06/lifetimes/updike.html

·  Salon Interview: http://www.salon.com/08/features/updike.html