John Updike graduated summa cum laude from Harvard, receiving a degree in English. He then spent a year abroad in England, studying at the University of Oxford’s Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. After returning to the United States, Updike worked as a regular contributor at The New Yorker. Throughout his career as a novelist, poet, short story writer, art and literary critic, Updike published more than twenty novels, various collections of both poetry and short stories, art and literary criticisms, as well as children’s books. Two of his novels, Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit At Rest, received the Pulitizer Prize.
John Updike has published many novels, poetry and short story collections, and nonfiction. Some of his publication include, his collections of poetry: The Carpentered Hen (1958), Telephone Poles (1963), Midpoint (1969), Dance of the Solids (1969), Tossing and Turning (1977), Facing Nature (1985), Collected Poems 1953–1993 (1993), Americana and Other Poems (2001), and Endpoint and Other Poems (2009). His short story collections: The Same Door (1959), Pigeon Feathers (1962), The Music School (1966), Problems (1979), Trust Me (1987), The Afterlife (1994), Licks of Love (2001), The Early Stories: 1953–1975 (2003), Three Stories (2003), My Father’s Tears and Other Stories (2009), and The Maples Stories (2009). His various novels include: his Rabbit series, four novels (1960-90); the Bech books, four books (1970-2001); the Buchanan books, consisting of a play and a novel (1974; 1992); the Eastwick books, two novels published in 1984 and 2008; The Scarlet Letter Trilogy; and other novels such as The Poorhouse Fair (1959); The Centaur (1963); Of the Farm (1965); Couples (1968); Marry Me (1977); The Coup (1978); Brazil (1994); In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996); Toward the End of Time (1997); Gertrude and Claudius (2000); Seek My Face (2002); Villages (2004); and Terrorist (2006).
Updike’s awards and achievements include a Guggenheim Fellowship, multiple O. Henry Prizes, multiple National Book Awards for Fiction, multiple National Book Critics Circle Awards for Fiction, multiple Ambassador Book Awards, a St. Louis Literary Award, a National Arts Club Medal of Arts, a PEN/Malamud Award, a National Medal of Arts, a National Humanities Medal, a PEN/Faulkner Award, Rea Award for the Short Story, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction. John Updike died of lung cancer in January 2009, at the age of 76.
His poem “Fargo” appeared in Issue 2.2 Summer 1990 and a review of his Bech at Bay was featured in Issue 11.2 Summer/Fall 1999.
