John Updike  (b. 1932) LINKS The Centaurian: A Home Page for John Updike Information and Discussion http://www.users.fast.net/~joyerkes/ This Web site is by far the most comprehensive site for information about John Updike. Regularly updated by a professor of religion and philosophy at Moravian College, this site features monthly discussion topics about Updike's works, brief biographical information, a bibliography of works by and about Updike, Updike's reading schedule, photographs of the author, awards and honors, and a list of film and video adaptations of his works. The site is reader friendly and invites visitors to comment on their relationship to Updike texts and why they read them. It also offers links to rare book sites and sites devoted to American literature. Life and Times Page of the New York Times: John Updike http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/06/lifetimes/updike.html Part of a series in the New York Times, this page includes nearly forty reviews of Updike's books, three reviews by Updike, and two interview transcriptions from National Public Radio's "Fresh Air." The Salon Interview: John Updike http://www.salon1999.com/08/features/updike.html Salon Magazine is an exceptional Internet magazine for arts, entertainment, health, current events, technology and travel. This page features an interview with Updike in which he discusses In The Beauty of the Lilies. BIOGRAPHY John Updike (b. 1932) was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, an only child. His father taught algebra in a local high school, and his mother wrote short stories and novels. After getting straight A's in high school, he went to Harvard University on a full scholarship, studying English and graduating summa cum laude in 1954. He spent a year at Oxford on a fellowship, then joined the staff of The New Yorker. In 1959 Updike published both his first book of short fiction, The Same Door, and his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair. That year he also moved from New York City to a coastal town in Massachusetts, where has lived most of the time since. In the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, Updike continued to alternate novels and collections of stories, adding occasional volumes of verse, collections of essays, and one play. His novels include Rabbit, Run (1960), Couples (1968), Rabbit Redux (1971), and Marry Me (1976). Rabbit is Rich (1981), continuing the story of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, a suburban Pennsylvanian whom Updike has traced through adolescence, marriage, fatherhood, and middle age, won virtually every major American literary award for the year it appeared; Updike concluded the series with Rabbit at Rest (1991). Updike's collections of stories include Pigeon Feathers (1962), Museums and Women (1972), and Problems and Other Stories (1981). In 1983 Updike won the National Book Critics Circle Award for his collection of essays and criticism Hugging the Shore. In 1989 he published his memoirs, Self-Consciousness. Other recent books are The Afterlife and Other Stories (1994) and Toward the End of Time (1997).

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