Novelist John Updike, 1932 - 2009

Prolific novelist, short story writer, light verse poet, art critic John Updike has died. He was most well known for his series of Rabbit novels, beginning with Rabbit Run in 1961 and ending with Rabbit at Rest in 1990. In this series and others Updike focuses on the problems of suburban Americans as they age through various psychological and socioeconomic conditions.

While his works were both praised and dismissed by critics for political views and levels of depth, Updike has been considered a major American literary figure. He also wrote The Witches of Eastwick and its recent sequel, The Widows of Eastwick, dozens of poems and essays, some of which are included in his most recent anthology, Still Looking: essays on American Art.

“Art is, as I understand it, reality passed through a human mind” "John (Hoyer) Updike." Contemporary Novelists, 7th ed. St. James Press, 2001. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. available through Online Resources at www.glendalepubliclibrary.org with a current library card.