John Updike

John Updike (1932–2009) was one of the most celebrated American novelists, short story writers, and literary critics of the twentieth century. Born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, he studied at Harvard University before joining The New Yorker, where his polished prose and keen eye for detail flourished. Over a career spanning five decades, Updike published more than sixty books, chronicling the inner lives of ordinary, middle-class Americans—particularly suburban Protestants—with remarkable precision, wit, and lyricism.

He is best known for the "Rabbit" tetralogy—Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981), and Rabbit at Rest (1990)—which follows Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom across four decades of postwar American life. Two volumes, Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, earned him Pulitzer Prizes in 1982 and 1991. He also received the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Other notable works include The Centaur (1963), Couples (1968), The Witches of Eastwick (1984), and the widely anthologized short story "A&P." Updike was also a distinguished critic of art and literature, as well as a gifted poet. His elegant style, moral seriousness, and unflinching examination of marriage, faith, and mortality secured his place among the giants of American letters.