John Updike - 1932
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"Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature
would not incite us to have them." --John Updike I. Biography John Hoyer Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on March 18,1932. He was the only child born to Linda
Grace Hoyer and Wesley Russell Updike. Updike used his birthplace as a model for his fictional town Brewer. Until Updike was thirteen years old,
he lived at 117 Philadelphia Avenue in Shillington, Pennsylvania. John Updike grew up in a nurturing suburban environment. He not only lived with his parents but also with his grandparents, John and Katherine Hoyer.
In 1936, Updike began attending public schools in Shillington, fictionalized as Olinger in his short stories and novels. When Updike was thirteen, his entire family moved to his
mother's birthplace a house on an eighty acre farm in the country near Plowville, Pennsylvania, eleven miles from Shillington. He continued his education in the Shillington
public schools, where his father was a junior high school mathematics teacher. John Updike graduated president and co-valedictorian of the senior class at Shillington
High School. During that summer, Updike began a journey that led him to his future as a successful writer. He got his start as a copy boy for the Reading Eagle, writing a few
feature stories. The following fall Updike attended Harvard University on a tuition scholarship. He began writing and drawing for the Harvard Lampoon.
Updike was wed to Mary E. Pennington, a fine arts major from Radcliff, on June 26, 1953. That same year he was elected president of the Harvard Lampoon and majored in EngIish
Literature. The following year, Updike graduated summa cum laude from Harvard. Updike sold his first short story "Friends from Philadelphia" to The New Yorker. That summer, he
traveled to England on a Knox fellowship, and enrolled in the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing at Oxford. While in England, he encountered Katherine White and was
offered a staff position at The New Yorker. Updike returned from England in August. Within two years, Updike decided to leave The New Yorker and concentrate on his poetry
and fiction. He moved with his family in April to Ipswich, Massachusetts. He soon began his journey as a husband, father and writer. Updike's wife, Mary gave birth to four
children. Their daughter Elizabeth was born April 1, 1955, son David was born on January 19, 1957; son Michael was born on May 14,1959 and daughter Miranda was born on
December 15,1960. John Hoyer Updike finally launched his career as an author. Throughout his life, he has written over fifty novels, poems and short stories. II. Literary Works Gertrude and Claudius
(2000) Updike's Gertrude and Claudius begins the Hamlet story when his mother, at age 16, is forced by her father the king, to marry a neighboring noble.
The story is told in three parts, in each of which the main characters take on new names, as the environment in Denmark changes, and in keeping with the legend of which the Hamlet
story is built. Gerutha becomes Geruthe, then Gertrude. Her father is first called Rorik, then Rodericke. Her first husband changes from Horwendil to Horwendile to Hamlet (the elder).
His brother goes from Feng, to Fengon to Claudius. The son's name evolves from Amieth to Hamblet to Hamlet (the younger). Meanwhile the Lord Chamberlain shifts from Corambus to Corambis to Polonius.
Part I begins in the crude and bloody medieval world of Vikings. The kingdom is nominally Christian, having recently been converted by order of a recent king. However, old beliefs are still strong.
In Part 2, the society is more civilized, with more Christian's taking on the role and duties of a king as God's chosen one. Notions of courtly love are powerful, but not strong enough to keep Geruthe and Fengon apart.
Part 3 feels modern, with each character appearing unique. In the relationship of Gertrude and Claudius, passionate love, personal ambition, and feelings of obligation and guilt are intertwined in interesting ways.
The two of them feel very real. Their motivations and actions seem inevitable. Rabbit At Rest (1990) It's 1989, and Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom feels anything but restful. In fact, he's frozen by his
fear of death--and in the final year of the Reagan era, he's right to be afraid. His 55-year-old body, swollen with beer and munchies and racked with chest pains, wears its bulk. He
suspects that his son Nelson, who's recently taken over the family car dealership, is embezzling money to support a cocaine habit. Indeed, from Rabbit's point--which alternates
between a winter condominium in Florida and the ancestral digs in Pennsylvania, not to mention a detour to an intensive care unit--decay is overtaking the entire world. The
budget deficit is destroying America, his accountant is dying of AIDS, and a terrorist bomb has just destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 above Lockerbie, Scotland. This last incident, with
its rapid transit from life to death, hits Rabbit particularly hard. (Yerkes, 4) III. Influences John Hoyer Updike writes poetry, short stories and novels. He is known for incorporating
the ideals of the American suburban scene. Updike's inspirations mainly came from the different trials and tribulations in his life. He explores the tensions of a middle class
American life; his characters frequently experience personal turmoil and must respond to crises relating to religion, family obligations, and marital infidelity. IV. Awards Received Pulitzer Prize (twice) V. Works by John Updike Novels
Short Stories Poetry Plays Special Collections VI. Updike on the Web
National Book Award
National Book Critics Circle Award Rosenthal Award
Howells Medal
The Poorhouse Fair (1959) Rabbit Run (1960)
The Centaur (1963)
Of the Farm (1965)
Couples (1968)
Rabbit Redux (1971)
A Month of Sundays (1975) Marry Me: A Romance (1975)
The Coup (1978)
Rabbit is Rich (1981)
The Witches of Eastwick (1984)
Roger's Version (1986)
S. (1988)
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Memoirs of the Ford Administration (1992)
Brazil (1994)
Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralogy (1995)
In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996)
Toward the End of Time (1997)
Gertrude and Claudius (2000)
The Same Door: Short Stories (1959)
Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories (1962)
The Music School: Short Stories (1966)
Museums and Women and Other Stories(1972)
Connected Short Stories Olinger Stories: A Selection (1964)
Bech: A Book (1970)
Too Far to Go: The Maple Stories (1979)
Problems and Other Stories (1979)
Trust Me: Short Stories (1987)
The Afterlife and Other Short Stories (1994)
Bech is Back (1982)
Bech at Bay: A Quasi-Novel (1998)
The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures (1958)
Tossing and Turning (1977)
Telephone Poles and Other Poems (1963)
Facing Nature (1985)
Verse (1965)
Collected Poems 1953-1993 (1993)
Midpoint and Other Poems (1969)
The Magic Flute (1962) The Ring (1964)
A Child's Calendar (1965)
Bottom's Dream (1969)
A Helpful Alphabet of Friendly Objects (1995)
Three Texts from Early Ipswich: A Pageant (1968)
Essays and Literary Criticism Assorted Prose (1965)
Picked-Up Pieces (1975)
Hugging the Shore (1983)
Odd Jobs (1991)
More Matter (1999)
On Literary Biography (1999/2000)
Golf Dreams: Writings in Golf (1996)
Art Criticism -Just Looking: Essays on Art (1989)
Autobiography -Self-Consciousness: Memoirs (1989)
VII. Sources
Garner, Dwight. The Salon Interview: John
"As close as you can get to the stars". 4 May 2000
Updike, John. Creative Quotation is from John Updike. 9 May 2000
http://www.bemorecreative.com/one/232.htm
Updike, John. Gertrude and Claudius. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. "Updike, John," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000. 9 May 2000
This essay was submitted by a student of Cheryl Petersohn, a teacher at Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.