John Updike (1932-2009), recorded 2006

John Updike, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded on June 9, 2006.

John Updike was considered one of the great chroniclers of middle class American life. Novelist, short story writer, literary critic, poet and essayist, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction — for the novels Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest – Updike was considered one of America’s greatest literary masters.

Born on March 18, 1932, he spent several years at the New Yorker before breaking out with the novel Rabbit, Run, in 1960, which featured a former High School basketball star and as Wikipedia says, a middle class paragon, Harry Rabbit Angstrom, his greatest character, who would appear in four novels in all. Among his other novels were Bech, a Book, The Witches of Eastwick and Couples. He died on January 27th, 2009 at the age of 76,

This interview with John Updike was conducted owhile he was on tour for his novel Terrorist, which was his response to attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

After Terrorist, he would only publish one more novel, The Widows of Eastwick, a sequel to The Witches of Eastwick, in 2008. His collected stories were published in two volumes in 2013.

The post John Updike (1932-2009), recorded 2006 appeared first on KPFA.