Below is a list of known archives for John Updike materials, presented here as a resource for researchers and those with materials they may wish to donate.

MAIN ARCHIVE:

John Updike Archive, ca. 1945-2009 – Houghton Library, Harvard Univ., Boston, Mass.

1,635 volumes (Updike publications and annotated books from his library; see story)

ca. 200 linear feet of papers (manuscripts, correspondence, research files, photographs, drawings, and other materials); not available for use until catalogued (estimated completion  July 2012). Consists of those papers deposited during his lifetime by the author, along with materials acquired from the Updike estate following his death.

The library, since acquiring the archive in October 2009, has received several gifts of letters by John Updike and has purchased some additional material. The Modern Books and Manuscripts Department at Houghton Library publishes an annual list of new acquisitions. Past acquisitions have included the following:

John Updike letters to Warner Berthoff, 1994-2008 and undated
1 folder (.08 linear ft.) Gift, Warner Berthoff; *2008M-43 (f)

John Updike correspondence with William Shawn, 1960-1986. 1 box (.08 linear ft.) Purchase, Amy Lowell Trust ; and gift of Allen and Wallace Shawn *2008M-83 (b)

Related collections at the Houghton:

John Updike papers concerning Surviving: the uncollected writings of Henry Green, 1990-1991. 1 box (.5 linear feet) http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou02017

John Updike papers for Howells as anti-novelist, 1987. 1 box and including 2 audiocassettes (.5 linear feet) http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou02018

Lowell-Adams House Printers. Papers, 1964-1972 (inclusive) 1964-1966 (bulk). 1 box (.5 linear ft.). http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou00765

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ADDITIONAL ARCHIVES (in alphabetical order):

A Baker’s Dozen: Being a Selection of Books and Manuscripts by one English and Thirteen American authors from the library of Keith H. Baker of Oshkosh, Wisconsin – The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

Updike is one of the thirteen authors included.

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The William B. Ewert Papers - The University of New Hampshire, Manchester, N.H.

Listed in the De Bellis and Broomfield bibliography, with no other details.

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Fales Library and Special Collections – Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, NYU, New York, N.Y.

Listed in the De Bellis and Broomfield bibliography, with no other details.

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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center – The University of Texas at Austin

Papers related to Alfred A. Knopf and many authors published by Knopf, among them John Updike.

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The Jack W.C. Hagstrom Collection – Amherst College Library, Amherst, Mass.

The collection includes first and translated editions of Updike’s books, first publications in periodicals, transcripts of television interviews, and Updike criticism (both books and periodicals). Also included are memorabilia and tapes and records of Updike reading.

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John Updike: An Exhibition – M.D. Anderson Library, University of Texas, University Park, Texas

Extent of holdings unknown.

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The John Updike Collection at the Reading Public Library – Reading Public Library, Reading, Pa.

The John Updike Collection is made up of seven sets of materials that were in the personal possession of Linda Grace (Hoyer) Updike, mother of Berks County native and Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike. After her death in October 1989, John Updike donated these items to the Reading Public Library. The collection includes correspondence to and from Mr. Updike concerning the collection.

The Personal Book Collection includes books and pamphlets written by John Updike; The Personal Belongings are correspondence, artwork, notebooks and other pieces which were in the possession of Mrs. Updike; Two Personal Scrapbooks compiled by Mrs. Updike contain articles, poems, and stories by John Updike; The Newspaper Article Collection is by far the largest part of the collection; it contains news articles about Mr. Updike or his parents; The Magazine Articles are writings by John Updike; The Miscellaneous Belongings include manuscripts, a talk, a lecture, some newsletters, and Mr. Updike’s very detailed Shillington H.S. science notebook; The Correspondence with the Reading Public Library consists of letters and postcards, 1989-1997.

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John Updike Letters – HarperCollins, New York, NY.

Harper has 80 letters pertaining to A Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures and The Poorhouse Fair, after which Updike changed publishers rather than allow Harper’s to change the ending to his first novel.

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The John Updike Society Archive at Alvernia University – Alvernia University, 951 Morgantown Rd., 1st Floor, Reading, Pa.

The archive currently consists of three collections:The Rachael C. Burchard Papers, the Larry C. Randen Collection, and the David Silcox/Thelma Lewis Collection.

The Rachael C. Burchard Papers contain materials from Burchard’s John Updike: Yea Sayings (Southern Illinois University Press, 1971), important as an early monograph of Updike scholarship. The Larry C. Randen Collection contains items collected by Randen, who assisted James Yerkes, publisher of the legendary online Updike resource The Centaurian. Materials include clippings of news, reviews, interviews, and other items related to John Updike. The David Silcox/Thelma Lewis Collection combines materials collected by Silcox, Updike’s longtime contact in Shillington, and Lewis, Updike’s high school English teacher.

The Society archive at Alvernia was established to ensure that a significant collection of “hands-on” Updike materials remain in Pennsylvania, the state that inspired Updike and gave him his writer’s start. The archive is open by appointment only. Contact Amy Resh, University Archivist and Graduate Program Librarian: amy.resh@alvernia.edu.

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The John Updike Writers in Society Lecture Collection, 1984-1985 and The Papers of Donald Barthelme – University of Houston Libraries, Houston, Tex.

The John Updike Writers in Society Lecture Collection includes letters from Updike addressed to Carla Cooper, Executive Director of University Relations, and David Farmer, Head of Special Collections, regarding arrangements for the author’s campus visit and interviews. Also included in the collection are the opening remarks of Robin Downes, Director of Libraries, for the luncheon honoring Updike, and an excerpt signed by the author from his first novel The Poorhouse Fair. The remainder of the collection consists of letters from Updike to the University of Houston written after his visit. The Special Collections and Archives Department of the University of Houston has over two hundred of Updike’s novels and collections of short stories, poetry and criticism, including first and later editions, foreign editions, broadsides and private press books, many of them signed by the author.

The Papers of Donald Barthelme are at The Anderson Library of the University of Houston, and contain some Updike correspondence.

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Katherine Sergeant White Papers – Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections, Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Part II: Box and Folder List, The New Yorker Correspondence, Collection number M-56.

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Linda Grace Hoyer Papers - Myrin Library, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pa.

The complete literary papers of Linda Grace Hoyer (Ursinus Class of ’23), mother of Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike, are housed in Myrin Library. Hoyer met her husband, Wesley Russell Updike, when they were both students at Ursinus. John Updike donated the papers to the college upon her death.

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The New York Public Library – New York, N.Y.

Repository of letters and other material related to The New Yorker, including Updike items.

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The Philip W. Burger Collection - Moody Memorial Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas – Ramona J. McKeown, Collection Dev. Librarian

Three-part collection. Part I features Updike items, including five notebook collections of all John Updike interviews, works reviewed in The New York Times; miscellaneous magazines and cassettes featuring Updike; Berks County materials such as maps, photos, correspondence and broadsides; 82 Knopf first editions, some signed; and 32 critical books on Updike, many signed. Parts II and III contain items related to John O’Hara and Ogden Nash.

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Robert McCoy Collection of John Updike’s Buchanan Dying, 1977-2005 – The Pennsylvania State University Library, University Park, Pa.

The collection contains two copies of the program for six performances of the production of Buchanan Dying at San Diego State University in March 1977 for the Institute for Readers Theatre Series; a VHS videocassette of the filmed sequence of Act I; a spiral-bound copy of the Readers Theatre adaptation by Robert McCoy of Buchanan Dying, 1977 (iii, 72 p.); seventeen photographs (stage stills taken at dress rehearsal and candid photos taken on the day of the premiere performance) and two pages of a key to the photographs, with a reproduction of a Harvard Lampoon cartoon by John Updike; and an autographed copy of Robert McCoy’s book, A One-eyed cat in the garden eating peanuts; a memoir of an Osceola, Iowa, childhood during the Great Depression (Chapel Hill, NC: Professional Press, 2005) with commentary about the Buchanan Dying production (pp. 236-237).

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William Harmon Papers, Southern Historical Collection – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.

The collection consists of 260 items related to John Updike.

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If readers know of more special collections, please email jplath@iwu.edu.