Like Updike’s main witch in The Witches of Eastwick, artist Debbie Ritter makes small figurines—not women, like Alex’s “bubbies,” but authors and characters from literature.
Her company is UneekDollDesigns, and you can buy dolls of authors like Lewis Caroll, Virginia Woolf, Gwendolyn Brooks, Flannery O’Connor, Dashiell Hammett, Cormac McCarthy, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and, of course, John Updike.
“This creative author doll is crafted out of wood, wire, clay, and paint. He wears a costume of black pants, plum colored, ribbed turtleneck, and holds a copy of one of his famed works. His hair is real fiber and his face is hand painted. A perfect addition to the fan of Updike’s literary works!”
Updike holds a miniature version of the 2003 Ballantine Books paperback edition of the first two Rabbit novels.
Ritter, who is from Huntsville, Ala., has gotten some notice for her dolls, including The Today Show, At Home in Illinois magazine, Vanity Fair online, Showtime, a PBS documentary on Rachel Carson, and Doll Collector Magazine.