Updike aficionados were no doubt wondering what effect, if any, the Adam Begley biography would have on Updike studies and all things Updike, and one apparent result of the upsurge in Updike publicity is an inflated price of Updike collectibles.

Case in point: A typed and signed letter from Updike has a price tag of $4,206.73 at Sports Memorabilia.com, where they had better stick to assessing the value of materials signed by overpaid sports stars. Updike would have been amused by the hugely inflated price (and giggled at the 73 cents, wondering if that might be for his trademark cross-outs), even for a so-called “content” letter in which he shares information:

“I can’t claim to be a great Jamesian unlike xxx Leon Edel and the x late James Thurber. I read Portrait of a Lady in New York, on the subway, 85th street down to Times Square on the Broadway line, twenty minutes back and forth, and find I don’t remember much about it. I read Wings of the Dove somewhat later, and the Golden Bowl recently, with great difficulty, xxxxxxxxx straining as I was against his insufferable late style. . . . Where I do admire James without reservation is as a critic—I have the Library of America volume and dip into this whenever I want to clarify my own impressions.”

The market will correct, but with so many letters out there a fairer price would be $400-600—though letters like this do whet the appetite for a second Updike biography, there’s so much more information out there to be gathered!