Author Archives: James Plath

ALA papers needed

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Although The John Updike Society is looking toward a Second Biennial Conference in Boston, June 12-16, 2012, we still need members who are planning (or willing) to attend the American Literature Association conference in San Francisco on May 24-27, 2012. The Society is responsible for sponsoring at least one session, preferably two, as well as a business meeting.

If you can make it to San Francisco and have an idea for a paper, please submit it to James Plath (jplath@iwu.edu) by January 10. Rather than calling for papers for specific panel topics this year, we’ll build panels around the abstracts that come in.

 

You really CAN buy anything on Ebay: Updike house for sale

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The Niemczyk Hoffman Group, which owns and occupies the Updike boyhood home in Shillington, has decided to test the market. They’ve put the house at 117 Philadelphia Avenue up for sale on Ebay. The price is $499,000, with the starting bid set at $249,000.00.

The description of the property is full of history, and they’ve also posted a list of Updike books and mentioned the Society archive at Alvernia.

Here’s the link.

And here’s how others see the sale:

“John Updike’s Boyhood Home Is a Real Fixer-Upper” (The Atlantic Wire)

“Do People Pay More for Houses Once Occupied by Famous Writers?” (Slate Magazine)

Thanks to member Larry C. Randen for the article links.

 

Podcaster spotlights The Witches of Eastwick

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The Witches of Eastwick was the latest “forgotten fiction” to be featured on Why I Really Like This Book, podcasts by Dr. Kate Macdonald, a lecturer in English Studies at Ghent University, Belgium.

She sends the link, hoping it “might be interesting, and hopefully entertaining, to Updike scholars. I’m not one myself,” she says, “but I gave an honest opinion.”

Thanks to Dr. Macdonald, with a reminder:  You don’t have to be an Updike scholar to join the Society!

1995 BBC interview now online

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Society member Andrew Moorhouse writes from England that an interview John Updike gave to Sue Lawley for Desert Island Discs, a popular BBC radio program, is now online.

In it, he talks about “how he overcame a bad stutter, how he has learnt to control his psoriasis and how now, aged 63, he finally feels normal; part of the gang he never was as a teenager.”

Here’s the link.

O’Brien for President blog dredges up an old Updike story

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Conan O’Brien insists he’s running for president in 2012, and recently his blog revived a May 26, 2011 post we all missed about an O’Brien-Updike connection.

Interestingly, both O’Brien and Updike served as president of the Lampoon while at Harvard. But that’s not the connection. Here’s the link. Thanks to member Larry C. Randen for calling it to our attention. And Conan, if you’re reading this, how about commenting here about what Updike told you?

Deadline for Boston conference papers is extended

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In response to members who said they were swamped this time of the year, program director Bernard F. Rodgers, Jr. has extended the deadline for abstracts/proposals for the Second Biennial John Updike Society Conference. The conference, which will be held June 12-16 at Suffolk University in Boston, opens with a keynote address by Joyce Carol Oates on the evening of the 12th and features tours to Updike sites in Ipswich and Boston (including the Lampoon, pictured) and Hawthorne sites in Salem.

Here is the original Call for Papers, which are now due on January 16.

 

 

De Bellis lecture slated for Monday, October 10

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Jack De Bellis, the John Updike Professor in Residence at Alvernia University and a director of The John Updike Society, will lecture on “Rabbit at Rest in Shillington” at 10 a.m. on Monday, October 10, at the Franco Library, Alvernia University, in Reading, Pennsylania.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the 2011 Greater Reading Literary Festival at Alvernia.

De Bellis, who is Professor Emeritus at Lehigh University, is the author or editor of numerous books on John Updike, including the indispensable John Updike Encyclopedia.

Joyce Carol Oates will be the keynote speaker in Boston

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Joyce Carol Oates, who was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama in 2010, will deliver the keynote address at the Second Biennial John Updike Society Conference in Boston on Tuesday, June 12, at 8 p.m. at host institution Suffolk University.

Like Updike, Oates has published in multiple genres (novel, short fiction, memoir, children’s books, plays, essays, criticism) and is considered one of the most important writers of her generation. She’s earned much praise and many awards for her fiction, including the PEN/Malamud Award and the O. Henry Prize for her achievements in short fiction, a National Book Award for her novel Them, and the 2004 Fairfax Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Literary Arts.

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Historicizing 9/11 issue of Radical History Review features an essay on Updike

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Radical History Review Volume 2011, Number 111, Fall 2011 features essays on the theme of “Historicizing 9/11,” and member Bob Batchelor has an essay in it titled “Literary Lions Tackle 9/11: Updike and DeLillo Depicting History through the Novel.” You can access it and get a free full-text download here. In his essay, Batchelor considers how Updike’s “on-the-scene reporting gave his words added consequence,” with his “description of the horror and of his personal response” providing readers with “an additional tool to process the events.”