Category Archives: News

It’s official: Alvernia to host Society’s first conference

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Today, Alvernia University and The John Updike Society announced that Alvernia will host the Society’s very first conference October 1-3, 2010. The conference will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rabbit, Run, and it’s appropriate that Alvernia is hosting. The University was founded in 1958, the very same year that Updike saw publication of his first book, The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures. A Call for Papers will be issued soon, and information on the program, hotels, tours, etc., will be posted on the Conference Information page on the Society website left menu as details become available. They will also be posted on the Official Conference Web Page. The full press release is on the Conference Information page.

The conference will include the usual offering of panels featuring papers presented by Updike scholars and aficionados, along with panels with Updike’s Shillington High School classmates. It’s expected that at least some Updike family members will attend, and that the keynote speaker will be a writer who knew Updike. But for members of The John Updike Society, the real treat will be seeing Updike’s childhood home in Shillington, as well as remnants of the old poorhouse wall, sites mentioned in Rabbit, Run, and the farmhouse in Plowville. The owners of Updike’s childhood home and the Plowville farm are members of the Society, and they’ve graciously offered to open their doors to members for a tour. Visitors can also see the Reading Eagle where Updike worked summers as a copy boy, and eat at the Peanut Bar across the street where Updike and journalists hung out. And of course there’s the famed Pagoda rising above Reading, which Updike renamed the Pinnacle in Rabbit, Run, and the Reading Public Library, whose balconies Updike deemed “cosmically mysterious.”

The directors for the First Biennial John Updike Society Conference are Society co-founders Jack De Bellis, who will assemble the program, and Updike’s Shillington contact, Dave Silcox, who will serve as site director. So members, put October 1-3 2010 on your calendars and start saving for a trip to Pennsylvania for this doubly historic conference: the first for the Society, and a 50th anniversary celebration of Rabbit, Run.

Pictured: The Quad at Alvernia University; a young John Updike reading on the front porch of his home in Shillington; and the house as it looked in May 2009, when the Reading Public Library hosted a tribute to the author.

John Updike Society turns 100 . . . members, that is

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Though The John Updike Society was formed fewer than seven months ago and launched with only 35 members, we’ve hit the 100 mark with the addition of Liliana Naydan, a doctoral candidate at SUNY-Stony Brook.

“I became interested in Updike a few years ago,” Naydan writes, “after studying his work with my now dissertation director, Prof. Stacey Olster (editor of The Cambridge Companion to John Updike). My dissertation, titled Fictions of Faith: American Literature, Religion, and the Millenium, includes a chapter on Updike (as well as Philip Roth and Don DeLillo).”

Her chapter on Updike considers “how Updike’s understanding of faith transforms on the eve of the second millennium. I argue that in In the Beauty of the Lillies Updike attempts to bridge apparent divide that fanatical believers, especially early fundamentalists, created between believing in God and embracing the developments of the 20th century as fruitful, not mere signs that an increasingly immoral American nation is rapidly devolving in the face of a fast-approaching, apocalyptic end.  I consider Updike’s earlier works, especially the Rabbit tetralogy, proposing that Updike’s focus in it is on the distinction between faith and good works as means by which to attain salvation.  In the Rabbit novels, only true faith appears to have the power to redeem man.  But in In the Beauty of the Lilies, Updike comes to distinguish between different kinds of faith, and he critiques religious fanaticism, specifically as it has emerged in the latter part of the 20th century.  Even though a fanatic’s faith is true, the intensity of that true belief creates the potential to transcend the bounds of what Updike views as characteristically good. Ultimately, I suggest that Updike comes to advocate for justification through temperance by way of his allusions to biblical and cinematic narratives.  He makes reference to the biblical Book of Esther, which suggests that God exists in the world even in the absence of clear evidence of His existence.  More to the point, he turns to Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937) for his key message of temperance in all things.”

Indian scholarly journal to publish Updike issue

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The Criterion: An International Online Journal of Literatures in English and Language Studies, has put out a call for Indian scholars to submit papers for a special issue on John Updike, to be titled “Indian Perspectives on John Updike.”

In announcing the special issue, editor Vishwanath Bite writes, “One of the most critically respected and popular contemporary American authors, John Updike died in January 2009. We propose to bring this volume in his memory and expose Indian thoughts over his literary works. Updike has amassed a large and ever-growing body of best-selling novels, acclaimed volumes of short stories, essays, and poetry since his arrival on the literary scene in the late 1950s. An incessant chronicler of post-war American customs and morals, Updike alternately finds humor, tragedy, and pathos in the small crises and quandries of middle-class existence, particularly its sexual and religious hang-ups. His trademark fiction, largely informed by Christian theology, classical mythology, and popular culture, is distinguished for its broad erudition, wit, and descriptive opulence.”

The Call for Papers from Prof. Bite suggests possible topics on “Updike’s distinct prose style, the realist tradition in a literary mode of Updike, description of the real world over imaginative or idealized representations in Updike’s novels, the portrayal of the physical world and everyday life in Updike, the problem of faith and morality in the modern post-Christian world, autobiographical elements in Updike’s novels, spiritual quest for self-fulfillment and meaning, post-war American social history in Updike’s novels, the domestic reality of suburban middle-class American life, marital tensions, sexual behavior, relationships between men and women, religious beliefs in contemporary society, magic realism, American and Third-World ideology, a reinterpretation of the medieval Tristan and Isole legend, religious doubt, mediocrity, fame, and fanaticism, humor, clever linguistic turns and sophisticated witticisms, and Updike’s poetry.”

Needless to say, it will be fascinating to hear what Indian scholars have to say about Updike, and we thank member Pradipta Sengupta for alerting us to the journal, which she says is projected to be published online in January 2010.

Library of America to publish “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu”

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In May 2010, The Library of America will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Ted Williams’ memorable last at-bat by publishing a special commemorative edition of John Updike’s “splendid essay,” “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.”

According to Christopher Carduff, consulting editor for The Library of America, the text was in-progress before Updike assembled Endpoint and was finished on January 15, 2009, two weeks before his death. “Its centerpiece is the version of ‘Hub Fans’ that Updike published in Assorted Prose (1965), with a few slight textual revisions,” Carduff said. “To this Updike added a short ‘auto-bibliographical’ preface written specially for the book and, as a kind of afterword, a conflation and rewrite of his other Ted Williams essays, the late-life sketch from Sport magazine (1986) and the obituary tribute from The New York Times Magazine (2002).”

The book, a special publication of The Library of America, will be priced at $15 U.S. ($18.50 Canadian). The trim size is 5 1/4 x 7 1/2″, and it’s 64 pages long, with frontispiece and illustrated endpapers. Library of America publicity calls it “the classic, final version of the essay,” of which Roger Angell raved, “The most celebrated baseball essay ever,” and Garrison Keillor wrote, “No sportswriter ever wrote anything better.” Even Ted Williams is blurbed: “It has the mystique,” he’s quoted as saying.

As a Viking Press catalog entry describes (and Viking distributes Library of America titles), “On September 28, 1960—a day that will forever live on in the hearts of baseball fans everywhere—Red Sox slugger Ted Williams stepped up to the late for his final at-bat at Fenway Park. Rising to the occasion, he belted a solo home run, a storybook ending to a storied career. In the stands that afternoon was twenty-eight-year-old John Updike, inspired by the historic moment to write what would be his lone venture into the field of sports reporting. more than a mere account of that fabled final game, Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu is a meditation on how Williams’s relentless pursuit of greatness raised excellence in sport to something akin to grace.”

Planned publicity includes national advertising, a special Father’s Day promotion, and events in Boston and nationwide. The dust jacket, Updike aficionados may recognize, is designed by Updike’s longtime Knopf collaborator Chip Kidd. Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu will be available directly from the Library of America or through the usual sources, including Amazon.com.

Updike archive to stay at Houghton/Harvard

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Harvard University announced today that it has acquired the manuscripts, correspondence, and other papers of John Updike. This is good news for Updike scholars, for it keeps the papers in the university Updike attended and in the same location as all those Lampoon back issues in which many of Updike’s drawings and writing appeared.

Here’s the press release from the Houghton Library:

October 7, 2009 – The John Updike Archive, a vast collection of manuscripts, correspondence, books, photographs, artwork and other papers, has been acquired by Houghton Library, Harvard University’s primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. The Archive forms the definitive collection of Updike material, said Leslie Morris, Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts at Houghton Library, and will make the library the center for studies on the author’s life and work.

“Many scholars would argue that John Updike is one of, if not the, novelist of the late 20th century,” Morris said. “No one can really write about the American novel without taking Updike into consideration.”

Harvard University President Drew Faust hailed the library’s acquisition of the Archive.

“I am delighted that John Updike’s papers will be at Harvard as a lasting and living tribute to one of the College’s most creative and accomplished graduates,” Faust said, in a statement. “This collection will enable teaching and research that will not just enrich our understanding of a distinguished writer and his work, but will also provide insights into the literary craft and its place in late 20th-century America.”

Although portions of the Archive were given to the library during Updike’s lifetime, and have been available for research at Houghton since 1970, they represented only a small fraction of the full collection. For decades, Updike had been depositing his papers, including manuscripts, correspondence , research files, and even golf score cards, in the library, but the material – since it was only on deposit at Houghton – was available only with the author’s permission, and was not integrated with the material the library owned.

Cataloging the newly acquired material so it can be used by scholars is now one of the library’s “highest priorities,” since the Archive will not be available for research until that process is completed, Morris said. However, scholars will still be able to access materials given to the library by Updike before 1970, including early short story manuscripts written for the New Yorker; Telephone Poles, Updike’s early poetry collection; and nearly complete documentation on the creation of the novel that brought him his first taste of fame, Rabbit, Run (1960).

Considering Updike’s close association with Harvard, it seems fitting that the Archive find a permanent home in the Harvard College Library’s collections, said Nancy Cline, the Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College.

“This collection will be an exciting new addition to Houghton Library’s holdings, and will provide researchers and students with a unique insight into the life and work of one of the major figures in modern American literature,” Cline said.

When the cataloging of the Archive is completed, the Updike Archive will offer students and scholars unparalleled insight not only into the working life of the man hailed as America’s last true man of letters, but into the cultural transformations reflected in his works.

One of the major shifts which can be traced through Updike’s work concerns sex in mainstream literature. Though it may be difficult for today’s students to imagine, attitudes about sex in fiction have changed radically in the past generation, due in no small part to Updike. Close examination of manuscripts and correspondence in the Archive shows that editors often pushed the author to remove passages considered (at the time) too sexually explicit. As cultural attitudes changed, however, later editions would restore those same passages.

“You can see in the physical medium of Updike’s edited manuscripts, how the cultural perception of sex in fiction was changing,” Morris said. “For students accustomed to reading the published text without thinking of what went on behind the scenes to create that finished product, these manuscripts can have a tremendous impact.”

“John Updike left a huge footprint on American letters,” said Louis Menand, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English. “For more than fifty years, he was the fictional chronicler of the American middle class, but he was also a prolific critic of literature and art. His papers will be important for scholars and historians working in any number of areas.”

The Boston Globe also reported the story today, in which Society member William Pritchard is quoted. Thanks to member Ken Krawchuk for calling our attention to it. And thanks to Jack De Bellis for adding an update. According to a recent report, Harvard also acquired John Updike’s floppy discs with the other materials purchased.

Two sessions on Updike set for ALA symposium

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Those who attend the American Literature Association Symposium on American Fiction, 1890 to the Present, in Savannah, Georgia from October 8-10 will discover two sessions on Updike:

John Updike: Session 1

Chair, Robert M. Luscher, Univ. of Nebraska-Kearney

1) “Memento Mori: Death’s Shadow in Updike’s ‘uyre,'” Sylvie Mathé, University of Provence (Aix-Marseilles I) France

2) “John Updike’s Critics: Terrorist as a Test Case,” John McTavish, Trinity United Church, Ontario

3) “Nelson Redux: Updike’s Comic Point of View in ‘Rabbit Remembered,” Brian Keener, New York City College of Technology

John Updike: Session 2

Chair, Sylvie Mathé, University of Provence (Aix-Marseilles I)

1) “The David Kern Stories,” Peter Bailey, St. Lawrence University

2) “John Updike’s Early Stories: The Sequences/Cycles Within,” Robert M. Luscher, University of Nebraska-Kearney

3) “‘To Reveal the Shining Underbase’: John Updike’s Intimations of Eros in ‘Separating,'” Avis Hewitt, Grand Valley State University

Credit Rob Luscher for assembling what promise to be two fascinating panels. Those interested in attending the symposium can find information on the ALA site link on the left menu.

New Eastwick TV-series will debut in the fall

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Maybe the third time will be the charm, at least as far as television adaptations go. Way back in 1992, Carlton Cuse and Jeffrey Boam wrote a pilot for Warner Bros. that was based on The Witches of Eastwick, but it never went anywhere. Then came the hour-long series Eastwick ten years later, with Desperate Housewives’ star Marcia Cross playing Jane in a short-lived Fox series that was written by Jon Cowan and Robert L. Rovner.

Now Eastwick is coming to TV again, this time “loosely” based on John Updike’s novel and the movie The Witches of Eastwick. The continuing plot of this fall’s ABC-TV series will apparently come closer to the 1987 supernatural film. There are other changes, including the era and names of characters. Updike’s novel was, of course, set in the Vietnam War era, but the TV series, which is scheduled to air on Wednesday evenings at 10 p.m. EST, will be a contemporary fantasy-drama with light overtones in the mold of Desperate Housewives. As its described on the ABC-TV publicity site, “Three very different women find themselves drawn together by a mysterious man who unleashes unique powers in each of them, and this small New England town will never be the same.”

Eastwick stars Rebecca Romijn (Ugly Betty, X-Men) as the sassy and somewhat flakey head witch, Roxie Torcoletti, who’s the artist; Lindsay Price (Lipstick Jungle) as Joanna Frankel, an uptight local reporter; and Jamie Ray Newman (Eureka) as easy-going Kat Gardener, a mother of five. Paul Gross plays Darryl Van Horne. In addition, Sara Rue is Penny, Veronica Cartwright (who starred as Felicia in the 1987 film) is Bun, Johann Urb is Will, Jon Bernthal is Raymond, and Ashley Benson is Mia.

The new series is produced by Warner Bros. Television, with Maggie Friedman (Spellbound, Once and Again) the executive producer and writer. The pilot was directed by David Nutter, who won a primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie, or Dramatic Special (Band of Brothers).

Here’s the official website for the series, if you’re curious. The top photo featuring (l to r) Romijn, Gross, Price, and Newman is provided courtesy of ABC/Kevin Foley. The bottom photo of Price, Romijn, and Newman is courtesy of ABC/Robert Voets.

Dead Poets Society visits Updike gravesite

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If it sounds maudlin, it probably is. But John Updike at least would have been flattered by the company: poets like Sidney Lanier, Philiss Wheatley, Stephen Benet, Edgar Allan Poe, Randall Jarrell, Frank O’Hara, and James Merrill. The most recent attention comes from The Dead Poets Society of America, which has nothing to do with the Robin Williams movie and everything to do with documenting the final resting places of more than 60 American poets. Walter Skold, from Freeport, Maine, made the pilgrimage to the Plowville cemetery to find the Updike family headstone, where family members had scattered some of John’s ashes the day of the tribute at the Reading Library, April 5, 2009.

Skold’s project involves collecting videos of people reading at the gravesites of his favorite poets and posting them online, and he asked Updike Society members Joan Youngerman (a childhood friend of John’s) and board member Jack De Bellis (best known to Updike scholars for his John Updike Encyclopedia and bibliographies) to participate in a graveside tribute that De Bellis said was respectful and sincere. The event was covered for the Reading Eagle by Bruce R. Posten, whose story, “Grave Pursuit: Man taking cross-country trek to document burial sites of U.S. poets stops by John Updike’s family plot in Plowville,” was posted on July 10, 2009. Posten had earlier written the story, “Updike’s children spread his ashes in Robeson Township.” According to Skold’s website, he’s done “43 Poets in Twenty-One Days!”

Members asked to pay tribute

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Donald J. Greiner writes that he was asked to contribute an elegy on Updike for a special issue of Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, which will include tributes to great American fiction writers who have died the past 15 years or so. The issue is scheduled to be published the last quarter of 2009.

Stephen H. Webb reports that he was asked to write an Updike tribute for the next issue of Christianity and Literature, which will appear soon.

Donors needed for book drive

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Member Ann Cassar, who was a classmate of John Updike’s, informs us that she’s wanting to honor him by acquiring copies of his books for the local library—the Rachel Kohl Community Library, 687 Smithbridge Rd., Glenn Mills, PA 19342. To that end, she’s hoping that Society members who have extra copies will donate them. “He would appreciate this institution, which was founded by a local lady, Rachel Kohl, who was not library-trained nor had experience in obtaining grants, but had a zeal for libraries,” Cassar writes. “She managed to sweet-talk state legislatures, local businesses, and citizens into whatever she needed. You couldn’t say no to Rachel. The library started in a spare closet of the elementary school, moved to a classroom (at which point I became involved), then moved to three trailers donated by the electric company (you had to keep buckets handy for rainy days). Presently, the library is a modern, bright facility, part of the township building, and serves more than 6000 patrons.”

The library’s current collection contains only three Updike books, Ann says, “and they are on a bottom shelf so that you have to lie on your stomach to see what’s there. We have a nice glass-enclosed display case available for featuring various subjects, such as books on tea (teacup collection), mushroom recipes (mushroom figure collection), quilts. I visualize John’s picture and perhaps some mementos, along with some of the books, in a future display.”

So, John Updike Society members, here’s your first outreach opportunity. Please send new or used books in fine condition to Ann Cassar, whose address is listed in the comments section of this post. If members use the comments feature of this website to let others know what book(s) they’re sending, perhaps we can avoid duplication. Non-members are also welcome to participate.

UPDATE: Ann reports that the library has more books than were displayed on the shelf. They currently have (in alphabetical order, with edition year in parentheses): A Child’s Calender (1999), Couples (1968), The Early Stories, 1953-1975 (2003), Gertrude and Claudius (2000), Odd Jobs (1991), Rabbit, Run (1996), Seek My Face (2002), The John Updike Audio Collection (2003), Still Looking: Essays on American Art (2005), Terrorist (2006), Villages (2004), and The Witches of Eastwick (1984).