“Mrs Updike” radio teledrama is broadcast on BBC Radio

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Screen Shot 2013-02-10 at 6.13.57 PM“Mrs Updike,” a 90-minute radio play by Margaret Heffernan “about the tempestuous relationship between one of the most famous American writers of the twentieth century, John Updike, and his mother,” was broadcast today by BBC Radio and can be heard online for the next seven days. Thanks to member Andrew Moorhouse for tipping us off to it.

“Mrs Updike” features Eileen Atkins as the title character, Charles Edwards as John Updike, Josef Lindsay as Young John Updike, Stuart Milligan as Wesley, Garrick Hagon as Springer, Joseph May as the Interviewer, and Lorelei King as Lara. Heffernan has written three plays for radio, “including a pair of plays about Enron.”  Continue reading →

2013 ALA panels announced

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A big round of thanks to Peter J. Bailey, who put together the Society’s panels for the 2013 American Literature Association conference at the Westin Copley Place, Boston, Mass., May 23-26, and thanks to those who responded to the call for papers and moderators.

Panel One: Domestic Terror/Domestic Restoration

Chair:  Sylvie Mathé, Aix-Marseille University

  • “John Updike’s Patriotism in Terrorist: The Power of the “Novel” in the Twenty-First Century,” Takashi Nakatani, Yokohama City University
  • “Updike’s Terrorist: Rewriting the Domestic Myth,” Judie Newman, University of Nottingham
  • “Putting John Updike in the Updike Childhood Home,” Maria L. Mogford, Albright College

Panel Two: Epochs of Updike

Chair: Judie Newman, University of Nottingham

  • “The Poorhouse Fair: The Liberal State and Its Discontents,” Yoav Fromer, New School for Social Research
  • “Linking Couples and 50 Shades of Grey: The Times Are Only Sort of A-Changin,’” Josh Zajdman, independent scholar
  • “Updike’s Late Stories: The Art of Mourning,” Peter J. Bailey, St. Lawrence University

Details are now available for Becoming John Updike

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Screen Shot 2013-02-03 at 10.17.00 PMDetails are now available for member Larry Mazzeno’s book, Becoming John Updike: Critical Reception, 1958-2010. Camden House will publish the 270-page book in hardcover on April 1, 2013. SRP is $85 U.S.

Publisher’s description: When John Updike died in 2009, tributes from the literary establishment were immediate and fulsome. However, no one reading reviews of Updike’s work in the late 1960s would have predicted that kind of praise for a man who was known then as a brilliant stylist who had nothing to say. What changed? Why? And what is likely to be his legacy?

These are the questions that Becoming John Updike pursues by examining the journalistic and academic response to his writings.

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JU Childhood Home donations begin to come in

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Donations are starting to come in for The John Updike Childhood Home in Shillington, Pa.

In 2012, the Society received significant monetary donations from the Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation and the PECO Foundation, the latter of which came as a result of the generosity of Constance and H. Roemer McPhee.

In 2012 we also received a folder of Updike-related newspaper and magazine clippings from Mrs. Grace Hunter, who lived in the house after the Updikes, and a 1969 Playboy featuring an Updike story and a photo of Updike from his senior year in high school from Miss Shirley Kachel, of Mohnton, Pa.

This year, thus far we have received a donation of 34 Updike first editions and five Updike-related books from Richard Nielsen, of Bloomington, Ill., along with a folder of Updike-related clippings.

We are grateful for their help as we continue the process of converting the house into a literary landmark that will have exhibits and items to help tell the story of Updike’s life and works, so that future generations can appreciate him as we do.

Reading Eagle interviews former Updike house resident

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When the Updikes moved to the Plowville farm, they sold the Shillington house at 117 Philadelphia Avenue to Dr. John and Mrs. Grace Hunter, who lived there with their family for nearly 45 years. The doctor added a single-story attached annex to use as his office, so his practice and his family life were both connected to the site. In fact, a lighted screen for reading x-rays is still on the wall in one of his former examination rooms. The John Updike Society hopes to preserve that as a reminder of the building’s rich heritage, and also to preserve the doctor’s office, with its built-in bookshelves, to be used as a gift shop.

Today Bruce R. Posten posted a story at the Reading Eagle about Mrs. Hunter:  “Updike’s Home in Shillington was also hers.”

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De Bellis book now available at Amazon

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UpdikebookJack De Bellis’s John Updike’s Early Years is now available at Amazon.com.

John Updike’s Early Years first examines his family, then places him in the context of the Depression and World War II. Relying upon interviews with former classmates, the next chapters examine Updike’s early life and leisure activities, his athletic ability, social leadership, intellectual prowess, comical pranks, and his experience with girls. Two chapters explore Updike’s cartooning and drawing, and the last chapter explains how he modeled his characters on his schoolmates. Lists of Updike’s works treating Pennsylvania, and a compilation of contributions to his school paper are included, along with profiles of all students, faculty and administrators during his years at Shillington High School.

Salman Rushdie responds to Guardian letter-writer whose attack included Updike

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Who says authors don’t read reviews and notices of their work? Salman Rushdie responded to a December 15 letter to The Guardian books section which attacked him and caught John Updike in the crossfire by firing off one of his own the next day.

“Satanic view that equates democracies and dictatorships” notes that the letter-writer “misreads John Updike’s ‘blue mailboxes’ speech at the Pen congress of 1986. Updike was not talking selfishly about sending away his writing and receiving cheques in return. He was using the mailboxes as a metaphor of the easy, free exchange of ideas and information in an open society.”

Rushdie also goes on to talk about how the letter-writer misrepresents him as well. Here’s the link to Rushdie’s letter, which has a link to the original. Thanks to member Larry Randen for calling it to our attention.

Library of America to publish Updike’s collected stories in two volumes

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LibraryThing, an online service that helps people catalog their books, ran a thread begun on December 14 that noted the Library of America 2013 calendar lists John Updike as one of the authors that will be published next year. Later in the thread David Cloyce Smith, who works at Library of America, confirmed that LOA will publish John Updike’s collected stories in two volumes that will be published together.

According to Smith, the stories will be arranged chronologically by the dates Updike sent the final manuscripts off to The New Yorker. Alas, the set will not include the Maples stories or Bech books, the latter of which Smith said LOA hopes to publish in the near future.

Smith said that the two-volume LOA edition will include “more than a dozen stories that were not collected in Updike’s story collections. Two of them have never before appeared in a trade book edition; the others have appeared in Updike’s prose miscellanies (Assorted Prose, the posthumous Higher Gossip, etc.).”

That’s good news for Updike scholars. LOA published the collected stories of Raymond Carver in a definitive edition that took into account the author’s intent when more than one version appeared in print. Updike, as most of his readers know, was a compulsive reviser who made changes nearly every time he revisited a story or novel. It would be nice to have a definitive LOA collection.

Here’s the link to the LibraryThing thread.

An update on the Updike biography-in-progress

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A number of Society members have asked about the status of Adam Begley’s biography of John Updike, so we asked Begley, who reports that as of today he’s written about 140,000 words and has roughly 25,000 to go.

“My deadline, according to the contract with HarperCollins, is the end of May 2013,” Begley writes. “If the Houghton opens the Updike archive as promised in early January, I should be finished on time.”

If that happens, Begley speculates that there’s a good chance the book will be published in early 2014.

Anyone with information or leads can send their suggestions directly to Begley  (acbegley@gmail.com). Although the biography is not authorized by the Updike Estate, there is still considerable interest.