John Updike would have turned 81 today, and for The Writer’s Almanac on public radio Garrison Keillor paid a birthday tribute by reading Updike’s poem, “The Sometime Sportsman Greets the Spring.”
Here’s the link to both the printed poem and the reading by Keillor.
Doug Brendel, who writes “The Outsidah,” a humor column about Ipswich for the local Ipswich Chronicle, has compiled another collection of his cartoon-illustrated columns in “an annual book of absolutely no interest to anyone outside of Ipswich.”
But the foreword to Only in Ipswich 2013 is a tribute to John Updike, and he thought that might interest Society members.
Here it is, compliments of the author:
For those who would like to buy a copy of the book, here’s the Amazon link.
And for the curious, here is a link to Brendel’s website.
If you haven’t renewed your membership in The John Updike Society by paying your 2013 dues—and only a fifth of current members have done so—please send a check made payable to The John Updike Society to James Plath, 1504 Paddington Dr., Bloomington, IL 61704. Dues are $25/year, $20 for grad students and retirees.
At a time when money is needed to move forward with the renovation of The John Updike Childhood Home at 117 Philadelphia Ave. in Shillington, member donations are now approaching $1000. Thanks to Bruce Moyer, Kathleen Olson, Gerald Connors, Livia Lloyd-Hawkins, Alan and Maureen Phipps, Steve Malcolm, Don Greiner, Jay Althouse, Kevin Schehr, Janice Fodor, Ward Briggs, Richard L. Chafey, and Mark Roosevelt for their generosity and for helping us get a nice start on raising the money ($10,000) needed to scrape, repair, and paint the outside of the brick building.
The John Updike Society is a 501 c 3 organization, and everyone who makes a donation will receive a letter of thanks and acknowledgment that can be used for tax purposes.
What’s new at the house? The single-story annex has just been remodeled, so now the Society can find a tenant to lease the three rooms formerly used as patient examination rooms by Dr. Hunter, who bought the house from the Updikes. Pictured is the doctor’s former office just off the front entrance to the original part of the house, which will be used as a gift shop for The John Updike Childhood Home. A still-operational x-ray viewing screen was left on the wall of one exam room as a reminder of the contributions that the Hunter family made to the house where Updike said his “artistic eggs were hatched.”
Interest in the Reading area is running high for Jack De Bellis’ most recent book, John Updike’s Early Years, which is already headed for a second printing.
Here’s the article by Bruce Posten:
“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
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
Panel Two: Epochs of Updike
Chair: Judie Newman, University of Nottingham
Details 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.
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.
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.”
Jack 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.