Online Interviews and Readings

Interviews:

“The Art of Fiction No. 43: John Updike” (The Paris Review, Charles Thomas Samuels), Issue 45, Winter 1968.

“At Home with John Updike” (WGBH TV, Boston, China Altman), July 28, 1978. Also on Discover News Television.

“American Centaur: An Interview with John Updike” (Knjizevba Smotra, Zvonimir Radeljkovic and Omer Hadziselimovic), 1979. Original interview conducted on October 21, 1978, translated by Omer Hadžiselimović and Zvonimir Radeljković and published in The New Yorker.

The Dick Cavett Show, featuring John Updike and John Cheever (WNET-TV, New York),1981.

“Audio Interview with John Updike” (Wired for Books, Don Swaim), June 5, 1984.

“Upon Reflection: John Updike” (with Al Page) UWTV (Univ. of Washington, Seattle) 1989. Posted Jan. 30, 2014.

“Meridian Special: John Updike Interview” (BBC Sounds), January 1, 1990.

“John Updike Interview” (Hamish Hamilton author interview, You Tube), 1995.

“‘A&P’ Interview with John Updike” (Donald M. Murray and Bruce R. Schwartz), October 29, 1995. Conducted in a room at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge. Posted November 19, 2022.

John Updike on The Charlie Rose Show, 1995-2009 (Clips).

“John Updike Interview,” Writers & Company with Eleanor Wachtel, CBC Radio One, Toronto, 1996.

“The Salon Interview: John Updike” (Dwight Garner), following publication of In the Garden of Lilies.”

“John Updike’s In the Beauty of the Lilies: New Yorker‘s theological writer takes to Patterson, New Jersey.” Judith Moore, San Diego Reader, Feb. 29, 1996.

“Charlie Rose—John Updike on Rabbit” (Charlie Rose Show, You Tube), October 6, 1997.

“Interview: John Updike discusses his new novel, ‘Gertrude and Claudius’” (NPR Talk of the Nation, Juan Williams), March 9, 2000.

“John Updike on Family Affairs” (Blank on blank, John Freeman), spring 2002.

“The WD Interview: John Updike” (Writer’s Digest, Kelly Nickell), January 2002.

“An Interview with John Updike” (The Charlie Rose Show), January 10, 2003.

“The Early Stories” (NewsHour with Jim Lehrer), December 29, 2003.

“Showing Ordinary Life as Being Worth Writing About” (Academy of Achievement), June 12, 2004.

“John Updike: Dreams from My Mother,” What It Takes podcast. 2004. Posted January 28, 2019.

“Interview: John Updike on ‘Still Looking’ collects essays on art” (NPR Morning Edition, Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne), November 10, 2005.

“John Updike on Bookworm, Pt. 1,” (Bookworm radio show, KCRW-FM, Michael Silverblatt), Feb. 5, 2013 (conducted September 14, 2006), with Updike discussing Terrorist.

“In ‘Terrorist,’ a Cautious Novelist Takes On a New Fear” (The New York Times, Charles McGrath), May 31, 2006.

“Holy Terror: Updike goes inside the mind of a Muslim teen” (BookPage, Alden Mudge).

“In the Mind of a Terrorist: An Interview with John Updike” (Borders.com, Matt Nelson).

“John Updike Explores Arab Immigrant Culture” (NPR, Steve Inskeep), June 13, 2006.

The Bat Segundo Show #50: John Updike,” July 14, 2006.

“Updike Redux: Lila Azam Zanganeh interviews John Updike.” (Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics). November 2010 (conducted in 2006).

“John Updike on Bookworm, Pt. 2,” (Bookworm radio show, KCRW-FM, Michael Silverblatt), Feb. 5, 2013 (conducted September 21, 2006), with Updike discussing the Rabbit Angstrom novels.

“The Last of His Kind? A literary lion discusses regional identity, sex in literature and a future without authors” (Nashville Scene, Maria Browning), November 2, 2006.

“Q&A with John Updike” (National Geographic, Jamie Shreeve), 2007.

“The Artist as Showman: A Conversation with John Updike” (Humanities, Bruce Cole), May/June 2008, Volume 29 Number 3.

“Updike and the Women” (New York Books, Emily Nussbaum), October 19, 2008.

“Night Talk on Bloomberg: An Interview with John Updike”—Video interview promoting The Widows of Eastwick.

“Did I actually write a soliloquy for a hamster?” (The Observer, Peter Conrad), October 26, 2008.

“Interview with John Updike” (National Book Foundation, Diane Osen).

“Arts: A Conversation with John Updike” (New York Times, Sam Tanenhaus), October 2008.

“John Updike’s last interview” (The Telegraph, Mick Brown), October, 2008.

Arts: John Updike, A Life in Letters“—(Charles “Chip” McGrath’s long New York Times video interview), 1.25 min., conducted in late 2008, originally released as a podcast.

Readings:

“John Updike reading ‘Deaths of Distant Friends”—Updike reading his short story from the collection Trust Me. Posted 6 April 2019.

“Updike reading his short story ‘Pygmalion'”—Updike reading another short story from the collection Trust Me. Posted 6 April 2019.

“Founders’ Day Convocation (2002 Program and video)”—Updike receiving an honorary degree (15:00) and delivering remarks—”Readings Not Totally Unsuited to Founders’ Day”—at a convocation celebrating the opening of the Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University. 11 February 2002.

“Updike address at Calvin College”—Readings and reflections, Festival of Faith and Writing Conference, April 4, 1998, filmed and posted on YouTube July 7, 2013 by John McTavish.

Miscellaneous You Tube posts:

“Famous Residents: John Updike”—Georgetown CTV YouTube slide-show contextualized mini-bio about Updike’s year’s in Georgetown, Mass., where he famously worked on Rabbit Is Rich. Posted 18 April 2019.

“The Secret of John Updike’s Productivity”—Brief clip (2.5 min.) of New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik speaking at the Free Library in Philadelphia on March 12, 2019.

“From the Archives: Updike on New Yorker cartoons”—WGBH segment with host Chris Lydon, featuring John Updike commenting on New Yorker cartoons as they walk through an exhibit. Posted 7 July 2014.

“Updike Memories: Mary, Miranda, and Michael”—Short (12.5 min.) documentary filmed by Updike grandson Kai Freyleue. Posted in 2011.

“John Updike on the Golf Course”—Video clip of Updike on his Myopia Hunt Club golf course and also reading from his golf essays, from a segment titled “Golf Stories” that was produced by Peter Imber for a 1994 Nightline (ABC-TV) broadcast.

“Profiles in Excellence: John Updike” (Penn State)—Clip of Updike accepting the 1983 Distinguished Pennsylvania Artist Award and a much later segment of him talking about Pennsylvania and his fiction, intercut with readings and footage of Pennsylvania.

Author John Updike Dies“—Katie Couric (CBS) looks aback at the celebrated life of John Updike.

“Farewell to John Updike”—Charles Osgood (CBS) takes a look back at the celebrated life and distinguished career of John Updike.

“John Updike, Prize-winning Writer, Dies”—The Associated Press video obituary.

“US Author John Updike dies at 76”—France 24, International News 24/7 obituary.

C-Span Video Library:

“A Century of Arts and Letters”—May 19, 1998—Panelists discuss the book edited by John Updike, A Century of Arts and Letters, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

“National Book Awards Dinner”—November 18, 1998—Updike speaks after receiving the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

“A Conversation with John Updike”—November 28, 2000, New York Public Library—Updike talks about his career and discusses his various works.

“September 11th Fund Benefit”—October 11, 2001—Updike is among a group of East Coast writers who read from the works of others.

“In Depth with John Updike”—December 4, 2005—A long (almost three hours) interview.

“Saturday Book and Author Breakfast”—May 19, 2006—Maria Arana moderates a discussion with three authors who talk about recent books: Sen. Barrack Obama, Amy Sedaris, and John Updike (Terrorist).

“American Art”—May 22, 2008—Updike delivers the 37th Annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanitiesw on “The Clarity of Things: What Is American about American Art?”

“Gertrude and Claudius”—July 21, 2019—Barrington Stage behind-the-scenes clips and interviews.