Paul Moran is famous for digging around Updike’s trash, but he has also unearthed a cartoon that Updike did for a 1954 issue of the Harvard Lampoon and astutely observed that in it Updike “demonstrates an astonishing awareness of his literary mission and of the critics to come. John Updike was a prodigy and the following cartoon he drew foretells his own future impeccably.”<\/p>\n
In the cartoon, a determined (tough?) looking kid in t-shirt and shorts has painted only a minimalist stick man on the huge canvas he had been\u00a0given, and in the caption he tells his art teacher “I may\u00a0have little to say, but I’m determined to say it well.”<\/p>\n
The cartoon and the cover art that Updike drew for the April 1954 Lampoon, which was among the items recovered by Moran, can be seen here: \u00a0“Crystal Balls”<\/a><\/p>\n Moran ends his post by taking a playful jab at biographer Adam Begley, who was quoted as saying\u00a0that the items he rescued\u00a0from the trash had no value whatsoever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Moran is famous for digging around Updike’s trash, but he has also unearthed a cartoon that Updike did for a 1954 issue of the Harvard Lampoon and astutely observed that in it Updike “demonstrates an astonishing awareness of his … Continue reading