{"id":5050,"date":"2021-01-07T21:41:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T03:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=5050"},"modified":"2021-01-07T21:41:50","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T03:41:50","slug":"blogger-updikes-thurber-dog-went-to-harvard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2021\/01\/07\/blogger-updikes-thurber-dog-went-to-harvard\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogger: Updike&#8217;s Thurber Dog Went to Harvard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-07-at-8.36.20-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5052\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-07-at-8.36.20-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"128\" height=\"128\" \/><\/a>Pets weren&#8217;t allowed in the dorm when John Updike went to Harvard in the fall of 1950, but he took his dog anyway . . . that is, James Thurber&#8217;s drawing of a dog made especially for young Updike, whose first ambition was to become a cartoonist. Updike had written a fan letter to the famed cartoonist asking for a drawing to hang on his bare wall, and Thurber obliged.<\/p>\n<p>Last week the<em> <strong>Ink Spill: New Yorker Cartoonists News and Events<\/strong><\/em> blog featured Updike&#8217;s Thurber cartoon, courtesy of Miranda Updike; this week, the blog adds a letter that Updike had written home to his parents and other &#8220;Plowvillians,&#8221; provided by Michael Updike.<\/p>\n<p>In that letter dated September 29, 1952, young Updike writes, &#8220;This room is always cold and in shadow, for it faces the moon, whereas last year&#8217;s room faced the sun. I have the window open to admit the warmth. Coming in to our room is like entering a cave, dank, mossy, but without drawings (beyond Thurber&#8217;s) on the wall . . . .&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelmaslin.com\/updikes-thurber-dog-went-to-harvard\/\">entire letter and blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pets weren&#8217;t allowed in the dorm when John Updike went to Harvard in the fall of 1950, but he took his dog anyway . . . that is, James Thurber&#8217;s drawing of a dog made especially for young Updike, whose &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2021\/01\/07\/blogger-updikes-thurber-dog-went-to-harvard\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updike-quoted","category-updikes-life-times"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5053,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}