{"id":6931,"date":"2026-04-04T08:47:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=6931"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:47:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:47:45","slug":"berks-county-remembers-john-updike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2026\/04\/04\/berks-county-remembers-john-updike\/","title":{"rendered":"Berks County remembers John Updike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2026\/04\/04\/berks-county-remembers-john-updike\/screenshot-2026-04-04-at-8-43-10-am\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6932\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-6932\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/files\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-04-at-8.43.10-AM-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>WFMZ, which covers the Lehigh Valley and Berks County, published a piece today by historian Frank Whelan on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/features\/historys-headlines\/historys-headlines-john-updike-of-berks-county\/article_556f0800-ffbd-4711-a5ca-62d6d2fd37ac.html\">&#8220;History&#8217;s Headlines: John Updike of Berks County.&#8221;<\/a> Like Adam Begley&#8217;s biography, it begins with a story about journalist William Ecenbarger following the Updike trail in order to write a feature. Whelan&#8217;s article recounts how Ecenbarger went to the local library to ask for suggestions and ideas, only to encounter &#8220;an elderly woman in tortoise shell glasses&#8221; who told him, &#8220;I know all about him . . . . He&#8217;s my son.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Whelan notes how that meeting led to his driving around Berks County with the author&#8217;s mother and getting the kind of tour freelancers can only dream about . . . which in turn led to his actually getting to take the same drive with Updike, whom he let drive his Volkswagen Rabbit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/features\/historys-headlines\/historys-headlines-john-updike-of-berks-county\/article_556f0800-ffbd-4711-a5ca-62d6d2fd37ac.html\">Read the whole article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WFMZ, which covers the Lehigh Valley and Berks County, published a piece today by historian Frank Whelan on &#8220;History&#8217;s Headlines: John Updike of Berks County.&#8221; Like Adam Begley&#8217;s biography, it begins with a story about journalist William Ecenbarger following the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2026\/04\/04\/berks-county-remembers-john-updike\/\">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":[56,19,53,27],"tags":[104,29,102,103,105],"class_list":["post-6931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-berks-county-news","category-the-john-updike-childhood-home","category-updike-in-context","category-updikes-life-times","tag-author-museums","tag-john-updike","tag-john-updike-childhood-home","tag-literary-landmarks","tag-pennsylvania-historic-sites"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6931","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=6931"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6934,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6931\/revisions\/6934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}