BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The passing of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Updike on Tuesday evoked memories of his visit to the Illinois Wesleyan University campus, and the thoughts of Updike scholar James Plath, a professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan.
“What John Updike has done for American literature is astounding,” said Plath, who has studied Updike for more than 20 years, including working closely with the novelist while editing the book Conversations with John Updike in 1994. “His work connects us with our American literary past, and he is forever a part of that now.” Updike died Tuesday at the age of 76 after a battle with lung cancer.
Plath discovered the works of Updike in an English class at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. “I didn’t choose to be an Updike scholar, he chose me,” he said. “His work spoke to me in ways other writers hadn’t.” Plath decided to write his dissertation on Updike, and began a correspondence with the celebrated author. “He didn’t do my work for me, but he was always gracious,” said Plath, who wrote his dissertation on “The Painterly Aspects of John Updike’s Fiction.”
Updike was featured speaker at the 1993 Hemingway Days’ Writers’ Workshop & Conference in Key West, which Plath directed from 1986-96. “That was the first time I met Updike face-to-face,” said Plath, who spoke with the novelist as he sat for a portrait painted by Hemingway’s grandson, artist Edward Hemingway. “We visited Edward Hemingway’s first art exhibition in Key West. Updike, who was a skilled critic of the arts, pointed to one painting and said, ‘This is the best piece in the collection.’” Plath later bought the work and donated it to The Ames Library, where it hangs today.