Updike is referenced in a book of Mark Twain poems

John Updike Society president James Plath spent two weeks as a fall 2023 Quarry Farm Fellow working on an essay detailing how Twain modeled being a celebrity writer for both Hemingway and Updike. Plath conducted that research, but also felt compelled to write poems about the house and its inhabitants. Not surprisingly, Updike found his way into one of the poems:

Carved Stone Troughs

John Updike saw himself in a dogwood tree his parents planted the year he turned one. Parents do such things. Twain’s jeu d’esprit led him to place four troughs in part-sun

along the Farm on East Hill road, so spaced to revive tired horses, and with their carvings mark the birth of four Clemens—who may have raced later to see whose was used, while dogs would bark.

But when three of four children die before the father, those troughs become hollowed-out markers that bear the burden of emptiness, not crosses to inspire prayer or reflection. It’s a wonder that Twain continued to care,

funneling stone-cold grief into sage satire, instead of yielding to alcohol and rage.

At Quarry Farm was published in June 2025 by Kelsay Books and is available from the publisher and Amazon. Society members wanting a copy and who also plan on attending the Roth-Updike Conference in NYC in October can email Plath (jplath@iwu.edu) to bring a copy there to save postage.