This week’s Scout Report has a good round-up of items about the death–and life–of John Updike:
John Updike, Critic and Author, Dies At Age 76
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author John Updike Dies at Age 76 [Real Player]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99942825Remembering Updike
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/remembering-upd/For better or worse, John Updike produced a nearly endless stream of work
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-mew-updike-appreciate28-2009jan28,0,6965396.storyJohn Updike: This I Believe [Real Player]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99919409Invisible Cathedral: A Walk Through the New Modern
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/15/041115crat_atlargeUpdike Desert Comix
http://harvardlampoon.com/?q=node/266Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/hub_fans_bid_kid_adieu_article.shtmlThis Tuesday, John Updike, chronicler of the American condition in the mid and late twentieth century passed away in Danvers, Massachusetts. Throughout his six decades of writing, Updike found time to write about the world of suburban existence (and ennui), colonial Africa, a Jewish writer in Eastern Europe, and a group of women living in a small New England Town in The Witches of Eastwick, and its 2008 follow-up volume, The Widows of Eastwick. Updike was always the polymath, and during his student days at Harvard University, he found time to write and draw cartoons for the Harvard Lampoon. He continued his diverse pursuits throughout his life, as he wrote a great deal of literary criticism for publications like The New Yorker and The New York Times. In an interview, Updike remarked that his primary subject was “Protestant, small-town middle class.” Literary organizations and institutions responded positively to his various narratives, as he was the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award, and three National Book Critics’ Circle awards during his lifetime. [KMG]
The first link will take users to a news story from National Public Radio this Wednesday, which reports on Updike’s passing. The second link leads to a lovely selection of Updike remembrances offered by fellow literary travelers Joyce Carol Oates, Paul Theroux, Richard Ford, and others. Moving on, the third link leads to a reflection on Updike’s work and legacy by David L. Ulin, which appeared in this Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times. The fourth link will whisk users away Updike’s personal essay from 2005 offered as part of the “This I Believe” series. The fifth link leads to Updike’s assessment of the new Museum of Modern Art, which appeared in the November 15, 2004 edition of The New Yorker. The sixth link will take interested parties to one of the “comix” he created for the Harvard Lampoon during his stay in Cambridge. Finally, the last link leads to one of Updike’s most beloved pieces of writing (particularly for baseball fans), “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu”. It’s a piece that describes the world of Ted Williams as he prepares for his last game with the Boston Red Sox, and it’s one that’s worth rereading, even if it might be the twentieth time. [KMG]
>From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2009. http://scout.wisc.edu/
