John Updike

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John Updike, 1989
Autograph by John Updike

John Hoyer Updike (born March 18, 1932 in Reading , Pennsylvania , † January 27, 2009 in Danvers , Massachusetts ) was an American writer .

Updike has published more than 20 novels and collections of short stories , as well as several collections of essays and poetry. He has received numerous American literary prizes and awards and was a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature for many years .

Life

John Updike was born as the only son of the teacher Wesley Russell Updike (1900-1972) and his wife Linda Grace Hoyer (1904-1989) in Reading Hospital, West Reading in Pennsylvania and grew up to the age of 13 in the nearby Shillington on one remote farm in poor conditions. Since 1938 he suffered from psoriasis for life ; besides, he stuttered. His mother, who had literary ambitions herself, encouraged him to write.

After graduating from high school in 1950, he received a full scholarship to study English at Harvard University , which he graduated summa cum laude in 1954 with a thesis on Robert Herrick (Non-Horatian Elements in Robert Herrick's Imitations and Echoes of Horace) . At the university he worked on the editorial staff of the university magazine Harvard Lampoon . With his wife Mary Pennington, whom he married in 1953, he spent an academic year in 1954 at the Ruskin Art School in Oxford, England . There he met the American authors EB and Katharine White , who were employees of the magazine New Yorker and offered him to work for this magazine. In 1955, Updike's first daughter, Elizabeth, was born.

Updike at a speech in 2008

From 1955 to 1957 Updike was the editor of The New Yorker magazine , where he published his first poems and his first short story (Friends from Philadelphia) . The year 1957 marked a turning point in the poet's life: he left the New Yorker , moved to Ipswich / Massachusetts and from then on devoted himself exclusively to the writing profession. His son David was also born in 1957. Updike's first book, The Carpentered Hen , was published in 1958, and his first novel, The Poorhouse Fair , which told of the residents of a nursing home, was published a year later ( he did not publish the previously written novel Home ). A second son, Michael, and second daughter, Miranda, were born in 1959 and 1960, respectively.

17 years lived in Ipswich Updike that the model for the fictional town Tarbox in his novel Couples ( Couples , 1968) was formed. The erotic novel, which takes up the subject of adultery, prompted Time magazine in April 1968 to present Updike's portrait with the headline “The Adulterous Society” on the front page. Most of his novels are set in New England , including The Centaur (1963), a father-and-son story full of mysticism, and The Coup (1979), the first-person story about the ex-dictator of a fictional African country.

In 1976 Updike and Mary Pennington were divorced; In 1977 he was second married to Martha Bernhard and lived with her and their three sons in Georgetown , Massachusetts . The following decades were filled with prolific writing and publishing. Numerous prizes and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Better Relationships in 1982 and the Faulkner Award in 2004 , reflect the company's success.

John Updike died of lung cancer in a hospice in Danvers at the age of 76 . Mass. Some of his ashes rest in the Emmanuel Episcopal Church Memorial Garden, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass. and at Robeson Lutheran Church Cemetery, Mohnton, Pa.

Works

The Rabbit range

Updike became famous with the novel Rabbit, Run (Eng. Hasenherz ), the first volume of the Rabbit series published in 1960 . Updike had the original version edited by his publisher in order to avoid any problems that could be expected due to sexually offensive scenes. The series of four novels and a longer narrative include Rabbit, Run , Rabbit Redux (German under the astronaut's moon ), Rabbit is Rich (German better conditions ), Rabbit at Rest (German Rabbit at rest ) and the story Rabbit Remembered (Eng. Rabbit, a return ).

The volumes in the series were published almost exactly ten years apart and, at corresponding intervals, portray the life of protagonist Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom , who was a basketball star in high school and can never overcome the loss of this past fame. Neither his married life with his wife Janice nor his son Nelson, nor his love affairs, his jobs, the wealth he has achieved or retirement can lead him away from the dream that there must be more to life than that. This deep-seated dissatisfaction leads to many smaller and larger ones Escape attempts, actual escapes and personal revolts, which, however, always lead him back to his wife and the existence in the small town of Brewer, which Updike has traced in his hometown of Reading.

With this series, Updike has succeeded in capturing the external, material development of the USA as well as the changes in American sensitivities between the late 1950s and the turn of the millennium, describing them poetically and precisely analyzing them.

Novels

  • 1959 The Poorhouse Fair
    • Das Fest am Abend, German by Maria Carlsson , S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1961.
  • 1963 The Centaur
    • The Centaur, German by Maria Carlsson, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1966.
  • 1965 Of The Farm
    • On the farm, German by Fritz Lorch; S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1969.
  • 1968 Couples
  • 1975 A Month of Sundays
    • The Sunday month, German by Kurt Heinrich Hansen, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1976. ISBN 3-498-06858-X .
  • 1976 Marry Me: A Romance
  • 1978 The Coup
    • Der Coup, German by Jürgen Abel, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1981. ISBN 3-498-06860-1 .
  • 1984 The Witches of Eastwick
  • 1986 Roger's version
    • Das Gottesprogramm - Rogers Version, German by Thomas Piltz, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1988. ISBN 3-498-06866-0
  • 1988 p.
  • 1992 Memories of the Ford Administration
    • Memories of the time under Ford, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1994. ISBN 3-498-06871-7 .
  • 1994 Brazil
  • 1996 In the Beauty of the Lilies
    • Gott und die Wilmots, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reibek near Hamburg 1998. ISBN 3-498-06874-1 .
  • 1997 Toward the End of Time
    • Towards the end of time, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2000. ISBN 3-498-06876-8 .
  • 2000 Gertrude and Claudius
    • Gertrude and Claudius, German from Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-498-06878-4 .
  • 2002 Seek My Face
    • Seeks my face, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2005. ISBN 3-498-06881-4
  • 2004 Villages
    • Country life , German by Susanne Höbel and Helmut Frielinghaus, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2005. ISBN 9-783-49806-8837
  • 2006 terrorist
    • Terrorist, German by Angela Praesent, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2006. ISBN 3-498-06885-7 .
  • 2008 The Widows of Eastwick
    • The Widows of Eastwick, German by Angela Praesent, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-498-06886-8 .

The rabbit pentalogy

The Bech range

  • 1970 Bech: A Book
    • German in: Henry Bech, German by Hermann Stiehl a. Karl Klewer, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1991. ISBN 3-499-15448-X .
  • 1982 Bech Is Back
    • German in: Henry Bech, German by Hermann Stiehl a. Karl Klewer, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1991. ISBN 3-499-15448-X .
  • 1998 Bech At Bay: A Quasi-Novel
    • Bech in distress: Almost a novel, German by Helmut Frielinghaus, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2000. ISBN 3-499-22718-5 .

Stories and short stories

  • 1959 The Same Door
    • German selection in: I was never happier, German by Maria Carlson et al., S. Fischer 1966, and in: Gesammelte Erzählungen, German by Maria Carlsson, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1971.
  • 1962 Pigeon Feathers
    • German selection in: I was never happier, German by Maria Carlson et al., S. Fischer 1966, and in: Gesammelte Erzählungen, German by Maria Carlsson, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1971.
  • 1964 Olinger Stories (A Selection)
  • 1966 The Music School
    • German selection in: Gesammelte Erzählungen, German by Maria Carlsson, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1971.
  • 1972 Museums And Women
  • 1979 Problems and Other Stories
    • German selection in: The orphaned swimming pool, German by Uwe Frisel, Monica Michieli, Hans Wollschläger and Dieter E. Zimmer, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1987. ISBN 3-498-06864-4 .
  • 1979 Too Far To Go (The Maples Stories)
    • The long way for two, German by Maria Carlsson et al., Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1982. ISBN 3-498-06861-X .
  • 1981 Pygmalion
  • 1987 Trust Me
    • Spring noch !, German by Uwe Friesel and Hannelore Gausel, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1990. ISBN 3-498-06867-9 .
  • 1994 The Afterlife and Other Stories
    • The man who switched to soprano, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1997. ISBN 3-498-06873-3 .
  • 2000 Licks Of Love. Short Stories and A Sequel, Rabbit Remembered
    • How was it really, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004. ISBN 3-498-06880-6 , as well as in: Rabbit, a return, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2002. ISBN 3- 498-06879-2 .
  • 2003 The Early Stories, 1953-1975
    • I've never been happier. Early Stories 1, German by Maria Carlsson, Helmut Frielinghaus and Susanna Rademacher, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2006. ISBN 3-499-23700-8 .
    • Advertise for your own wife. Early Stories 2, German by Maria Carlsson, Susanna Rademacher, Hermann Stiehl, Nikolaus Stingl, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2007. ISBN 3-499-23773-3 .
    • In a bar in Charlotte Amalie. Early Stories 3, German by Maria Carlsson, Eike Schönfeld , Reinhard Kaiser , Hermann Stiehl, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2008. ISBN 3-499-23774-1 .
  • 2009 My Father's Tears and Other Stories
    • My father's tears. Stories , translated from English by Maria Carlsson; Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 2011. ISBN 978-3-498-06889-9 .
  • In 1989 the publisher Volk und Welt published the collective edition “How to love and leave America at the same time” with stories from Updike in the GDR.

Plays

  • 1974 Buchanan Dying

Children's books

  • 1962 The Magic Flute
  • 1964 The Ring
  • 1965 A Child's Calendar
  • 1969 Bottom's Dream
  • 1995 A Helpful Alphabet Of Friendly Objects

Autobiographical

  • 1989 Self-Consciousness
    • Self-awareness - memories, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1995. ISBN 3-498-06869-5 .

Poems

  • 1958 The Carpentered Hen And Other Tame Creatures
  • 1963 Telephone Poles
  • 1969 Midpoint
  • 1977 Tossing and Turning
  • 1985 Facing Nature
  • 1993 Collected Poems 1953-1993
  • 2001 Americana and Other Poems
  • 2009 Endpoint and Other Poems
    • End point and other poems, German by Susanne Höbel and Helmut Frielinghaus, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg. ISBN 978-3-498-06888-2 .

Selected volumes in German translation:

Essays

  • 1965 Assorted Prose
  • 1975 Picked-Up Pieces
  • 1983 Hugging The Shore
  • 1989 Just Looking
  • 1991 Odd Jobs
    • German selection in: Vermischtes, German by Willi Winkler, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1995. ISBN 3-499-13229-X .
  • 1996 Golf Dreams: Writing On Golf
    • Golf dreams, German by Maria Carlsson, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1999. ISBN 3-498-06875-X .
  • 1999 More Matter
    • German to parts in: If I am already asked, German by Susanne Höbel, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-499-22918-8 .
    • as well as in: Updike and I, German by Susanne Höbel, Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2002. ISBN 3-499-22935-8 .
  • 2000 On Literary Biography
  • 2005 Still Looking: Essays on American Art
  • 2007 Due Considerations: Essays and Criticism
    • Due considerations. Essays, German by Susanne Höbel, Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2010. ISBN 978-3-499-24919-8 .

Others

  • 1983 Emersonianism
  • 1990 Mites And Other Poems In Miniature (limited to 226 copies)
  • Foreword to the new edition of Samuel Shem 's House of God

Film adaptations

  • 1970: Go away, Rabbit (Rabbit, run)
  • 1978: The long way for two (Too far to go)
  • 1984: Noise in room 14 (The roommate)
  • 1986: The Witches of Eastwick

Prizes and awards

John Updike (left)
presenting the National Medal of Arts with Barbara and George HW Bush on November 17, 1989

literature

  • William Pritchard: Updike: America's Man of Letters . Steerforth Press, 2000, ISBN 1-58642-002-X (English)
  • The John Updike Encyclopedia by Jack De Bellis. Greenwood Press Westport Connecticut, London 2000. books.google.de
  • John Updike - a radio talk (archive) - Deutschlandfunk, Denis Scheck , September 2, 2002. www.deutschlandfunk.de ›john-updike-a-radiogespraech.
  • Volker Hage : John Updike: A biography . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007, ISBN 3-498-02989-4 ; Revised and supplemented new edition 2013: ISBN 978-3-499-50700-7 .
  • Claudia Türk: Zeitgeist, natural science and the search for God in John Updike's novels: The poorhouse fair, Roger's version and Toward the end of time . Frankfurt am Main, 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-57076-0 .
  • David Foster Wallace : The fun of it. All essays. Cologne 2018. pp. 325–333 (on John Updikes Towards the End of Time ).

Web links

Commons : John Updike  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Volker Hage: John Updike. A biography , p. 46.
personal data
SURNAME Updike, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Updike, John Hoyer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Reading (Berks County, Pennsylvania)
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 2009
Place of death Danvers