John Updike

John Updike

Born: March 18, 1932
Died: January 27, 2009
in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic.

Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series (the novels Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit At Rest; and the novella "Rabbit Remembered") which chronicled the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom over the course of several decades, from young adulthood to his death. Both Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit At Rest (1990) received the Pulitzer Prize. He is one of only three authors (the others being Booth Tarkington and William Faulkner) to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. Updike published more than twenty novels and more than a dozen short story collections, as well as poetry, art criticism, literary criticism and children's books. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems appeared in The New Yorker, starting in 1954. He also wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books.

Describing his subject as "the American small town, Protestant middle class", Updike was well recognized for his careful craftsmanship, his unique prose style, and his prolificness. He wrote on average a book a year. Updike populated his fiction with characters who "frequently experience personal turmoil and must respond to crises relating to religion, family obligations, and marital infidelity." His fiction is distinguished by its attention to the concerns, passions, and suffering of average Americans; its emphasis on Christian theology; and its preoccupation with sexuality and sensual detail. His work has attracted a significant amount of critical attention and praise, and he is widely considered to be one of the great American writers of his time. Updike's highly distinctive prose style features a rich, unusual, sometimes arcane vocabulary as conveyed through the eyes of "a wry, intelligent authorial voice" that extravagantly describes the physical world, while remaining squarely in the realist tradition. Updike famously described his own style as an attempt "to give the mundane its beautiful due."

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Movies for John Updike...

Top Hat and Tales: Harold Ross and the Making of the New Yorker
Title: Top Hat and Tales: Harold Ross and the Making of the New Yorker
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2001
Type: Movie
Top Hat and Tales chronicles the early years of The New Yorker, from its fledging beginnings under its legendary creator and editor Harold Ross, to its rise as an indispensable American institution. - Roy Blount Jr., Stuart Hemple, John Updike
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Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey
Title: Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey
Character: Self
Released: November 16, 1991
Type: Movie
A retrospective documentary on the life and career of Ohio-born actress, singer and TV star Doris Day.
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Title: Charlie Rose
Character: Self (Charlie Rose archive footage 10/6/97)
Released: September 30, 1991
Type: TV
Charlie Rose is an American television interview show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show is syndicated on PBS and is owned by Charlie Rose, LLC. Rose interviews thinkers, writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, businesspersons, leaders, scientists, and other newsmakers. The show premiered on September 30, 1991. It is presented by WNET, where it first aired as a local program. Funding for the show is primarily provided by donations from various corporations and charitable foundations. The show has been criticized for not disclosing the list of donors even if the show is considered "public" broadcasting. In 2007, the video archive of past interviews was added to the website for free viewing. In a partnership with Google, nearly 4000 hours of video was added to Google Video including complete hour-long episodes as they originally aired. The videos are now unavailable after Google Video shut down.
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Title: The Simpsons
Released: December 17, 1989
Type: TV
Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.
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Title: Apostrophes
Character: Self
Released: January 10, 1975
Type: TV
Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.