In addition to the fourteen novels, novellas and short stories collections he has published over the years, he has also worked extensively as a translator, and has translated into Greek numerous works by masters of prose such as Nabokov, Banville, Updike, Annie Proulx and Cormac McCarthy.
John Updike | Updike | Nancy Updike | Richard Updike Sherman |
Born in Brookville, Indiana, Updike attended the public schools of Whitcomb and Brookville, Dodds Army and Navy Academy, Washington, D.C., Columbia University, New York City, and Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana.
Updike's first novel, The Poorhouse Fair, is set in a fictional building based on Shillington's poorhouse.
The Algerine Captive: or the Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill: Six Years a Prisoner among the Algerines is one of America's first novels, published anonymously in 1797 by early American author Royall Tyler.
In contrast, Margaret Atwood wrote a very positive review of Toward the End of Time for the New York Times, "Memento Mori--But First, Carpe Diem." She praises Updike's "brilliant metaphors" and describes the central character Ben Turnbull in his semi-idyllic, upper class rural home as "a Thoreau run through the meat grinder of the 20th century."
Updike did, however, use Wickford as the model for the fictional village of Eastwick in his novel, The Witches of Eastwick (Knopf: 1984).
John Updike (--on Fox's Doctor Golf): "Golf in the Kingdom" put me in mind of another curious devotional work, William Price Fox's "Doctor Golf."Doctor Golf, a fanatic even quainter and keener than Shivas Irons, runs a thirty-nine-member golf sanctuary in Arkansas called Eagle-Ho, refers to "young Hagen," advocates caddy flogging, sells by mail order a clanking, cumbersome line of golf paraphernalia, and conducts a large correspondence.
The movie soundtrack was composed by Charles Fox and featured performances by Joe "Bean" Esposito ("Updike's Theme") and David Pomeranz ("Got to Believe in Magic", "King and Queen of Hearts"), which were big hits in the Philippines.