(born March 18, 1932, Shillington, Pa., U.S.) U.S. writer. He attended Harvard University and in 1955 began a long association with The New Yorker.
His works are known for careful craftsmanship and for their subtle depiction of American middle-class life. His famous “Rabbit” tetralogy—Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981, Pulitzer Prize), and Rabbit at Rest (1990, Pulitzer Prize)—follows a very ordinary American man through the decades of the later 20th century. A Jewish novelist named Bech is the subject of three other novels. Updike's other fiction includes The Centaur (1963), Of the Farm (1965), Couples (1968), The Witches of Eastwick (1984; film, 1987), and In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996). He has also published short-story collections, including Pigeon Feathers (1962), several volumes of reviews and essays, and light verse.
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