American literature of the second half of 20 century

Updike, John

• American writer John Updike became known for novels that explored the tensions of middle-class American suburban life. He twice won the Pulitzer Prize in literature, for his novels Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990).

John Hoyer Updike was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, and educated at Harvard University and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford (England). He was a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine from 1955 to 1957. Updike's first book, The Carpentered Hen (1958), was a collection of verse. His first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1959), is about the inhabitants of a home for the aged, and it received a great deal of critical praise. One of Updike’s best-known works, Rabbit, Run (1960), tells the story of the character Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a young man reluctant to confront the responsibilities of life. The sequels Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981; Pulitzer Prize, 1982), and Rabbit at Rest (1990; Pulitzer Prize, 1991) follow Rabbit as he navigates through middle-class life in the changing America of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The Centaur, which won the 1963 National Book

• John Hoyer Updike was born in Shillington, Pennsylvania, and educated at Harvard University and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford (England). He was a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine from 1955 to 1957. Updike's first book, The Carpentered Hen (1958), was a collection of verse. His first novel, The Poorhouse Fair (1959), is about the inhabitants of a home for the aged, and it received a great deal of critical praise. One of Updike’s best-known works, Rabbit, Run (1960), tells the story of the character Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a young man reluctant to confront the responsibilities of life. The sequels Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit Is Rich (1981; Pulitzer Prize, 1982), and Rabbit at Rest (1990; Pulitzer Prize, 1991) follow Rabbit as he navigates through middle-class life in the changing America of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The Centaur, which won the 1963 National Book