John Updike

I am writing a report on John Updike. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009).He was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic. Updike was widely recognized for his careful craftsmanship, his unique prose style, and his prolific output, having 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. He also wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books. Updike populated his fiction with characters that "frequently experience personal turmoil and must respond to crises relating to religion, family obligations, and marital infidelity." Updike was born to Wesley Russell Updike and Linda Grace Hoyer in Reading, Pennsylvania. These early years in Berks County, Pennsylvania, would shape the environment of the Rabbit tetra logy, as well as many of his early novels and short stories. He graduated from Shillington High School as co-valedictorian and class president in 1950. Updike later attended Harvard after receiving a full scholarship. At Harvard, he "immediately established himself as a major talent of indefatigable energy, submitting a steady stream of articles and drawings for the Harvard Lampoon," which he served as president, before graduating summa cum laude in 1954 with a degree in English. After graduation, he decided to pursue a career in graphic arts and attended The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford. His early ambition was to be a cartoonist. Stylistically, his early stories were directly influenced by the New Yorker itself after returning to the U.S., Updike and his family moved to New York, where he became a regular contributor to The New Yorker. Later, Updike and his family moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts.
In Ipswich, Updike wrote Rabbit, Run (1960), on a Guggenheim Fellowship, and The Centaur (1963), two of his most acclaimed and famous works; the latter won the National Book Award. Rabbit, Run featured Rabbit Angstrom, a former high school basketball star and middle-class paragon who would become Updike's most enduring and critically examined character. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is 26, has a job selling kitchen gadgets, and is married to Janice, a former salesgirl at the store where he works. They have a two-year-old son named Nelson, and live in Mount Judge, a suburb of Brewer, Pennsylvania. He believes that his marriage is a failure and that something is missing from his life. Having been a basketball star in high school, Harry finds middle-class family life unsatisfying. On the spur of the moment, he decides to drive south in an attempt to escape. He soon returns home, however, where he visits his old basketball coach, Marty Tothero. Tothero introduces Rabbit to Ruth Leonard, who is a part-time prostitute, and they begin a three month affair. During this time, Janice moves back into her parents' house. Fearing Rabbit has abandoned her again, Janice begins drinking heavily that morning, and accidentally drowns their infant daughter Rebecca June. Rabbit returns to Janice and Nelson, suggesting reconciliation is possible as Rabbit seeks peace. Tothero visits Rabbit and suggests that the thing he is looking for probably does not exist. At the child's funeral Rabbit's internal and external conflicts result in a sudden proclamation of his innocence in the baby's death. He then runs from the graveyard, pursued by Jack Eccles, until he becomes lost. After wandering in the woods, Rabbit returns to Ruth and learns of her pregnancy. Though Rabbit is relieved to discover she has not had an abortion, he is unwilling to divorce Janice. Rabbit abandons Ruth, chasing the fleeting feeling he has attempted to grasp during the course of the novel. Rabbit's fate is uncertain as the novel concludes.
This person is significant because he is a good writer and wrote a lot of things. Like several sequels, including Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, as well as a related 2001 novella, Rabbit Remembered. He also has a lot of experience writing and being a critic, he also won a lot of awards.