A&P

Full Name: John Hoyer Updike

Date of Birth: March 18th, 1932

Birthplace: Reading, Pennsylvania.

     (Gale, Cengage Learning).

 

Childhood: He lived in nearby Shillington until the age of thirteen. At the age of thirteen Updike moved on to a farm in Plowville, Pennsylvania with his parents and grandparents. This little town was the town that his mother was born in. The inspiration to write came from his mom because she was a writer herself, and his father was a high school math teacher. Therefore, the hardworking settlement ran in the family. (Gale, Cengage Learning).

 

Education and Inspiration: Updike has written novels, short stories, essays, poetry, reviews, articles, memoirs, art criticism, and a play. The work he has completed and achieved has been awarded and seen on television/film. He won a National Book Award and two Pulitzer Prizes. Updike graduated as the co-valedictorian from Shillington High and then attended Harvard through a scholarship. In college, he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. (Gale, Cengage Learning).

 

Marriage: Updike's first Marriage was with a fellow student met at Harvard, Mary Pennington. The marraige lasted from the years 1953-1976 and within that marraige they had four children. Martha Bernhard was Updike's second wife who married in the year of 1977. She had three children of her own before their marriage. (Gale, Cengage Learning).

 

The Literary Games Begin: His first novel was Poorhouse fair. He had a collection of stories, The Same Door, and a book of poems, The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures. Updike also wrote a “Rabbit” series starting with Rabbit Run which introduced Harry Angstrom, a man whose life peaked at the age of eighteen when he was the star basketball-player at his high school. Updike’s two Pulitzer Prizes were given to him because of the “Rabbit” series he wrote; one in 1982 for Rabbit Is Rich and one in 1991 for Rabbit at Rest. Another one of Updike’s most recognized novels is The Witches of Eastwick, which was eventually turned into a film in 1987. Updike wrote the story A&P in the year of 1961 when he was living in the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts. (Gale, Cengage Learning).

 

Death: January 27th, 2009 caused from lung cancer. (Gale, Cengage Learning).

 

Interview of John Updike

 What was it like being an only child and living with your grandparents and your parents? http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/upd0int-1#