by Begley, Adam
“The First Lunar Invitational,” 196
“Flick,” 94–96
“Flight,” 11–14, 20, 45, 46n, 117, 163, 173
“Four Sides of One Story,” 233, 239–40, 241
“Friends from Philadelphia,” 97–100, 101, 110, 113, 120, 186, 188, 267
“From the Journal of a Leper,” 358, 360
“The Full Glass,” 484
“Gesturing,” 358
“Getting into the Set,” 389, 390
“A Gift from the City,” 126, 136, 163, 166
“Giving Blood,” 237–38, 243, 328
“God Speaks,” 70
“Grandparenting,” 390n, 414–15
“Guilt Gems,” 367
“The Gun Shop,” 347–48, 349–50
“The Happiest I’ve Been,” 87, 113, 173, 186–90, 199, 452
“Have a Good Life,” 113
“Here Come the Maples,” 373, 390n
“The Hillies,” 321–23, 325, 332
“His Finest Hour,” 126, 136
“His Mother Inside Him,” 44
“The Holy Land,” 388
“Homage to Paul Klee,” 80–82, 86n
“Home,” 109n, 117
“How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time,” 350–51
“Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” 143, 208
“Humor in Fiction,” 308
“I Am Dying, Egypt, Dying,” 303
“The Importance of Fiction,” 464
“Incest,” 126, 136–37, 163, 165
“The Indian,” 246n
“Intercession,” 192, 195, 196, 197
“The Invention of the Horse Collar,” 343
“I Will Not Let Thee Go, Except Thou Bless Me,” 304
“Jesus on Honshu,” 343
“The Journey to the Dead,” 410n
“The Kid’s Whistling,” 109
“Learn a Trade,” 390–91
“The Leaves,” 233, 234
“A Letter to My Grandsons,” 414, 428, 429
“Lifeguard,” 213
“The Lovely Troubled Daughters of Our Old Crowd,” 389
“The Lucid Eye in Silver Town,” 41
“Macbech,” 388
“Marching Through Boston,” 274–75, 336
“The Morning,” 233
“Museums and Women,” 81, 233, 234
“The Music School,” 245–46
“My Father’s Tears,” 36n, 51, 485
“My Lover Has Dirty Fingernails,” 244–45
“Notes,” 139
“One More Interview,” 4–6, 7n, 10, 11
“One of My Generation,” 86–87
“On Not Being a Dove,” 276
“On the Sidewalk,” 139
“Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, a Dying Cat, a Traded Car,” 212, 218–21, 222, 262
“The Peruvian in the Heart of Lake Winnipesaukee,” 71, 72, 90
“Pigeon Feathers,” 2, 35n, 39–40, 45, 61, 117, 163, 173, 212, 348
“Plumbing,” 325–29, 353
“Rabbit Remembered,” 397n
“The Red Herring Theory,” 285–86
“Rich in Russia,” 303–4
“A Sandstone Farmhouse,” 28, 432, 434
“Separating,” 351–55, 357, 358, 374
“Snowing in Greenwich Village,” 126, 131–33, 134, 137, 165, 237, 330
“A Soft Spring Night in Shillington,” 7, 14
“Solitaire,” 230–31, 233
“Son,” 347
“Spring Comes to Cambridge” (unpublished), 90
“The Stare,” 233, 234
“Still Life,” 106
“Still of Some Use,” 390
“Sublimating,” 325n, 344, 345
“Sunday Teasing,” 126, 133–34, 138n
“The Taste of Metal,” 285
“Three Illuminations in the Life of an American Author,” 380
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and So Forth,” 109, 110
“Toward Evening,” 126, 127–30, 131, 132, 134, 137
“A Trillion Feet of Gas,” 126, 134–36
“Twin Beds in Rome,” 237, 238–39, 243
“Under the Microscope,” 343
“Updike and I,” 449–50, 451
“Varieties of Religious Experience,” 467, 468
“Venezuela for Visitors,” 314
“Walter Briggs,” 163–65, 168
“Warm Wine,” 251
“When Everyone Was Pregnant,” 388
“Who Made Yellow Roses Yellow?,” 74–75, 77, 126, 133
“Why Write?,” 8, 154n, 308
“Wife-Wooing,” 212–13
“Your Lover Just Called,” 285, 345
Updike, Linda Hoyer (mother), 16–24
birth and childhood of, 17, 21
correspondence with John, 54–55, 108–9, 149
Dear Juan, 18–19, 215
death of, 28, 32, 54, 262, 431–34, 444, 447
education of, 21, 56
Enchantment, 17, 21, 22, 35, 163
escape from, 80
and grandchildren, 231, 391, 409
and Harvard, 54, 64, 75–76
health problems of, 402, 429–30
and her father, 176–77
influence of, 17, 18, 20–21, 38, 61, 379
interviews with, 2–3, 16, 17, 408
jobs of, 23, 33
John’s relationship with, 16–21, 44–45, 49, 51, 54, 55, 60, 80, 112, 118, 146, 185, 260–62, 329, 375
in John’s writing, 12, 16, 25, 28, 39–40, 41, 44–45, 73, 117, 260, 443, 447
and John’s writing career, 14, 48, 99, 112, 118, 216, 343, 383
“The Mantle and Other Blessed Goods,” 118
marriage to Wesley, 21–22
and Martha, 259, 372, 383–84
and Mary, 79, 373
and move to Plowville, 33–36, 41, 101, 320, 432–33
and New Yorker, 90, 97, 118
pen names of, 17–18, 21
personal traits of, 20, 27, 34, 51, 433
The Predator, 17
“The Predator,” 90
“Translation,” 215–16
travels, 306, 312
and Wesley’s illness and death, 349, 350
work published by, 17, 163, 215–16, 383–84, 385, 430, 433–34
Updike, Martha Bernhard (wife):
children of, 405, 407, 439
diminished value of, 367–68
in earlier years, see Bernhard, Martha Ruggles
as gatekeeper, 383, 407, 409–10, 440–41, 476, 477–78, 483–84
and Haven Hill, 402, 406–7, 422
and John’s estate, 415–16
and John’s work, 383, 385, 387–88, 402, 407, 461
in John’s writing, 360, 365–67, 388, 410, 414, 455–56
in later years, 474–75, 482
marriage to John, 208, 311, 375, 381–82, 383, 400
and Nabokov, 355, 365
and the old gang, 385–86
personal traits of, 382
as social worker, 439–40
travels, 311–12, 313, 316–18, 372, 416, 424
Updike, Mary Ella (aunt), 18, 30, 54, 93, 144
Updike, Mary Pennington (wife):
and adultery, 159, 208–9, 224, 228–29, 248, 285, 356
and Cheever, 267–68
and civil rights movement, 273–74, 275
divorce from John, 208, 211, 229, 233, 249, 255, 260–61, 311, 352–55, 356–57, 364, 367, 370, 371–73, 382
and family life, 166, 209
and Harringtons, 229
in Ipswich, 151, 181–83, 223, 225
and John’s estate, 416
and John’s illness and death, 483–84
and John’s work, 83, 145, 166, 168, 213, 253n, 291, 292, 293, 307, 382–83
in John’s writing, 81–82, 126, 134, 136, 137, 165–66, 239, 242–43, 248, 251–53, 285, 291, 329, 388, 410
and Life story, 284, 285
marriage to John, 79, 89–90, 97, 165–66, 242, 243, 251, 277, 344–45,
383, 442–43
in New York, 119, 136
paintings by, 281
personal traits of, 83, 243, 383
pregnancies of, 105, 134n, 199
and psychotherapy, 243–44, 372
travels, 104–9, 229–30, 263, 265, 267–68, 296, 297, 299, 309, 344, 350–51
Updike, Michael (son):
birth and infancy of, 199, 204
childhood of, 231, 284, 299, 320, 348
and his father’s memorial stone, 484–85
and his father’s will, 416
in his father’s writing, 329, 367, 376, 390, 391
and his grandmother’s death, 431
marriage and family of, 415n, 438–39
and marriage of John and Martha, 381, 409
as teenager, 375–76
Updike, Miranda (daughter):
childhood of, 231, 239, 284, 299
and her father’s illness and death, 483
and her father’s will, 416
in her father’s writing, 329, 367, 376
in Ipswich, 320, 325
marriage and family of, 415n
as teenager, 312, 376
and wedding of John and Martha, 381
Updike, Wesley (grandson), 438
Updike, Wesley Russell (father):
aging, 348–49
birth and background of, 42–43
death of, 43, 259, 262, 349, 350
and Harvard, 75–76
heart trouble of, 219, 220–22, 349
influence on John, 43–44, 50, 54, 180, 226, 262, 277, 329, 336, 350, 443n
jobs held by, 22, 23, 43
and John’s car, 117
in John’s writing, 22, 25, 39, 40, 41–42, 44–45, 51, 117, 226, 262, 347–49, 354
in Linda’s writing, 22
marriage to Linda, 21–22
and move to Plowville, 33, 35n
personal traits of, 43, 49, 67
retirement of, 225
as teacher, 23, 54, 80, 110, 226
travels, 306
Updike-Hoyer family, 21, 23–25
in John’s writing, 17, 24–25, 98, 163
move to Plowville, 21, 31, 32–36, 261
U.S. Postal Service, 19n
USSR and Soviet bloc, Updike’s tour of, 251, 257, 259, 262–65, 344
Vanity Fair, 49, 445
Venezuela, travel to, 308, 313–14
Venne, Joan, 48, 99
Vermeer, Jan, 46, 307, 441
Vidal, Gore, 103, 273, 361n
Vietnam War, 89, 255, 257, 275–78, 302, 321, 333, 334, 423, 476
Virgil, 94
Vogue, 443
Vonnegut, Kurt, 374, 387
W, 440
Walden Pond, 477
Waley, Arthur, 139n
Wallace, David Foster, 458–59
The Washington Post, 377, 400, 435
Watergate, 255
Weatherall, Bob, 415
Welty, Eudora, 387
What Makes Rabbit Run? (BBC), 9, 407–10
Whitaker, Rogers, 362
White, E. B., 30, 33, 34, 111, 117, 121, 140, 146
White, Homer, 183
White, Katharine, 101–2, 169, 380
obituary of, 111
personal traits of, 111–12
retirement of, 144
and Updike’s career, 73, 102, 109–10, 117, 171–72, 173
as Updike’s editor, 111–14, 138, 143, 145, 163, 165, 166, 379
visit to Oxford, 113, 117
White House, invitation to, 269–70
Wilder, Thornton, 87, 269, 301
William Dean Howells Medal, 434
Williams, Ted, 40, 136, 143, 159, 207–8, 214, 440
Williams, Wirt, 294
Wilson, Edmund, 18, 153, 362, 363
Memoirs of Hecate County, 87
The Witches of Eastwick (film), 412–13
Wodehouse, P. G., 36, 473
Wolf, Nancy, 5, 14, 60, 79–80
Wolfe, Tom, 265–66, 462–65, 466
The Bonfire of the Vanities, 462
A Man in Full, 462–63
“Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast,” 464, 465
Wood, James, 459–60
Wordsworth, William, 298
WPA, 23
Yagoda, Ben, About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made, 104, 120, 122
Yardley, Jonathan, 400
Zhou Enlai, 255
Photographic Insert
A cherished only child, Updike “soaked up strength and love.”
With his mother, Linda, and his father, Wesley, circa 1940.
With his mother in Reading, Pennsylvania, circa 1947.
The sandstone farmhouse in Plowville: “The firmest house in my fiction.”
With his Shillington High School classmate Joan George Zug on the night of their senior prom—they went as friends.
No longer a raw youth: Updike as a Harvard man.
Elizabeth Updike, born April 1, 1955.
On a visit to Plowville, Liz on her father’s lap, David in his grandmother’s arms.
David Updike, born January 19, 1957, held precariously aloft by his father.
Updike’s Talk of the Town colleague Tony Bailey, with his wife, Margot, in 1957. Bailey and Updike met in 1955 and remained friends for life.
William Maxwell, the New Yorker editor who kept Updike in a state of “writerly bliss” for more than twenty years.
With Judith Jones, his Knopf editor for nearly fifty years, at a reading in Manhattan in October 1989.
The young author at work, photographed by his brother-in-law, circa 1964.
The happy family in September 1966, posing for Life in the living room of the Polly Dole House.
A favorite party trick demonstrated for the Life photographer.
Sunday volleyball with the Ipswich gang, circa 1967.
Doubles with Mary in the late sixties.
“That’s it!” Practicing barefoot on Martha’s Vineyard in the early seventies.
With Mary in Addis Ababa in February 1973, at the end of the African lecture tour.
With Bill Luers in Caracas in January 1981.
Newly inducted into the Celebrity Walk of Fame in Fargo, North Dakota, on October 11, 1989. Though he didn’t yet know it, his mother had died the day before.
With his younger son, Michael, and two grandchildren, Trevor and Sawyer.
With Elizabeth’s two sons, Anoff and Kwame Cobblah.
With Martha in December 1998.
With Ian McEwan, flanking Henry Thoreau’s grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, in November 2006.
Michael Updike securing the headstone in Plow Cemetery. The poem carved on the back was written in Plowville when the author was a very young man.
About the Author
ADAM BEGLEY was the books editor for The New York Observer from 1996 to 2009. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and a fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, the London Review of Books, and many other publications. He lives in England.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Credits
Cover design by Jarrod Taylor
Cover photograph © Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reproduce the following:
Updike sitting on the gravel path: Unknown Photographer. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
With his parents: Unknown Photographer. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
With his mother in Reading: Unknown Photographer. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
The sandstone farmhouse: Photograph by Mary Weatherall. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
With his Shillington High School classmate: Unknown Photographer. John Updike P
apers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Updike as a Harvard man: Photograph by W. Earl Snyder. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Elizabeth Updike: Photograph by Mary Weatherall. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Liz on her father’s lap, David in his grandmother’s arms: Photograph by Mary Weatherall. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
David Updike held precariously aloft by his father: Photograph by Mary Weatherall. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Tony Bailey and his wife, Margot: Photograph by Greg Doherty. Courtesy of Anthony Bailey.
William Maxwell: Photograph by Walter Daran. Getty Images.
Judith Jones: Photograph by Dorothy Alexander. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Updike at his typewriter: Photograph by Irving L. Fisk. Courtesy of the estate of Irving L. Fisk.
Family portrait: Photograph by Truman Moore. Getty Images.
Juggling: Photograph by Truman Moore. Getty Images.
Playing volleyball: Photograph by Antonia McManaway. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Playing tennis with Mary: Photograph by André Deutsch. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Playing golf barefoot: Photograph by David Updike. Courtesy of David Updike.
With Mary in Addis Ababa: Courtesy of the U.S. Department of State. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
With Bill Luers: Photograph by Wendy Luers. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
The Celebrity Walk of Fame: Photograph by Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
With Michael and two grandchildren: Photograph by Janice Updike. Courtesy of Michael Updike.
With Elizabeth’s two sons: Photograph by Tete Cobblah. Courtesy of Elizabeth Cobblah.
With Martha: Photograph by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. John Updike Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
With Ian McEwan: Photograph by Annalena McAfee. Courtesy of Ian McEwan.
