John Updike remains one of the most admired and prolific voices in American Literature. Over five decades he produced novels, short stories, poems, criticism, and essays that examine faith and art, desire, and the American experience in all its complexity.
His work most famously “The Rabbit Novels” earned him two Pulitzer Prizes and a place in the canon of 20th Century fiction. But, beyond his published pages Updike was a dedicated correspondent. He wrote thousands of letters to family, friends, editors, and fellow writers an ongoing intimate conversation that reveals the man behind the meticulous prose.
Now in the new book “Selected Letters of John Updike” editor James Schiff offers readers a window into that private world drawing from decades of correspondence. Schiff presents a portrait of Updike is both craftsman and confidante, generous, witty, and endlessly reflective about writing and life.
