John Updike was an American novelist born in 1932 in Pennsylvania. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1954. Updike published his first book of poetry in 1958 and won two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction, for Rabbit is Rich in 1982 and Rabbit at Rest in 1991. He spent his later years in Massachusetts where much of his fiction was set until his death from lung cancer in 2009.

1. John UpdikeBY:Fernando AbreuRichard Waltemath IIIAnd Tauni McIntosh

2. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania March 18, 1932Grew up in Shillington, Pennsylvania At 13 years of age moved to mother’s birthplace 80-acre farm in Plowville, PennsylvaniaOnly Child, lived with parents and grandparentsFather junior high math teacher

3. Mother aspiring writer, having a master’s at Cornwell, encouraging her son to writeGraduated high school co- valedictorian, worked as copy boy atReading Eagle, newspaper

4. Attended Harvard on a tuitionscholarship, graduating summa cum laude, 19541954- sold a poem and short storyto The New Yorker magazineLived in England and studied at Oxford’s Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine ArtMoved back to the states a year later and worked for The New Yorker Published first book of poetry, The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures, 1958

5. Rabbit Run, feared at first because of the obscenity, well received and no legal actions

6. National Book Award for novel, The Centaur, inspired by childhood in Pennsylvania , 1963 Youngest person, 32, elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, cultural exchange program between U.S. and Soviet Union, 1964 Joined author, Robert Penn Warren and other American writers in signing letter urging Soviet writers to defend Jewish cultural institutions under attack by Soviet government Novel, Couples, remained on best sellers list for over year prompted aTime magazine cover story 1970’s cultural ambassador for U.S. 1974 joined John Cheever, Arthur Miller and Richard Wilbur to cease persecution of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the Soviet government

7. 1974 Separated from wife and moved to Boston where he briefly taught at Boston University 1977 married Martha Ruggles Bernhard, settling with her three children in Georgetown, MassachusettsRabbit is Rich published in 1981, won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1991 won second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Rabbit at Rest 1989 National Medal of Art received from President George H.W. Bush 2003 presented with National Medal for the Humanities from President George W. Bush, one of the very few Americans to receive this award