John Updike, writer and author of several bestselling novels, including the Witches of Eastwick (1984) and Couples (1968), succumbed to lung cancer on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2009, in a hospice near his home in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. He was 76.

Knopf, John Updike’s publisher for 50 years, announced the news of his death. His long-time editor Judith Jones announced that Updike was diagnosed with the disease after Thanksgiving.

John Updike’s style of literature revolved mainly around three things –– sex, religion, and art; things that he referred to as the “three great secret things in human experience.” John Updike’s mastery on the said topics was profound, as he gracefully wrote on any of the three subjects with great deal of ease and grace.

Born on March 18, 1932 when the Great Depression was in full swing, the young John Updike grew up with a stammer. His father was a science teacher and he took his inclination for writing from his mother, who published two works of fiction. Among his favorite topics while growing up were his psoriasis, a non-infectious skin condition, and his bad teeth.

John Updike’s college years were spent in Harvard University, where he was a scholar. He also went to study in an art school in England. He was then recruited by the famed E.B. White, writer for New Yorker Magazine in 1954. John Updike’s contribution to the said publication totaled 862 pieces, including 327 book reviews, 170 short stories, and 154 poems.

New Yorker editor David Remnick once commented that John Updike was among the elite writers of his time.

John Updike left New Yorker Magazine in 1957 to live in the Boston suburbs with his first wife, Mary Pennington, and their four children. His reason for leaving was that he saw New York as a “cultural hassle.” They got divorced in 1976 and he married Martha Bernard a year later.

John Updike’s status as a literary celebrity earned him the privilege to be on the cover of Time Magazine, twice.

According to Judith Jones, his editor, John Updike had this ability to skillfully bring to life a certain period in the last 50 years of the American society.

As John Updike matured as a writer, his subjects became more entrenched in religion, faith, and God as presented in his 1986 novel Roger’s Version. Updike was also into the occult, with Witches of Eastwick as a primary example. The novel is about three women who acquired dark, unnatural powers after their marriages fell apart. A movie of the same title was also produced in 1987 with Jack Nicholson, Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon portraying the central characters.

The Widows of Eastwick, the sequel to Witches, was published in October of 1981. It was the last novel of John Updike to be published in his lifetime.

Knopf unveiled their plans to publish two more works of the literary genius – My Father’s Tears and Other Stories, his initial collection of new short fiction since 2000, in June; and Endpoint, a poetry collection, in the fall.

The Centaurian has a website for all things John Updike.

The New York Times published Life and Times of John Updike, comprehensive collection of his work.

The Salon interview of master scribe John Updike.

Tags: books, john updike, writers