John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 - January 27 2009) was an American
novelist,
poet,
short story writer,
art critic, and
literary critic. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series (
Rabbit, Run;
Rabbit Redux;
Rabbit Is Rich;
Rabbit At Rest; and
Rabbit Remembered).
Rabbit is Rich and
Rabbit at Rest received the
Pulitzer Prize. Describing his subject as "the American small town,
Protestant middle class," Updike was widely recognized for his careful craftsmanship, his highly stylistic writing, and his prolific output, having published more than twenty-five novels and more than a dozen short story collections, as well as
poetry,
art criticism,
literary criticism and children's books. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems appeared in
The New Yorker, starting in 1954. He also wrote regularly for
The New York Review of Books. His work attracted a significant amount of
critical attention and he was considered one of the most prominent contemporary American novelists.