MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 03144cam a2200361 i 4500
001 2013039246
003 DLC
005 20140917191145.0
008 131104s2014 nyuaf b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2013039246
020 $a9780061896453 (hardback)
040 $aDLC$beng$cDLC$erda$dDLC
042 $apcc
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aPS3571.P4$bZ556 2013
082 00 $a813/.54$aB$223
084 $aBIO007000$aBIO000000$aLIT004020$2bisacsh
100 1 $aBegley, Adam.
245 10 $aUpdike /$cAdam Begley.
250 $aFirst Edition.
264 1 $aNew York :$bHarper,$c[2014]
300 $axiii, 558 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$2rdacarrier
520 $a"Updike is Adam Begley's masterful, much-anticipated biography of one of the most celebrated figures in American literature: Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike--a candid, intimate, and richly detailed look at his life and work.In this magisterial biography, Adam Begley offers an illuminating portrait of John Updike, the acclaimed novelist, poet, short-story writer, and critic who saw himself as a literary spy in small-town and suburban America, who dedicated himself to the task of transcribing "middleness with all its grits, bumps and anonymities."Updike explores the stages of the writer's pilgrim's progress: his beloved home turf of Berks County, Pennsylvania; his escape to Harvard; his brief, busy working life as the golden boy at The New Yorker; his family years in suburban Ipswich, Massachusetts; his extensive travel abroad; and his retreat to another Massachusetts town, Beverly Farms, where he remained until his death in 2009. Drawing from in-depth research as well as interviews with the writer's colleagues, friends, and family, Begley explores how Updike's fiction was shaped by his tumultuous personal life--including his enduring religious faith, his two marriages, and his first-hand experience of the "adulterous society" he was credited with exposing in the bestselling Couples.With a sharp critical sensibility that lends depth and originality to his analysis, Begley probes Updike's best-loved works--from Pigeon Feathers to The Witches of Eastwick to the Rabbit tetralogy--and reveals a surprising and deeply complex character fraught with contradictions: a kind man with a vicious wit, a gregarious charmer who was ruthlessly competitive, a private person compelled to spill his secrets on the printed page. Updike offers an admiring yet balanced look at this national treasure, a master whose writing continues to resonate like no one else's"--$cProvided by publisher.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 491-536) and index.
600 10 $aUpdike, John.
650 0 $aAuthors, American$y20th century$vBiography.
650 7 $aBIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aBIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aLITERARY CRITICISM / American / General.$2bisacsh
856 42 $3Cover image$uwww.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/tiff/3/9780061896453.tif