John Updike at Rest
January 28, 2009 at 10:28 am Alan Janesch 3 comments
A page from Updike's "Buchanan Dying" manuscript, housed in Pattee Library (click to see larger)
I used to joke that John Updike wrote his novels and many other works faster than I could read them. Now, sadly, with his death yesterday, I have a chance of reading them all, since there will be no more. But I wish there would be.
Updike has been one of my all-time favorite writers since the early 1970s, when I read Rabbit Redux as an exchange student in Germany. Though the novel deals with many serious and troubling issues, for me it was for a kind of refuge from my struggles with my studies (all in German) and a link back to my home state of Pennsylvania. (Updike and I are from neighboring counties, me from Lehigh, him from Berks.)
As a grad student at Penn State I worked with the original manuscripts of Updike’s play, Buchanan Dying, in Penn State’s special collections library. Updike was kind enough to respond to a letter I wrote him about the play, and a few years ago, I met him and we chatted a bit. He was affable, approachable, courtly, self-effacing—and a bit elusive. I was lucky to meet him.
Alan Janesch is director of the Alumni Association’s Grassroots Network and an occasional contributor to this blog. You can read the New York Times story about Updike’s death here.
Entry filed under: Alumni Association, Pattee Library. Tags: Berks County, Grassroots Network, John Updike, Lehigh County, Rabbit Redux.
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1. Nichola Gutgold | January 28, 2009 at 11:45 am
I enjoyed reading Alan Janesch’s comments about the late John Updike and I admire the important research he conducted with the manuscripts from Buchanan Dying. Updike’s “Rabbit” series was required reading for me as an undergraduate English major at King’s College. I remember thinking about how carefully and poignantly Updike wrote about what are often mundane domestic circumstances and routines. Thanks for the memories.
2. coffee | January 30, 2009 at 1:43 am
the loss of John Updike makes me wonder if the literary world is being replenished at the same rate that it’s losing such great writers
3. More on Updike, from Chip Kidd « The Penn Stater | January 30, 2009 at 1:16 pm
[...] the expected slew of John Updike tributes, including one from our Alumni Association colleague Alan Janesch. Today, the Web magazine Slate offers a few more, one of which is penned by Penn State alumus Chip [...]