A Life in Letters

The arc of literary giant John Updike's life emerges in these luminous daily letters to family, friends, editors, and lovers – a remarkable outpouring over six decades, from his earliest consciousness as a writer to his final days.

In the words of his contemporary, Philip Roth, John Updike was 'Our time's greatest man of letters – as brilliant a literary critic and essayist as he was a novelist and short-story writer'.

Over the course of his long and immensely productive career, he also proved himself a brilliant correspondent, his letters filled with comic observations, opinions, and personal news, told in his characteristically elegant and exquisitely fluid style.

In this sparkling selection of his letters, edited by James Schiff, we can see Updike in real time, capturing every stage of his unspooling life, from Pennsylvania farm boy to Pulitzer prizewinner; and from young father negotiating his first book contract to the bestselling writer he became, following the international success of his novels Couples and the Rabbit sequence.

Here are letters to family, friends, editors, and lovers, a remarkable outpouring over six decades – including, most movingly perhaps, the letters of his final year bidding farewell to children, colleagues, and friends.

Taken together, these missives make a page-turning 'life in letters' like no other – an intimate testament to one of the greatest of all American writers.