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 daysIn 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