Being able to write becomes a kind of shield, a way of hiding, a way of too instantly transforming pain into honey.

He once wrote that it was "a subject which if I have not exhausted has exhausted me. His mother's attempts to be a publiJohn Updiked writer influenced the young Updike's own aspirations. Later Updike and his family relocated to Ipswich Massachusetts.

John Hoyer Updike (18 March 1932 – 27 January 2009) was an American novelist poet short story writer art critic and literary critic. Hundreds of his stories reviews and poems appeared in The New Yorker starting in 1954. Describing his subject as "the American small town Protestant middle class" Updike was well recognized for his careful craftsmanship his unique prose style and his prolificity.