Poet, literary critic and Pulitzer Prize winning author John Updike died at the age of 76 on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. His publisher issued a statement saying that Updike had died of lung cancer at a hospice in Massachusetts.KTAR.com: John Updike, Prize-Winning Writer, Dead at age 76 (January 27, 2009)Boston.com: Acclaimed Writer John Updike Dies at 76 (January 27, 2009)

Updike published over 50 books during his career, including collections of essays, poems and criticisms beginning in the 1950s.KTAR.com: John Updike, Prize-Winning Writer, Dead at age 76 (January 27, 2009)Random House: John Updike Updike's highly acclaimed Rabbit series of novels about an ex-high school basketball star named "Harry 'Rabbit' Angstron" spanned over 30 years.KTAR.com: John Updike, Prize-Winning Writer, Dead at age 76 (January 27, 2009)

After being encouraged by his mother to write, Updike entered Harvard University on a full scholarship and graduated summa cum laude. After a brief flirtation with graphic arts following graduation, Updike worked for two years at The New Yorker - a magazine that published hundreds of his short stories, articles, essays, and reviews over the last forty years. Like Philip Roth, Updike has written a series of novels with recurring, semi-autobiographical characters, such as his Rabbit books and his short stories which feature The Maples.

• 1981: Rabbit Is Rich
• 1990: Rabbit At Rest
• 2003: The Early Stories 1953—1975
• 2008: Terrorist

• "And another regrettable thing about death
• is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
• which took a whole life to develop and market —
• the quips, the witticisms, the slant
• adjusted to a few...
• The jokes over the phone. The memories
• packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
• Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
• imitators and descendants aren't the same.""—John UpdikeJudith Pordon: [http://judithpordon.tripod.com/poetry/john_updike_perfection_wasted.html "Perfection Wasted'}