Updike, John

Japanese: アップダイク（英語表記）Updike, John

Born March 18, 1932 in Reading, Pennsylvania
[Died] January 27, 2009. Danvers, Massachusetts. American novelist and poet. Full name John Hoyer Updike. He began writing as a child, and after graduating summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1954, he went on to art school in Oxford, England, with the aim of becoming a painter, but returned to Japan a year later. He joined the staff of The New Yorker magazine and published short stories, poems, and essays. After publishing his first collection of poems, The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures (1958), he won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for his novel The Poorhouse Fair (1958) and the National Book Award for The Centaur (1963), which uses mythology to depict the barren lives of modern people. Other works he has written include Rabbit, Run (1960), about a young man who plans to escape from his meaningless daily life; Couples (1968), a popular work about the empty sexuality of an intelligent young couple living in the suburbs; Bech: A Book (1970); the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit at Rest (1990); and the short story collection Pigeon Feathers (1962). In these works, he portrayed the customs of modern America in a sophisticated and stylish style. (→American Literature)

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

[生]1932.3.18. ペンシルバニア，レディング
[没]2009.1.27. マサチューセッツ，ダンバーズ
アメリカ合衆国の小説家，詩人。フルネーム John Hoyer Updike。子供の頃から創作を始め，1954年ハーバード大学を最優等で卒業後，画家を志してイギリスのオックスフォードの美術学校に進んだが 1年後に帰国。雑誌『ニューヨーカー』のスタッフとなり，短編，詩，随筆を発表。第一詩集『手作りの雌鶏』The Carpentered Hen and Other Tame Creatures（1958）を出版後，小説『プアハウス・フェア』The Poorhouse Fair（1958）でアメリカ芸術院賞，神話をふまえて現代人の不毛な生を描いた『ケンタウロス』The Centaur（1963）で全米図書賞を受賞。そのほか，無意味な日常生活からの逃亡を企てる青年を主人公とする『走れウサギ』Rabbit, Run（1960），郊外に住む知的な若夫婦たちの空虚な性を扱った話題作『カップルズ』Couples（1968），『ベック』Bech: A Book（1970），ピュリッツァー賞を受賞した『金持になったウサギ』Rabbit Is Rich（1981）と『さようならウサギ』Rabbit at Rest（1990），短編集『鳩の羽根』Pigeon Feathers（1962）などがあり，現代アメリカの風俗を巧緻でしゃれた文体で描いた。（→アメリカ文学）

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