All of the staff and board at the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine express their profound sorrow at the death of John Updike.
Although many people knew him as a prolific novelist, Updike also wrote and published several books of poetry. Some of his poems were printed in Poetry magazine. He is, in fact, the author of this site’s most popular poem, Ex-Basketball Player. We spoke to him about the poem’s popularity a few years ago. You can read what he had to say here.
You can also listen to Eliza Foss read Updike’s short poem “Food” here.
We will miss him.
My name links to a Scientific American obit.
Posted By: Aaron Fagan on January 28, 2009 at 4:52 pmMy favorite poem of his that Poetry published is Saying Goodbye to Very Young Children:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=30077
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There’s a perfect quote about Updike, by Martin Amis, posted here.
Posted By: Jason Guriel on January 30, 2009 at 9:08 amReport this comment
In case I screwed up the HTML, the quote’s at vehiculepress.blogspot.com.
Posted By: Jason Guriel on January 30, 2009 at 12:03 pmReport this comment
Ah, that is so nice. Not many comments on this post, though a couple of anodyne Facebook comments seemed to provoke strong reactions! People seem to have moved on to a different aesthetic, btu you cannot deny that Updike was huge, and hugely important and influential upon us, the next generation. Less so with poets than novelists, but even so. I love your gracious message.
Posted By: Ms Broque on February 5, 2009 at 6:35 amReport this comment