John Updike called his letters dull. They’re anything but.
UC's James Schiff publishes first collection of John Updike’s letters
University of Cincinnati English professor James Schiff, founding editor of The John Updike Review, has edited the first published collection of correspondence from one of America’s most celebrated writers.
Cover of "Selected Letters of John Updike". Photo/Amazon
Schiff’s book, “Selected Letters of John Updike”, reveals new insight into the novelist’s private and professional life through 700 letters drawn from more than 25,000 Updike is estimated to have written.
The volumne, reviewed recently in The New York Times, spans Updike’s life and career — from early exchanges with his mother, a fellow writer, to candid notes with wives and lovers, to letters with literary contemporaries including Philip Roth, Alice Munro, Norman Mailer, and Ian McEwan. Schiff’s work offers a rare look at the author’s humor, insecurities and fierce devotion to craft, providing what The Times calls “an enormous and beneficent bounty” for anyone interested in American literature of the past half-century.
A Cincinnati native, Schiff earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Duke University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from New York University, specializing in 20th century American literature. He has written or edited six books on contemporary fiction, including “Updike’s Version: Rewriting ‘The Scarlet Letter’” and “John Updike Revisited,” and serves as series editor of The John Updike Review, the only academic journal devoted to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. His scholarship has appeared in journals including American Literature, The Southern Review and Studies in American Fiction.
With “Selected Letters of John Updike,” Schiff continues UC’s tradition of advancing literary scholarship, illuminating the voice and correspondence of a writer who helped define postwar American fiction.
Read the NYT article here. (The NYT is a subscription publication. If you would like a pdf of the article, or other subscription articles below, please email angela.koenig@uc.edu).
Additional reviews include:
The Wall Stree Journal: Selected Letters of John Updike’ Review: Restless Correspondent
The Hudson Review: John Updike’s Letters
The book is available on amazon.com.
Featured image at top courtesy of iStock Photo.
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