in England, a literary idol, E.B. White, offered him a position at The New Yorker, where he served briefly as foreign books reviewer. Many of Updike's reviews and short stories were published in The New Yorker, often edited by White's stepson, Roger Angell.

"No writer was more important to the soul of The New Yorker than John," New Yorker editor David Remnick said in a statement. "We adored him. He was, for so long, the spirit of The New Yorker and it is very hard to imagine things without him."

By the end of the 1950s, Updike had published a story collection, a book of poetry and his first novel, "The Poorhouse Fair," soon followed by the first of the Rabbit books, "Rabbit, Run." Praise came so early and so often that New York Times critic Arthur Mizener worried that Updike's "natural talent" was exposing him "from an early age to a great deal of head-turning praise."

Updike learned to write about everyday life by, in part, living it. In 1957, he left New York, with its "cultural hassle" and melting pot of "agents and wisenheimers," and settled with his first wife and four kids in Ipswich, Mass, a "rather out-of-the-way town" about 30 miles north of Boston.

"The real America seemed to me 'out there,' too heterogeneous and electrified by now to pose much threat of the provinciality that people used to come to New York to escape," Updike later wrote.

"There were also practical attractions: free parking for my car, public education for my children, a beach to tan my skin on, a church to attend without seeming too strange."

In recent years, his books included "The Widows of Eastwick," a sequel to "The Witches of Eastwick"; and two essay collections, "Still Looking" and "Due Considerations." A book of short fiction, "My Father's Tears and Other Stories," is scheduled to come out later this year.

His standing within the literary community may never have been greater than in 2006 when he delivered a passionate defense of bookstores and words, words on paper, at publishing's annual national convention. Responding to a recent New York Times essay predicting a digital future, he scorned this "pretty grisly scenario" and praised the paper book as the site of an "encounter, in silence, of two minds."

"So, booksellers, defend your lonely forts," he concluded.

His speech was applauded, discussed and widely quoted, far more than the talk given at the same breakfast gathering by then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Some works by John Updike

By The Associated Press

"The Poorhouse Fair," 1959

"Rabbit, Run," 1960

"The Centaur," 1963.

"Of the Farm," 1965.

"Couples," 1968.

"Bech, a Book," 1970.

"Rabbit, Redux," 1971.

"A Month of Sundays," 1975.

"Marry Me," 1977.

"The Coup," 1978.

"Rabbit is Rich," 1981.

"Bech is Back," 1982.

"The Witches of Eastwick," 1984.

"Roger's Version," 1986.

"S.", 1988

"Rabbit At Rest," 1990.

"Memories of the Ford Administration," 1992.

"Brazil," 1994.

"In the Beauty of the Lilies," 1996.

"Toward the End of Time," 1997.

"Bech At Bay," 1998.

"Gertrude and Claudius," 2000.

"Seek My Face," 2003

"Villages," 2004.

"Terrorist," 2006

"The Widows of Eastwick," 2008.

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Short Stories

"The Same Door," 1959.

"A & P," 1961.

"Pigeon Feathers," 1962.

"The Music School," 1966.

"Museums And Women," 1972.

"Problems," 1979.

"Too Far To Go," 1979.

"Trust Me," 1987.

"The Afterlife," 1994.

"Licks of Love," 2001.

"The Early Stories: 1953-1975," 2003.

"My Father's Tears and Other Stories," 2009.

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Poetry

"Ex-Basketball Player," 1957.

"The Carpentered Hen," 1958.

"Telephone Poles," 1963.

"Midpoint," 1969.

"Dance of the Solids," 1969.

"Tossing and Turning," 1977.

"Facing Nature," 1985.

"Collected Poems: 1953-1993," 1993.

"Americana: and Other Poems," 2001.

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Nonfiction