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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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 OBITUARY 
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John Updike Dies at 76

Pulitzer winner suffered from lung cancer, publisher says

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(AP) – John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters, and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce, and other adventures in postwar America, died today of lung cancer at age 76. A literary force who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, Updike penned novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir Self-Consciousness, and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams.

An old-fashioned believer in hard work, he published more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s. Updike won virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, and two National Book Awards.

John Updike here with Joy Williams, Grace Paley, foreground, and Joyce Carol Oates, has died.
John Updike here with Joy Williams, Grace Paley, foreground, and Joyce Carol Oates, has died.   (Rea Awards)
Author John Updike is dead at 76.
Author John Updike is dead at 76.   (Alfred A. Knopf)
Author John Updike, here in a 2006 file photo, Updike, died today of lung cancer, according to a statement from his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. He was 76.
Author John Updike, here in a 2006 file photo, Updike, died today of lung cancer, according to a statement from his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf. He was 76.   (AP Photo)
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