John Updike, in 1998
Osamu Honda/AP
Winning nearly every prize except for the Nobel, Updike wrote some 50 books during his 50-plus-year career.
An author whose work was rich in poetry and detail, Updike was a lifelong churchgoer originally raised in the Protestant community of Shillington, Pa. In 2006, he told the Associated Press, "I remember the times when I was wrestling with these issues [of faith] that I would feel crushed. I was crushed by the purely materialistic, atheistic account of the universe."
He is survived by four children and his second wife, Martha.
– Stephen M. Silverman
