BBC NEWS | In Pictures | John Updike: Life in pictures

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21:10 GMT, Tuesday, 27 January 2009

John Updike: Life in pictures

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Pulitzer Prize winner John Updike has died at the age of 76, suffering from lung cancer. He was a prolific writer, completing 50 books during his long career.

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Updike's first novel, The Poorhouse Fair, was published in 1959, followed the next year by Rabbit, Run, introducing his most enduring, if not endearing, character, Harold "Rabbit" Angstrom.

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Among many accolades, John Updike, left, won the National Book Award in 1963 for his novel The Centaur, and critical acclaim continued.

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But he gained popular success with Couples, published in 1968, a tale of adultery among middle-class couples in a small New England town.

John Updike with child

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He was twice married and had four children. He died in a hospice near his home in Massachusetts, US.

John Updike in his study

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He said of his subject matter: "I try to make interesting narratives out of ordinary life by obscure and average Americans."

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