Modern Books and Manuscripts

The career of John Updike (1932-2009), Harvard ‘54, is well known: more than 50 books of fiction, poetry, short stories, and criticism; two Pulitzer Prizes; four National Book Awards; and a host of other honors. He is, indisputably, one of America’s pre-eminent men of letters. To honor his many contributions to his alma mater, Houghton Library has mounted a small exhibition, John Updike’s Harvard, with items drawn from Updike’s own archive and from other Houghton collections. Included are his yearbook, a Lampoon cover he drew, a short story with comments by his English professor, Albert Guerard, and more.

This exhibition is free and open to the public.

Image, above, John Updike as a Harvard senior, 1954   Image, below, Updike (left) with his staff at the Harvard Lampoon, 1954.    Both images © Harvard Yearbook Publications. Images may not be reproduced without permission.

The John Updike’s Harvard by Modern Books and Manuscripts, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at blogs.law.harvard.edu.