John Updike's Pennsylvania Interviews

Updike remains both a critical and popular success, however, because Updike asked that his personal letters not be published the only way that Updike scholars and fans can read more of the author’s candid and insightful remarks is to revisit some of the many interviews he granted—most of which are difficult to locate or obtain. Updike wrote about his home town of Reading in Berks County, Pennsylvania for much of his adult life, setting most of his early fiction and all of his award-winning novels in his home state. In Native Son: John Updike’s Pennsylvania Interviews James Plath has compiled the first collection of interviews  that illustrates and helps to explain the bond between one of America’s greatest literary talents and his beloved Pennsylvania. Included in this volume are articles published in the Sunday Bulletin, the Reading Eagle and Reading Times, Pittsburgh Press, Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Comenian (Moravian College), and Berks County Living; interviews conducted for Philadelphia’s WHYY Radio program Fresh Air, WPSU-TV; and question and answer sessions conducted at  Franklin & Marshall College, Moravian College and Ursinus College.