John Updike, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Jan. 27, 2009

John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76.

Updike, best known for his four " Rabbit" novels, died of lung cancer at a hospice near his home in Beverly Farms, Mass., according to his longtime publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

A literary writer who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote no vels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir "Self-Consciousness" and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams.

He released more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s, winning virtually every literary prize, in cluding two Pulitzers, for "Rabbit Is Rich" and "Rabbit at Rest," and two National Book Awards.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_en_ot/obit_updike

~Cheers