In literature there are many figures but few icons. John Updike published over 50 books which dug through the depths of suburban American lives, particularly our sex lives, once comparing a vagina to a ballet slipper. He contributed both fiction and non to the New Yorker for over half a century. All of his articles at the New York Review of Books, save one, must be purchased, a testament to his on-going value; he even fought with Phillip Roth in the letters page of the NYRB. He reviewed Franny and Zooey for the New York Times, back when J.D. Salinger published books. There are few interviews, though they exist, even in video. R.I.P.
