Pennsylvania Will Always Be Home to Updike

As a keystone state, Pennsylvania has encompassed a unique character that has held a deep sentiment in the hearts of its residents, said celebrated author John Updike last night.

Updike, who was born in Shillington, Pa., told an audience at Bucknell's Weis Center for the Performing Arts that the good-hearted people, natural beauty, seasonal weather and central location of Pennsylvania cannot be found elsewhere in the United States.

"Pennsylvania is the best," he said. "I was very fortunate to be a Pennsylvanian...There is a deep sweet good nature about people I grew up with more than 50 years ago...It has an authentic taste of life-perfect weather, perfect location."

James Buchanan, Pennsylvania's only president of the United States, exemplified these special qualities of native Pennsylvanians, said Updike.

"James Buchanan has always shown me why Pennsylvania is so special, but I never could write a novel on him...To me, he was a lovable, sympathetic figure," he said.

Updike also said that he is currently working on another novel, adding that "there is always a little more to say even as old as I am."

Living in Massachusetts since 1957, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner made his first visit to Bucknell to receive The 2004 Janet Weis Fellow in Contemporary Letters award and lecture on his work.

In honoring Janet Weis for her philanthropy to the Bucknell community, the annual award was established through the Degenstein Foundation to recognize an author of the highest merit in fiction, non-fiction or biography. Novelist Toni Morrison was the first recipient of the award in 2002.

Updike, who has received only one other fellowship in his extensive writing career, said he was grateful to be recognized as a fellow once again.

"It's a good feeling to be a fellow again," he said. "It's been a long time between fellowships."

Critically acclaimed for his award-winning novels, particularly Rabbit Is Rich in 1981 and Rabbit At Rest in 1990, Updike has also been identified for his various short stories, poems and essays of literary criticism. Hundreds of his stories, reviews and poems have also made their way into The New York since the 1950s.

After exploring the post-war art scene in his 2002 book Seek My Face, Updike went on to publish The Early Stories 1953-1975 in October 2003 followed by Villages: A Novel a year later.

Later, Updike earned national recoginition for his prose with a visit to the White House in 2004 to receive the National Medal for the Humanities from President George W. Bush.

In 2005, he published Three Trips: The Short-Story Writer as Tourist and received the Carl Sandburg Lifetime Achievement Award along with The Paterson Fiction Prize.

This past June, he released his 22nd novel, Terrorist, which tells the story of a fervent, eighteen-year-old Muslim living in New Jersey.

Finishing off 2006, Updike accepted the Nashville Public Library Literary Award in November and hasn't let up on the gas pedal yet.

With more future achievements to come, Updike hasn't shown any signs of slowing down any time soon. And he may never.