Higher Gossip: Essays and Criticism

by John Updike

Views in Rome and Its Environs (Lear)

  Vincent’s Chair with His Pipe (van Gogh)

  “Vins Fins” (Canin)

  Viol, Le (The Rape; Magritte), 17.1

  Virgin and Child, 14.1, 17.1, 17.2

  of Erhart

  of Riemenschneider, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3

  Virgins, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3

  Vision of the Last Judgment (Blake)

  Visions of the Daughters of Albion (Blake)

  Voices of Silence, The (Malraux)

  Voltaire, 8.1, 8.2, 15.1, 15.2

  Vonnegut, Kurt, 9.1, 21.1, 21.2

  Wadsworth Atheneum, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3

  Waggoner, Diane, 18.1, 18.2

  Waiting (Ha Jin)

  Walden (Thoreau)

  “Walking” (Thoreau)

  Wapshot Chronicle, The (Cheever)

  Ward, Nathaniel, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4, 20.5, 20.6

  War of the Worlds, The (Wells)

  Warren, Robert Penn

  War Trash (Ha Jin)

  Washerwoman, The (Chardin)

  Washington, D.C., 14.1, 16.1, 17.1

  see also

  Washington, George, 21.1, 21.2

  Waters, Thomas Franklin, 20.1, 20.2

  Water Spaniel (Chardin)

  Watteau, Jean Antoine

  Waugh, Evelyn, 8.1, 21.1

  Waves, The (Woolf)

  “Way We Live Now, The” (Sontag)

  Webb, Stephen H.

  Weimar Republic, 14.1, 17.1

  Wells, H. G., 9.1, 19.1, 19.2, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, 21.4

  Welty, Eudora, 1.1, 10.1, 10.2

  West, Benjamin

  Wharton, Edith, 11.1, 12.1

  Wharton, Teddy

  “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” (Oates)

  White, E. B., 10.1, 11.1, 21.1

  White, Harry Dexter

  White, Katharine, 10.1, 21.1, 21.2

  Whitman, Walt

  “Whoever Was Using This Bed” (Carver), 9.1, 9.2

  Wiener Werkstätte

  Wieseltier, Leon

  “Wife-Wooing” (Updike)

  wigs and hairpieces

  Wilcox, Scott

  Wilderness Society

  “Wild Plums” (Coates)

  William Maxwell: A Literary Life (Burkhardt)

  William Maxwell: Early Novels and Stories (Carduff, ed.)

  William Maxwell: Later Novels and Stories (Carduff, ed.), 11.1, 11.2

  Williams, Tennessee

  Williams, William Carlos

  Willkie, Wendell

  Wills, Garry

  Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (Carver)

  Wilson, Edmund, 11.1, 21.1

  Wind, Herbert Warren

  Window with a View of a Park (Friedrich)

  Winesburg, Ohio (Anderson)

  Winogrand, Garry

  Winthrop, John, Jr., 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4

  Wisconsin

  Wishart, George, 10.1, 10.2

  Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious (Freud)

  Witkovsky, Matthew S.

  Wizard of Oz, The (movie)

  Wodehouse, P. G., fwd.1, 10.1

  Wolfe, Tom, fwd.1, 9.1, 21.1, 21.2

  Woman, Old Man, and Flower (Ernst)

  Woman and Child in a Bleaching Ground, A (de Hooch), 14.1, 14.2

  Woman Drinking with Two Men and a Serving Woman, A (de Hooch)

  Woman Lacing Her Bodice Beside a Cradle (de Hooch)

  Woman Sealing a Letter (Chardin)

  Woman with a Baby in Her Lap, and a Small Child, A (de Hooch)

  “Women Who Got Away, The” (Updike)

  Woods, Tiger, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3

  “Woodworker, The” (Maxwell)

  Woolf, Virginia, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5

  Wordsworth, William, 15.1, 15.2, 21.1

  World As I See It, The (Einstein)

  World History of Erotic Art (Putnam series)

  World War I, 9.1, 10.1, 13.1, 13.2, 17.1, 17.2

  photography and, 18.1, 18.2

  Wharton and

  World War II, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 13.1, 13.2, 15.1, 17.1, 19.1, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3

  Friedrich’s resurgence and

  in The Story of a Marriage

  Wright, Joseph

  Wright, Richard, 10.1, 10.2

  “Writer in Winter, The” (Updike), fwd.1, fwd.2, 1.1

  Würzburg, 14.1, 14.2

  Wyeth, Andrew

  Wyeth, N. C.

  Yagoda, Ben

  Yale Center for British Art, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3

  Yardley, Jonathan

  Yellow Jacket, The (Homer)

  Young, Edward

  Young Woman (Seurat)

  You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (musical comedy)

  “You’re Ugly Too” (Moore)

  Your Lover Just Called (Updike)

  “Zelig” (Rosenblatt)

  Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl (Polidori)

  Zur Farbenlehre (Goethe)

  Illustration Credits

  The photographs and images reproduced in this book were provided with the permission and courtesy of the following:

  Ill.1: Riemenschneider, Saint Barbara. Private collection. Photograph by Bruce White Photography, Caldwell, N.J.

  Ill.2: Riemenschneider, Virgin and Child. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg. Photograph copyright © Kiemer und Kiemer, Hamburg.

  Ill.3: El Greco, The Crucifixion with Two Donors. The Louvre, Paris. Image courtesy of Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.4: De Hooch, A Mother and Child with Its Head in Her Lap, or A Mother’s Duty. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Image courtesy of bpk, Berlin/Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/ Alinari/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.5: De Hooch, A Merry Company with Two Men and Two Women, or The Visit (detail). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.7). Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.6: Chardin, A Mallard Drake Hanging on a Wall and a Seville Orange. Le Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris. Image courtesy of Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.7: Chardin, Saying Grace (La Bénédicité). The Louvre, Paris. Photograph by Hervé Lewandowski, courtesy of Réunion des Musées Nationaux /Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.8: Blake, Christ Offers to Redeem Man (from Milton’s Paradise Lost). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photograph copyright 2011 © by The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

  Ill.9, Ill.10: Friedrich, Two Men by the Sea at Moonrise and On the Sailboat. Photographs by Vladimir Terebenin, Leonard Kheifets, and Yuri Molodkovets, copyright © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

  Ill.11: Turner, Fisherman at Sea. Tate Gallery, London. Image courtesy of Tate/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.12: Købke, The Landscape Painter F. Sødring. The Hirschprung Collection, Copenhagen. Image copyright © 2011 by SMK Foto.

  Ill.13, Ill.14: Købke, Ida Thiele (The Future Mrs. Wilde as a Child) and Professor F. C. Sibbern. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. Images copyright © SMK Foto.

  Ill.15, Ill.16: Lear, Garf Hossayn and On the Road, Two Hours from Tepelene. The Yale Center of British Art, New Haven, gift of Donald C. Gallup, B.A. 1934, Ph.D. 1939. Images courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art.

  Ill.17: After Moran, Katahdin from the South Shore of the Lake. Image courtesy of Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

  Ill.18: After Homer, The Artist in the Country. Image courtesy of the University of Michigan and the Making of America collection (http://moa.umdl.umich.edu).

  Ill.19: Van Gogh, The Blute-Fin Mill. The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. Image courtesy of the Phillips Collection. All rights reserved.

  Ill.20: Van Gogh, Street in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1948 (48.190.1). Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.21: Van Gogh, from a letter to Émile Bernard, March 18
, 1888, illustrated with a sketch, Drawbridge with Walking Couple. Autograph letter, signed. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, gift of Eugene V. Thaw in honor of Charles E. Pierce Jr., 2007 (MA 6441.2). Image courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.22: Seurat, Aman-Jean. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bequest of Stephen C. Clark, 1960 (61.101.16). Image copyright © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.23: Seurat, Seated Woman with a Parasol. The Art Institute of Chicago, bequest of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1999 (1999.7). Image copyright © The Art Institute of Chicago.

  Ill.24, Ill.25: Schiele, Nude Self-Portrait and Reclining Female with Spread Legs. The Leopold Collection, Vienna. Images courtesy of the Leopold Collection.

  Ill.26: Klimt, The Dancer. Private collection. Image courtesy of Neue Galerie New York.

  Ill.27: Gerstl, Portrait of a Man on the Lawn. Private collection. Image courtesy of Neue Galerie New York.

  Ill.28: Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Front of Red Curtain. Private collection. Copyright © 2011 by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG BildKunst, Bonn. Photograph by Hermann Buresch, courtesy bpk, Berlin/Hermann Buresch/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.29: Ernst, Celebes. Tate Modern, London. Copyright © 2011 by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Image courtesy of Tate/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.30: Ernst, The Blessed Virgin Chastises the Infant Jesus Before Three Witnesses. Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud, Cologne. Copyright © 2011 by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Image courtesy of Snark/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.31: Magritte, La Trahison des images. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection (78.7). Copyright © C. Herscovici, London/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image copyright © 2009 by Museum Associates/LACMA/Art Resource, N.Y.

  Ill.32: Magritte, L’Aube désarmée (after Les Jours gigantesques). The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Copyright © C. Herscovici, London/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital image by J. Geleyns/www.roscans.be, copyright © The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

  Ill.33: Elder Neville, Jean Ipoustéguy, 1999. Photograph copyright © Elder Neville/ Corbis Sygma. Sculpture (Ecbatane) copyright © Jean Robert Ipoustéguy/ADAGP, Paris.

  Ill.34: Photographer unknown, Untitled (Blurred bike in air), c. 1930. Gelatin silver print. The National Gallery of Art, gift of Robert E. Jackson. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

  Ill.35: Photographer unknown, Untitled (Boy’s head in pipe), c. 1920s. Gelatin silver print. Collection of Robert E. Jackson. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

  Ill.36: Photographer unknown, Untitled (Couple kissing off-center), September 22, 1953. Gelatin silver print. Collection of Robert E. Jackson. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

  Ill.37: Photographer unknown, Untitled (Woman with hands over face in field), c. 1950s. Gelatin silver print. The National Gallery of Art, Vital Projects Fund. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

  Ill.38, Ill.39: Polidori, 5417 Marigny Street and 6328 North Miro Street. Copyright © 2006 by Robert Polidori. Photographs courtesy of Robert Polodori and the Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.

  A Note About the Author

  John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of The New Yorker, and after 1957 he lived in Massachusetts. He was the father of four children and the author of more than fifty books, including collections of short stories, poems, and criticism. His novels have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Rosenthal Award, and the Howells Medal. A previous collection of essays and reviews, Hugging the Shore, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He died in January 2009.

  A Note About the Editor

  Christopher Carduff was born in 1956, in Kansas City, Missouri. Since graduating from Macalester College in 1979 he has worked in publishing in New York and Boston, and is currently an editor at The Library of America. He lives in Melrose, Massachusetts.

  Also by John Updike

  POEMS

  The Carpentered Hen (1958) • Telephone Poles (1963) • Midpoint (1969) • Tossing and Turning (1977) • Facing Nature (1985) • Collected Poems 1953–1993 (1993) • Americana (2001) • Endpoint (2009)

  NOVELS

  The Poorhouse Fair (1959) • Rabbit, Run (1960) • The Centaur (1963) • Of the Farm (1965) • Couples (1968) • Rabbit Redux (1971) • A Month of Sundays (1975) • Marry Me (1976) • The Coup (1978) • Rabbit Is Rich (1981) • The Witches of Eastwick (1984) • Roger’s Version (1986) • S. (1988) • Rabbit at Rest (1990) • Memories of the Ford Administration (1992) • Brazil (1994) • In the Beauty of the Lilies (1996) • Toward the End of Time (1997) • Gertrude and Claudius (2000) • Seek My Face (2002) • Villages (2004) • Terrorist (2006) • The Widows of Eastwick (2008)

  SHORT STORIES

  The Same Door (1959) • Pigeon Feathers (1962) • Olinger Stories (a selection, 1964) • The Music School (1966) • Bech: A Book (1970) • Museums and Women (1972) • Problems (1979) • Too Far to Go (a selection, 1979) • Bech Is Back (1982) • Trust Me (1987) • The Afterlife (1994) • Bech at Bay (1998) • Licks of Love (2000) • The Complete Henry Bech (2001) • The Early Stories: 1953–1975 (2003) • My Father’s Tears (2009) • The Maples Stories (2009)

  ESSAYS AND CRITICISM

  Assorted Prose (1965) • Picked-Up Pieces (1975) • Hugging the Shore (1983) • Just Looking (1989) • Odd Jobs (1991) • Golf Dreams (1996) • More Matter (1999) • Still Looking (2005) • Due Considerations (2007) • Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu (2010)

  PLAY MEMOIRS

  Buchanan Dying (1974) Self-Consciousness (1989)

  CHILDREN’S BOOKS

  The Magic Flute (1962) • The Ring (1964) • A Child’s Calendar (1965) • Bottom’s Dream (1969) • A Helpful Alphabet of Friendly Objects (1996)