That Explains Why He’s Got A Story There Every Couple of Weeks

The Guardian profiles John Updike and reveals, among other things, the writer’s competitive side.

If Updike’s name now commands respect throughout New York and beyond, it is in part thanks to the magazine inseparably identified with the city. He has been a contributor to the New Yorker for half a century and shows no signs of drying up. “John is very competitive with the younger writers,” says Roger Angell, who has been his editor for fiction at the New Yorker since 1976. “For about 20 years he’s thought he’s on the brink of not being able to write any more short fiction. If I mention that we’ve got a story by a terrific young writer, he’ll say, ‘Oh really’, and within a couple of weeks he’ll send in a wonderful short story.”

Read it here.