demonstrated that he is not only one of the most important
American writers of the twentieth centur y but also one of the
giants of modern literature.
In 1990, John Updike publishedRabbit at Rest, the se-
quel to his three previous novels on his most famous
fictional character, American everyman Harry “Rab-
bit” Angstrom. This novel, which portrays the end of
Rabbit’s life, won the Pulitzer Prize and other presti-
gious awards. The four “Rabbit” novels, which in
1995 were published in one volume asRabbit Ang-
strom, can be considered one “mega-novel” that viv-
idly portrays the changes that occur in American so-
ciety over four decades.
After publishingOdd Jobs(1991), a collection of es-
says and criticism, Updike publishedMemories of the
Ford Administration(1992), a novel with a protagonist
writing a book on U.S. president James Buchanan. In
1993, Updike’sCollected Poems, 1953-1993appeared.
Although Updike is widely admired as a stylist with a
love of metaphor and eloquent language, his poetry,
like his prose, is accessible to the general reader. In
1994, he publishedThe Afterlife, and Other Storiesas
well as a novel,Brazil, which recounts a contemporary
love story inspired by the medieval story of Tristan
and Isolde. Two years later, he publishedIn the Beauty
of the Lilies, a novel that chronicles the saga of an
American family over four generations and focuses
on religion, sex, money, and the cinema. In 1997, his
futuristic fantasyToward the End of Timeappeared. The
next year, he publishedBech at Bay: A Quasi-Novel,
which includes comic episodes in the life of the Jew-
ish American novelist Henry Bech, a composite of
several famous Jewish American novelists. In 1999, his
More Matter: Essays and Criticismwas published; the vol-
ume includes more than nine hundred pages of non-
fiction essays, reviews, and introductions written dur-
ing the 1990’s.
Impact Recognized as a brilliant stylist with his
magisterial command of exquisite prose that ranges
from meticulous realism to exuberant fantasy, Up-
dike captured the essence of the culture of each de-
cade in post-World War II America. His work has not
only described and interpreted American culture
but also helped to shape it. Although his subject mat-
ter and writing style demonstrate great versatility, he
is especially admired for his ability to reveal with
scrupulous precision the interior lives of people
struggling with problems involving marriage, adul-
tery, divorce, and family.
Further Reading
Olster, Stacey, ed.The Cambridge Companion to John
Updike. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2006.
Pritchard, William.Updike: America’s Man of Letters.
Hanover, N.H.: Steerforth Press, 2000.
Schiff, James A. John Updike Revisited. Boston:
Twayne, 1998.
Allan ChavkinSee also Literature in the United States; Poetry. UPN television network
Identification Network television station
Date Aired 1995-2006
The UPN was the fifth major television network, competing
with ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.
The United Paramount Network (UPN) formed
when Paramount partnered with Chris-Craft Indus-
tries. In 1994, Columbia Broadcasting System’s
(CBS) Evan Thompson and Chris-Craft’s Herbert
Siegel became 50/50 partners; hoping to re-create
the recent success of the Fox network, they decided
to begin a fifth television network.
Paramount was interested in starting what it
hoped would be “the first network for the first cen-
tury.” Because Paramount owned some established
first-run syndicated shows—Entertainment Tonight,
The Arsenio Hall Show,Friday the 13th: The Series,
Moesha, and twoStar Trekshows,The Next Generation
andDeep Space Nine—the premiere season was ex-
pected to be successful. The plan was to run these
syndicated shows and others developed in-house.
On January 16, 1995, the UPN launched with the
two-hour broadcast ofStar Trek: Voyager, achieving
what would be the highest ratings in the network’s
history, outperforming the other four networks.
Following Fox’s lead, Paramount purchased a
group of unaffiliated stations and contracted with
other independent networks to become part of the
UPN family. Paramount began filming original
shows, such asNowhere Man,The Sentinel,Legend, and
The Marker, and also produced made-for-TV movies,
mostly science fiction. However, UPN never again
achieved the ratings success of its first telecast, and
none of its first-season shows made it to a second sea-
son. Many of the network’s problems stemmed from884 UPN television network The Nineties in America