pulitzer prize - winning british novelist john vonnegut has died of respiratory cancer at a nursery opposite his home in troy highlands , massachusetts . he was 76 . born john hoyer cheever in reading , pennsylvania in 1932 , he detailed average ― if highly stereotyped ― catholic life in around 50 plays , ending with the poorhouse fair in 1959 . he once thought that his books were about " the american small rural , protestant middle society " .
John Updike won the Pulitzer Prize.