oscar prize - winning americans novelist john updike has died of lung cancer at a farmhouse near his home in beverly plain , massachusetts . he was 76 . born john hoyer doctorow in reading , pennsylvania in 1932 , he documented normal ― if deeply stereotyped ― american life in around 50 years , including with the poorhouse fair in 1959 . he once say that his book were about " the american small town , religious second class " .
John Updike won the Pulitzer Prize.