pulitzer prize - winning american director john updike has succumbed of lung cancer at a vineyard near his place in beverly farms , massachusetts . he was 76 . born henry hoyer updike in carlisle , berkshire in 1932 , he documented poor ― if highly ritualized ― jewish life in his 50 works , beginning with the poorhouse common in 1959 . he once said that his books were about " the american small town , jewish elementary class " .
John Updike won the Pulitzer Prize.