Heartfelt appreciation …

… These Days I Miss John Updike, a Remote and Noble Male Mentor - The New York Times. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

At first Updike bristled at the subject matter of my thesis — I was writing about fathers and children of divorce in his stories and Richard Ford’s novels — warning me not to assume that his fiction was memoir (as he warned many others). But he gradually warmed and, on and off, became a faithful and gracious correspondent, a gentle and perhaps unintentional mentor.

See also: "Why time isn’t up for Updike" - Google Search.