Buchanan Dying: A Play

A Play

Author: John Updike

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Description

To the list of John Updike's well-intentioned protagonists—Rabbit Angstrom, George Caldwell, Piet Hanema, Henry Bech—add James Buchanan, seen above as a young Congressman in the 1820's, and on the front cover as the harried fifteenth President of the United States (1857-1861). In a play meant to be read, Buchanan's political and private lives are represented as aspects of his spiritual life, whose crowning, condensing act is the act of dying. A wide-ranging Afterword rounds out the dramatic portrait of one of America's lesser known, and least appreciated, leaders.

Critic Reviews

“"An abundant, even opulent, creative act . . . Very often Mr. Updike's fantastic talent for mimicry produces quite marvelous results."-Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Atlantic Monthly ”

"An abundant, even opulent, creative act . . . Very often Mr. Updike's fantastic talent for mimicry produces quite marvelous results."--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Atlantic Monthly "Using the excuse of nineteenth-century speech, Updike has indulged his love of beautiful, ornate prose; we can sink deep into sentences balanced like mobiles and turned like pots on the wheel."--Chicago Tribune

"In the real-life figure of the too hastily judged James Buchanan . . . Updike has at last found vehicles for his gifts of compassion and capacity to create characters 'in the round.' "--Financial Times

About the Author

John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvan

John Updike was born in 1932, in Shillington, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a yia. He graduated from Harvard College in 1954, and spent a year in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and ear in Oxford, England, at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of Fine Art. From 1955 to 1957 he was a member of the staff of "The New Yorker, " and since 1957 has lived in Massachusetts"The New Yorker, " and since 1957 has lived in Massachusetts. H