UPDIKE GONE

American literary icon John Updike dead at 76.

According to his longtime publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, the multiple Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Witches of Eastwick , a resident of Beverly Farms, Mass., died of lung cancer.

The author of more than 50 books, Updike, a novelist, essayist and poet, letters was equally adept in analyzing Hamlet as well as the batting stance of Ted Williams.

Updike is best known for Rabbit Run, one of TIME magaine's 100 Best English-language Novels as well as several sequels including Rabbit Redux.

The novel was turned into a critically acclaimed 1970 film as was The Witches of Eastwick which starred Jack Nicholson as The Devil.

"3 months ago Rabbit Angstrom ran out to buy his wife cigarettes. He hasn't come home yet."