Elizabeth Updike Cobblah (born 1955) is an American art teacher and ceramicist, painter, and illustrator in Massachusetts. She is the eldest child of author

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...

, and was the model for several of his characters. She is married to Tete Cobblah.

Early life and education

Elizabeth Pennington Updike was born in 1955 in England while her father,

, and mother,

Mary Pennington (Updike) Weatherall Mary Pennington (Updike) Weatherall (January 26, 1930-February 25, 2018) was a visual artist and the first wife of John Updike. Many of Updike's early characters were modeled after her, particularly in his short stories about the Maple family and hi ...

, were studying at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

Ruskin School of Drawing The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

. John Updike wrote "March a Birthday Poem" about Cobblah's birth. As an infant she returned to New York City with her parents while her father wrote for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''.Adam Begley, ''Updike'' (2014) https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0062109669 The family then moved to

Ipswich, Massachusetts Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A reside ...

, where she spent most of her childhood with her three younger siblings, including the writer

David Updike David Updike (born 1957) is an American writer and academic. Updike was the son of author John Updike who used David as a model in several pieces of fictional writing including ''Wife-wooing, Avec la Bebe-sitter, Son'', and ''Separating''. David U ...

. She graduated from the

Pingree School Pingree School is a coeducational, independent secondary day school located in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, serving the area north and east of Boston. Its students commute from 50 cities and towns, from as far south as Everett, as far north as ...

Salem State University Salem State University (Salem State or SSU) is a public university in Salem, Massachusetts. Established in 1854, it is the oldest and largest institute of higher education on the North Shore and is part of the state university system in Massa ...

and then

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

in Providence, where she met her husband, Tete Cobblah, a native of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. They have two sons.

Career

In 1990 Cobblah illustrated ''The Predator'', a book written by her grandmother,

Linda Grace Hoyer Updike Linda Grace Hoyer Updike (1904-1989) was an American writer from Plowville, Pennsylvania. She was the mother of author John Updike and grandmother of writer David Updike. Linda Updike also served as the model for several of her son's characters, ...

. Characters based on Cobblah appear in many of her father's published writings, including "Grandparenting", the ''

Rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

'' series, "Toward Evening," "Incest," "Should Wizard Hit Mommy," "Avec la Bebe-sitter," "The Music School," "Daughter, Last Glimpses," and "Separating." Since Updike's death in 2009, Cobblah has been an active supporter and donor to Updike's museum in Pennsylvania as well as charities for the disabled in Ghana.Life-Long Learning - Pingree School, www.pingree.org/uploaded/publications/pingreebulletinfw0708.pdf She teaches art at the Fenn School in Concord, and lives in

Maynard, Massachusetts Maynard is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 22 miles west of Boston, in the MetroWest and Greater Boston region of Massachusetts and borders Acton, Concord, Stow and Sudbury. The town's population w ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobblah, Elizabeth Updike American illustrators American women ceramists American ceramists People from Maynard, Massachusetts People from Ipswich, Massachusetts Rhode Island School of Design alumni Salem State University alumni 1955 births Living people Pingree School alumni 21st-century American women