The Ursinus College - Hoyer Updike Connection

Linda Grace Hoyer ’23 of Plowville, Pennsylvania met Wesley Updike ’23 of Trenton, New Jersey on her first day at Ursinus College in 1919.

Both being first year students, they met in the registration line while working on their course schedules for the Fall semester.

Linda and Wesley became close friends during their four years at Ursinus, graduated together in 1923 and would marry a few years after graduating from the College.

On March 18, 1932 Linda gave birth to her only child, John Hoyer Updike.

John grew up and went to school in Berks County, Pennsylvania before moving on to Harvard University.

John began his writing career early in life and would go on to become a highly successful Pulitzer Prize winning author.

Late in life, Linda Grace Hoyer also became a published fiction writer, having her short stories published in the New Yorker and included in two books, “Enchantment” and “The Predator.”  

Mr. Updike donated his mother’s literary papers to the Ursinus College Library in 1989 after she passed away.

The Linda Grace Hoyer Literary Papers have been consulted by many scholars over the years and served as the primary source documents for a Summer Fellows research project written in 2001 by Leslie Hoffman ’03.

Ms. Hoffman’s Summer Fellows research paper can be found in the Myrin Library’s digital repository.

For more information on the Linda Grace Hoyer Literary Papers please contact Charles A. Jamison, Special Collections Librarian.