MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Stuttering Foundation mourns the death of renowned author John Updike.

Plagued from an early age by a stammer, he found creative outlets in drawing and writing.

He released more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s, winning virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for Rabbit Is Rich and Rabbit at Rest.

Author Joyce Carol Oates, a friend of Updike's, told the Associated Press there was a "luminosity in John's style that was just extraordinary. He also had a wonderful, warm, sympathetic sense of humor which people didn't always notice."

"He was readily willing to help us out before it was politically correct to do so," said Jane Fraser, president of the nonprofit Foundation. "He was somewhat bemused that his picture would appear with other famous people who stutter; but nonetheless, he wanted to help young people who struggled with the same disability he had."

He will be sorely missed.