Beginning of Essay
John Updike tells good stories in his new collection, "Pigeon Feathers." What's more -- or, rather, what helps to make them good -- is his conspicuous devotion to the perilous marksmanship of words. All readers are bound to be grateful to him for that. He is no Pa ....

Middle of Essay
.... potent, inexplicable and irrefutable magical life language leads within itself" -- not entirely unaided, of course, by wide margins, Devonshire-cream paper, and clear type. Speaking of which, I am happy to report that his publisher felicitously chimes Mr. Updike's Pennsylvania-Dutch tones with a Linotype contribution named for Janson, a Dutchman. And paper made at Spring Grove, Pa. Over Territory and Time The stories in "Pigeon Feathers" float from Pennsylvania to England, to New England, to New York, and always back to Pennsylvania. In general outline and under various names the characters are repeated as frequently as characters are repeated whe ....