From the top front page story on CNN international (pushing aside war and Obama) to every small town newspaper in the western world, John Updike’s praises are being sung. It’s the biggest and saddest story of the year so far. How are the papers covering it? With everything from AP filler to celebrity author studded euologies. Here’s a sample.

NYT Lehmann-Haupt

NYT Kakutani

Telegraph

Telegraph 2

Slate

BBC

BBC slide show

New Yorker obit—open comments for remembrances

New Yorker—a series of remembrances from famous fellow authors, including Saunders, Barnes, and Cheever

Guardian

Guardian 2

Guardian slideshow

Times

Independent

LAT

WAshington POst

Boston Globe

Salon

CNN

Time Magazine

Other than Martin Levin’s blog post yesterday and New York correspondent Simon Houpt’s piece today, the Globe books site seems to have completely missed this story, using AP filler… biggest story of the year so far…

On the other hand, the National Post’s Ampersand has some original content, including rembrances from Canadian lit types and critics that went up yesterday… I had an email in my inbox moments after the news broke asking for comment… of course, I was, at that moment, etherized upon a table and unable to do much other than moan, which might have fit the occasion but not really added much