John Cheever

John Cheever (1912-1982) was an American author. His works include The Wapshot Chronicle (1957), The Wapshot Scandal (1964), Falconer (1977), and The Stories of John Cheever (1978). He won a National Book Award for The Wapshot Chronicle and a Pulitzer Prize for The Stories of John Cheever.^[1]

Life and Works[edit]

Cheever was born May 27, 1912, in Quincy, Massachusetts.^[2] He was raised a shoemaker and a gift shop owner, but during the decline of the shoe industry, his father lost his job, and Cheever could no longer afford to attend Thayer Academy until they invited him back upon winning a short story contest.^[3] He lived in New York City's Greenwich Village during the Great Depression, married, and served for four years in the Second World War, though he had written stories before.^[4] His short stories, which appeared in the New Yorker, The New Republic, and The Atlantic, include "The Enormous Radio", about a radio that enabled a couple to hear the conversations of other tenants in their apartment buildings, and "The Swimmer", about a lost soul swimming in his neighbors' pools.^[5] He later published his novels, The Wapshot Chronicle, The Wapshot Scandal, and Falconer to great reviews, and his stories (including "The Enormous Radio," "The Swimmer," "Goodbye My Brother," and "The Country Husband,") in an anthology, but was becoming known as a bisexual and rejected by some.^[6]

He died June 18, 1982, and is known as the Chekhov of the suburbs for his descriptions of middle-class life.^[5]

See also[edit]

• John Updike

References[edit]