John Cheever
Born May 27 1912 · Died June 18 1982
From Quincy, Massachusetts, United States · Nationality: United States · Writes fiction
John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born; and Italy, especially Rome. His short stories included The Enormous Radio, Goodbye, My Brother, The Five-Forty-Eight, The Country Husband, and The Swimmer, and he also wrote five novels: The Wapshot Chronicle (National Book Award, 1958), The Wapshot Scandal (William Dean Howells Medal, 1965), Bullet Park (1969), Falconer (1977) and a novella, Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1982). A compilation of his short stories, The Stories of John Cheever, won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a National Book Critics Circle Award, and its first paperback edition won a 1981 National Book Award. On April 27, 1982, six weeks before his death, Cheever was awarded the National Medal for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been included in the Library of America.
Quotes
“He was a tall man with an astonishing and somehow elegant curvature of the spine, formed by an enlarged lower abdomen, which he carried in a stately and contented way, as if it contained money and securities.”
Description of a Yankee rector, in The Wapshot Scandal 1964 . “The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman taken in adultery as she looks out of a window at the rain but to describe four hundred people under the lights reaching for a foul ball. This is ceremony.”
The Journals of John Cheever “He had that spooky bass voice meant to announce that he had entered the kingdom of manhood, but Rosalie knew that he was still outside the gates.”
The Wapshot Chronicle
Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Books by John Cheever in order
Books by John Cheever in the order they were published, from The Way Some People Live (1943) to Wizja świata. Opowiadania wybrane (2023).
- 1The Way Some People Live
The Way Some People Live1943 - 2The Enormous Radio, and Other Stories
The Enormous Radio, and Other Stories1953 - 3The Wapshot Chronicle
The Wapshot Chronicle1957 - 4The Housebreaker of Shady Hill, and Other Stories
The Housebreaker of Shady Hill, and Other Stories1958 - 5The Brigadier and the Golf Widow
The Brigadier and the Golf Widow1964 - 6The Wapshot Scandal
The Wapshot Scandal1964 - 7Bullet Park
Bullet Park1969 - 8The World of Apples
The World of Apples1973 - 9Falconer
Falconer1977 - 10The Stories of John Cheever
The Stories of John Cheever1978 - 11Selected Short StoriesSelected Short Stories1980
- 12John CheeverJohn Cheever1981
- 13Oh, What a Paradise It Seems
Oh, What a Paradise It Seems1982 - 14Conversations with John Cheever
Conversations with John Cheever1987 - 15The Letters of John Cheever
The Letters of John Cheever1988 - 16Collected Stories
Collected Stories1990 - 17The Journals of John Cheever
The Journals of John Cheever1991 - 18Cheever ReadsCheever Reads1994
- 19Il nuotatore
Il nuotatore2000 - 20Vintage Cheever
Vintage Cheever2005 - 21Relatos. 1
Relatos. 12006 - 22Collected Stories and Other Writings
Collected Stories and Other Writings2009 - 23Complete Novels
Complete Novels2009 - 24Wizja świata. Opowiadania wybrane
Wizja świata. Opowiadania wybrane2023