John Cheever facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Cheever
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| Born | John William Cheever May 27, 1912 Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | June 18, 1982 (aged 70) Ossining, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Period | 20th century |
| Genre | Short story, fiction |
| Literary movement | Symbolism |
| Years active | 1935–1982 |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize (1979) National Book Critics Circle Award (1981) |
| Spouse |
Mary Winternitz
(m. 1941) |
| Children |
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John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American writer known for his short stories and novels. People sometimes called him "the Chekhov of the suburbs" because his stories often explored the lives of people in suburban areas, much like Chekhov wrote about Russian society.
Cheever's stories often took place in places like the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the suburbs of Westchester, old villages in New England, and even Italy, especially Rome. He wrote many famous short stories, including "The Enormous Radio" and "The Swimmer." He also wrote five novels, such as The Wapshot Chronicle and Falconer.
His writing often looked at the different sides of people's personalities. He showed how people might act one way in public but feel very differently inside. He also wrote about how communities change over time, sometimes missing older traditions as modern life became more spread out.
A collection of his short stories, The Stories of John Cheever, won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which is a very important award for writers. It also won a National Book Critics Circle Award. Six weeks before he passed away, Cheever received the National Medal for Literature, another major honor for his writing.
Contents
John Cheever's Early Life and School
John William Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on May 27, 1912. He was the second child of Frederick Lincoln Cheever and Mary Liley Cheever. His father was a shoe salesman who earned a good living, and John grew up in a large Victorian house in Wollaston, a nice suburb.
However, in the mid-1920s, his family faced financial difficulties as the shoe industry in New England declined. To help pay the bills, his mother opened a gift shop. John found this very embarrassing for his family.
In 1926, Cheever started attending Thayer Academy, a private school. He didn't like it there and didn't do well, so he transferred to Quincy High in 1928. A year later, he won a short story contest. He was invited back to Thayer, but his grades were still poor. In March 1930, he left the school. The 18-year-old Cheever wrote a story about this experience called "Expelled," which was published in The New Republic.
Around this time, his older brother, Fred, who had to leave college because of the family's money problems, came back into John's life. After another financial crash in 1932, the Cheever family lost their house. His parents separated, and John and Fred shared an apartment in Boston.
In 1933, John wanted to leave the city. He applied to Yaddo, a place where artists can go to focus on their work. He was accepted the next year and spent the summer of 1934 there. Yaddo became a very important place for him throughout his life.
John Cheever's Writing Career
Starting as a Writer
For several years, Cheever moved between Manhattan, Saratoga, and Lake George. He also visited his parents in Quincy, who had gotten back together. He drove an old car and didn't have a permanent home.
In 1935, The New Yorker magazine bought one of his stories, "Buffalo," for $45. This was the first of many stories he would publish in that famous magazine. From 1935 to 1941, Maxim Lieber was his literary agent, helping him with his writing career. In 1938, he worked for the Federal Writers' Project, a government program for writers, but he didn't enjoy it much.
A few months after leaving that job, he met Mary Winternitz, who was seven years younger than him. Her father was a dean at Yale Medical School, and her grandfather was Thomas A. Watson, who worked with Alexander Graham Bell on the telephone. John and Mary married in 1941.
Cheever joined the Army on May 7, 1942. His first collection of short stories, The Way Some People Live, was published in 1943. He later disliked this book, thinking it was "embarrassingly immature." However, the book may have saved his life. An Army officer who was also an executive at MGM studios read it and was impressed. Cheever was transferred to a film studio in New York City, while many of his old army company were killed during the D-Day invasion. His daughter, Susan, was born on July 31, 1943.
After the war, Cheever and his family moved to an apartment in Manhattan. For five years, he would go to a small room in the basement every morning to write. In 1946, he received money from Random House to work on a novel he had started before the war.
His story "The Enormous Radio" appeared in The New Yorker in 1947. It was a strange story about a radio that could hear private conversations in an apartment building. The magazine's editor, Harold Ross, loved it. Cheever's son, Benjamin, was born on May 4, 1948.
Middle Years of Writing
Cheever's stories started to become longer and more detailed. He wanted to write more than just "slice of life" stories, which were common in The New Yorker at the time. In 1949, he finished an early version of "The Day the Pig Fell into the Well," a long story with many layers.
In 1951, Cheever wrote "Goodbye, My Brother" after a sad summer. Because of these stories, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which is an award that helps artists and writers focus on their work. On May 28, 1951, Cheever moved to a small cottage on a large estate in Scarborough-on-Hudson, a suburb in Westchester.
Cheever's second collection of stories, The Enormous Radio, was published in 1953. Most reviews were good. In the summer of 1956, Cheever finished his novel The Wapshot Chronicle while on vacation. He received a telegram from his editor saying, "WELL ROARED LION," meaning it was a great book. With money from selling the rights to make a movie from one of his stories, Cheever and his family spent the next year in Italy. His son, Federico, was born there on March 9, 1957.
The Wapshot Scandal was published in 1964 and received excellent reviews. Cheever appeared on the cover of Time magazine, which called him "Ovid in Ossining," comparing him to an ancient Roman poet. In 1961, Cheever had moved to a large farmhouse in Ossining, New York.
"The Swimmer" appeared in The New Yorker in 1964. It was one of his best stories, but it was placed towards the back of the magazine because its unusual, dream-like style was different from what the editors usually published. In 1966, a movie based on "The Swimmer" was filmed, starring Burt Lancaster. Cheever often visited the set and even had a small role in the movie.
Later Life and Career
Bullet Park, another novel, was published in 1969. It received a very negative review in The New York Times Book Review, which made Cheever feel very sad. He sought psychiatric help, but it didn't seem to help much.
On May 12, 1973, Cheever became very ill and almost died from a lung condition. After a month in the hospital, he returned home. Despite his health problems, he taught writing at the Iowa Writers' Workshop that fall. His students included famous writers like T. C. Boyle and Ron Hansen. As his marriage became more difficult, Cheever accepted a teaching job at Boston University the next year.
In March 1977, Cheever was on the cover of Newsweek magazine, which called his novel Falconer "A Great American Novel." The book became a No. 1 bestseller. The Stories of John Cheever was published in October 1978 and became one of the most successful story collections ever, selling many copies and receiving great praise.
Cheever received the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1979 for his amazing contributions to the arts.
Illness and Passing
In the summer of 1981, doctors found a tumor in Cheever's right lung. In November, he learned that the cancer had spread to other parts of his body. His last novel, Oh What a Paradise It Seems, was published in March 1982. It received respectful reviews, partly because people knew the author was dying.
On April 27, 1982, he received the National Medal for Literature at Carnegie Hall. His colleagues were shocked by how ill he looked after months of cancer treatment. In his speech, he said, "A page of good prose remains invincible," meaning that good writing lasts forever.
John Cheever passed away on June 18, 1982. Flags in Ossining were lowered to half-staff for ten days to honor him. He is buried in Norwell, Massachusetts.
After His Death
In 1987, Cheever's wife, Mary, signed a contract to publish his stories that had not been collected yet. This led to a long legal fight, but eventually, Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever was published in 1994.
Two of Cheever's children, Susan and Benjamin, also became writers. Susan's memoir, Home Before Dark (1984), shared more about her father's life.
In 2009, a detailed biography of John Cheever was published by Blake Bailey. It won several awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Also in 2009, Cheever was featured in a documentary about the WPA Writers' Project, which highlighted his life in the 1930s.
John Cheever's Books
Novels
- The Wapshot Chronicle (1957)
- The Wapshot Scandal (1964)
- Bullet Park (1969)
- Falconer (1977)
- Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1982)
Short Story Collections
- The Way Some People Live (1943)
- The Enormous Radio and Other Stories (1953)
- The Housebreaker of Shady Hill and Other Stories (1958)
- Some People, Places, and Things That Will Not Appear in My Next Novel (1961)
- The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964)
- The World of Apples (1973)
- The Stories of John Cheever (1978)
- Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever (1994)
Other Collections
- The Letters of John Cheever, edited by Benjamin Cheever (1988)
- The Journals of John Cheever (1991)
- Collected Stories & Other Writings (Library of America) (stories, 2009)
- Complete Novels (Library of America) (novels, 2009)
Images for kids
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John Cheever, a famous American writer.
See also
In Spanish: John Cheever para niños
