John Cheever

John Cheever was an American short story writer and novelist, often called the “Chekhov of the suburbs.”

Biographical summary

He was born in Quincy, Massachusetts , United States on May 27 , 1912 .

Path

His expulsion from Thayer Academy for smoking ended his education and at the same time formed the core of his first story, “Expelled”, which Malcolm Cowley bought for the New Republic newspaper . From that moment on, Cheever devoted himself entirely to writing short stories that progressively found space in magazines and newspapers such as the New Republic, Collier’s Story, the Atlantic , and finally in the famous magazine The New Yorker , with which he maintained, until the end of his days, an intense relationship.

In 1937 he married Mary Winternitz, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and a literature instructor at Briarcliff College, and spent four years in the Navy during World War II. In 1939 he published his first collection of short stories, The Way Some People Live . In this and those that followed, Cheever strove to show the unhappiness and flaws of the upper-middle-class people with whom he lived. Classic stories such as The Swimmer and The Enormous Radio demonstrate the detailed and symbolic approach that is present in most of his stories . His subsequent collections of short stories reaffirmed him as one of America ‘s great writers and one of its best storytellers. The Cheevers had three children: Susan, Benjamin, and Frederick.

Her first novel, The Wapshot Chronicles ( 1964 ), won her a National Book Award. It tells the story of a family inspired in part by the story of her father and mother in the process of abandoning their old lifestyle in the small town of St. Botolphs to adapt to modern life in the big city. The Wapshot Scandal continues the saga of the first novel and the vicissitudes of the Wapshot family.

The often sombre vision that inhabits his stories and the moral poverty of many of his characters came to be reaffirmed with his third novel, Bullet Park ( 1969 ), which tells the story of a family threatened by violence in the tranquility of the residential neighborhoods. For its part, Falconer ( 1977 ), narrates the experience of Ezekiel Farragut, a 48-year-old former university professor, addicted to drugs and imprisoned for fratricide. In 1979 he won the Pulitzer Prize for the compilation of his stories entitled The Stories of John Cheeve’r ( 1978 ). His last book, Oh, This Looks Like Paradise , a short novel of only 100 pages, shows a less sombre and more optimistic Cheever.

The themes of homosexuality , alcoholism, frustrated relationships, and the tensions of domestic life are, broadly speaking, the themes that run through most of his creations, although sometimes very quietly.

Death

He died at the age of 70, in Ossinning, New York on June 18 , 1982. The Letters of John Cheever was published in 1988 and The Diaries of John Cheever in 1991 .

Works

• The Way Some People Live: A Book of Short Stories, 1943
• The Enormous Radio And Other Stories, 1953
• The Day The Pig Fell Into The Well, 1954
• Stories, 1956
• The Wapshot Chronicle( The Wapshot Chronicle , 1957 ) – (National Book Award). Spanish translation by Maribel de Juan: Madrid: Alfaguara, 1985 .
• The Housebreaker At Shady Hill And Other Stories, 1958
• Some People, Places And Things That Will Not Appear In My Next Novel, 1961
• The Wapshot Scandal( The Wapshot Escandal , 1964 ). (Howell Medal for Fiction). Spanish translation by Maribel de Juan. Madrid : Alfaguara, 1989 .
• The Brigadier And The Golf Widow, 1964
• Homage To Shakespeare, 1965
• Bullet Park, 1969 . Spanish translation by Claudia Conde. Barcelona: Emecé, 2006 .
• The World Of Apples, 1973
• In Falconer’s Prison( Falconer , 1977 ). Spanish translation by Aníbal Leal and Roberto Jané. Barcelona : Ultramar, 1980 . Before: Falconer, trans. into Spanish by Aníbal Leal. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1978 .
• The Stories Of John Cheever, 1978 (Pulitzer Prize, 1979 )
• The Leaves, the Lionfish And the Bear, 1980
• This Seems Like Paradise( Oh, What a Paradise It Seems , 1982 ). Translated into Spanish by Claudia Conde. Barcelona: Emecé, 2005
• The Letters Of John Cheever, 1988 (ed. by Benjamin Cheever)
• The Uncollected Stories Of John Cheever, 1990
• Diaries( The Journals of John Cheever , 1991 ). Translated into Spanish by Daniel Zadunaisky. Barcelona: Emecé, 1993 .
• Thirteen Uncollected Stories Of John Cheever, 1994

Others

Some of John Cheever’s stories adapted for film or television:

• The Swimmer( 1968 )
• Director: Frank Perry
• Cast: Burt Lancaster as Ned Merrill; Janet Landgard as Julie Ann Hooper; Janice Rule as Shirley Abott, and others.
• Duration 95 min.
• Country: USA.
• 3 by Cheever( 1979 /TV) includes: Oh, Youth and Beauty , The Sorrows Of Gin , The 5:48 .
• Oh, Youth and Beauty
• Director: Jeff Bleckner
• Cast: Michael Murphy as Cash Bentley.
• Duration: 60 min.
• Country: USA.
• The Sorrows of Gin
• Director: Jack Hofsiss
• Cast: John Harkins as Trace; Baxter Harris as Bill; Eileen Heckart as Rosemary; Sigourney Weaver as Marcia Lawton, and others.
• Duration: 60 min.
• Country: USA.
• The 5:48
• Director: James Ivory.
• Cast: Laurence Luckinbill as John Blake; Mary Beth Hurt as Jane Dent; John Harkins as Trace Beardon, and others
• Duration: 60 min.
• Country: USA.