Cheever, John

Cheever, John, 1912–82, American author, b. Quincy, Mass. His expulsion from Thayer Academy was the subject of his first short story, published by the New Republic when he was 17. With meticulously rendered detail, Cheever writes about life in the affluent American suburbs. Although his works are usually comic, his view is that of a moralist. Among his works are the novels The Wapshot Chronicle (1957), The Wapshot Scandal (1964), and Falconer (1977); and two short-story collections.

Bibliography

See his journals (1991); his letters, ed. by B. Cheever (1988); biographies by S. Donaldson (1988) and S. Cheever, Home Before Dark (1984); study by L. Waldeland (1979).

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Cheever, John

(born May 27, 1912, Quincy, Mass., U.S.—died June 18, 1982, Ossining, N.Y.) U.S. short-story writer and novelist. Cheever lived principally in southern Connecticut. His stories appeared notably in The New Yorker, his clear and elegant prose delineating the drama and sadness of life in comfortable suburban America, often through fantasy and ironic comedy. He has been called the Chekhov of the suburbs. His collections include The Enormous Radio (1953), The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964), and The Stories of John Cheever (1978, Pulitzer Prize). Among his novels are The Wapshot Chronicle (1957), The Wapshot Scandal (1964), and Falconer (1977). His revealing journals were published in 1991. Two of his children, Susan and Benjamin, also became writers.

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Cheever, John (1912–82) writer; born in Quincy, Mass. He published his first short story at age 17 and never graduated from college. Resident in New York and its suburbs, he wrote Chekhovian satires of upper middle-class suburban life that appeared regularly in the New Yorker after the 1930s. He became a recognized master of the genre; a final collected edition of his short stories (1978) won the Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote screenplays and five novels, including The Wapshot Chronicle (1957, National Book Award).