Biography of John Cheever

The Chekhov of the suburbs

27 May 1912 
18 June 1982 
William John Cheever was born on 27 May 1912 in Quincy, in the United States, son of Frederick Lincoln and Mary Liley. Raised in Wollaston, Massachusetts, in 1926 began attending Thayer Academy, a private school, but not being at ease, he moved to Quincy High two years later. In 1929 he won a short story contest sponsored by "Boston Herald", but its ratings continue to be low; the following year he was expelled for being caught smoking. The boy, then writes a tale ironic about this experience, "Expelled," which will be published in "The New Republic".

The years ' 30

In 1933 he went to live with her brother John in Beacon Hill, Boston, after his parents ' separation. In the following years, divide their time between Manhatton, Saratoga Springs, Lake George and Quincy, where he continues to visit mom and dad (Meanwhile reconciled), while not having a fixed abode. In 1935 Katharine White, "The New Yorker", buy a short story by John Cheever, "Buffalo", for $ 45: it will be the first of many that the writer will publish to the headboard. Meanwhile he is a literary agent, Maxim Lieber, and in 1938 he started working for the Federal Writers ' Project in Washington. Editor for "WPA Guide to New York City", quits his job after less than a year, only to discover soon after that who would become his wife, Mary Winternitz, seven years his junior.

Gli anni ' 40

They were married in 1941, and the following year John enlisted in the army; in 1943 is published his first collection of short stories, "The Way Some People Live" (which would later deny it embarrassingly immature and striving to destroy all copies he could get hold): the book ends in the hands of Leonard Spigelgass, officer of the Corpse, which was struck Weapons Signal. Shortly after Cheever is transferred in Queens, New York: on 31 July 1943 born his daughter Susan. With the family moves in, then, in Manhattan. In 1946 accepts an advance of $ 4800 from Randum House for the novel "The Holly Tree", started before the war and then stopped. After becoming the father of Benjamin in May 1948, is dedicated to "The Day The Pig Fell into the Well". In the early 1950s he moved to Beechwood, living in a land where he had lived in the past even the writer Richard Yates, while two years later gives to the press his second collection of short stories, entitled "The Enormous Radio".

The years ' 50 and ' 60

After signing for the Publisher Harper & Brothers, 1956 in the novel "The Wapshot Chronicle" (Chronicles of the Wapshot family): thanks to the sale of movie rights, gets money for a long journey in Italy (during which was born the third son of John Frederick). Back in the Usa, in the early 1960s he went to live in a large farmhouse in Ossining, near the Hudson River, and then published "The Wapshot Scandal." Shortly after released "The Swimmer", which will stretch even a film directed by Frank Perry and starring Burt Lancaster, and in which the same John Cheever appeared in a brief cameo. At this time, however, the writer's alcoholism , leading to a depression that not even a psychiatrist, Dr. David c. Hays, is able to cure. Become a man neurotic (and tormented by his bisexuality, which seeks to repress), John Cheever never abandons the activity as a writer, and in 1969 he publishes "Bullet Park". Meanwhile takes on extra-marital relationship with Hope Lange, an actress, and begins to teach at the Iowa Writers ' Workshop (where among his pupils there is T.C. Boyle), before going to live in Boston: here, he was offered a Chair at the local University, but the alcohol problems persist and undermine the turning professional.

The last years

In 1975 John is saved by his brother Fred, who brings him back to his wife, the two decide to try Smithers Alcoholic Rehabilitation Unit care in New York. The experiment was successful, and since 1977 Cheever doesn't drink anymore. In the same year released "Falconer", which gets a considerable success, while five years later it was the turn of "On What a Paradise It Seems." On 18 June 1982, though, John Cheever died in Ossining, due to a kidney cancer progressively spread to the bladder, pelvis and femur: his body is buried at First Parish Cemetery in Norwell, Massachusetts.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.