John Cheever

A Biography

Scott Donaldson

• Publisher: Open Road Distribution
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781504029957
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Literarische Biographien

"A biography of great immediacy.... There are many sections of great poignancy, many funny things, many of electric intimacy and candor... there is spellbinding power, never more so than in describing Cheever's death, pages that are both terrible and deeply moving; one is losing an old, beloved friend." —James Salter, Los Angeles Times Book Review " John Cheever: A Biography is clearly an indispensable book. Donaldson moves gracefully from the personal to the literary.... Solidly researched and entirely readable, admiring of the writer and knowing about the man. Stuffed with fascinating anecdotes. It's a gut-wrenching story. Donaldson tells it straight, without embellishment, and our attention never strays." —Dan Cryer, Newsday "A coup of investigative reporting." — Publishers Weekly "Both erudite and earthly. What emerges is a rich tapestry that gives the reader extraordinary insight into the workings of a master storyteller's mind." —Jean Graham, New York Daily News " John Cheever: A Biography by Scott Donaldson is as readable and 'unputdownable' as any thriller." —T. Coraghessan Boyle "A revelation. What a triumph." —Frederick Exley "Donaldson has set a high standard that other biographers will find difficult to equal." —John Blades, Chicago Tribune

NOTES ON SOURCES

Cheever rarely dated his letters, but their contents usually make it possible to estimate when they were written. Citations for stories and articles not collected in book form are to their first periodical appearance; otherwise, citations are to the first book appearance. Where the text makes the source of information clear, the source is not repeated in these notes.

Abbreviations: JC = John Cheever, MC = Mary Cheever, SD = Scott Donaldson.

PREHISTORY

FICTIONALIZING TENDENCY AND RETICENCE ABOUT BACKGROUND: Interview William Maxwell, 9 April 1985; interview Arthur Spear, 17 July 1983; interview Edward Newhouse, 5 June 1984; interview Tom Glazer, 3 June 1984; interview Hortense Calisher, 17 September 1984; interview Katrina Ettlinger, 4 June 1984; JC, BULLET PARK notes, Brandeis library.

EZEKIEL CHEEVER LEGEND: Elizabeth Porter Gould, EZEKIEL CHEEVER, SCHOOLMASTER (Boston, 1904); Joshua Coffin, A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF NEWBURY, NEWBURYPORT AND WEST NEWBURY (Boston, 1845), p. 221: it was thought that the sufferings endured by the people of Massachusetts during King Philip’s War were inflicted upon them for the affectation of wearing wigs; Ralph Ellison quoted in Alwyn Lee, “Ovid in Ossining,” TIME, 27 March 1964, p. 67; JC quoted in Christina Robb, “Cheever’s Story,” BOSTON GLOBE SUNDAY MAGAZINE, 6 July 1980, p. 27; Lewis Turco to SD, 19 September 1985.

REAL ANCESTRY: Patricia Gross to Susan Cheever, 19 August 1983, Quincy Public Library; “The (Genealogical) Research Notes of Mary Adams Rolfe,” The Historical Society of Old Newbury; Robert K. Cheney, MARITIME HISTORY OF THE MERRIMAC (Newburyport, 1964), pp. 51, 241; John J. Currier, HISTORY OF NEWBURYPORT, MASS., 1764–1909 (Newburyport, 1909), Vol. I, pp. 539–41, Vol. II, pp. 330–31; JC quoted in Susan Cheever, HOME BEFORE DARK (New York, 1984), p. 27; JC to John and Mary Dirks, September 1974; JC to Elizabeth Ames, 1 February 1937.

AARON WATERS CHEEVER: John Callaway, “Interview with John Cheever,” 15 October 1981; Alan Dawley, CLASS AND COMMUNITY: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN LYNN (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 78–83; JC, typescript 21; JC, “Homage to Shakespeare,” STORY, November 1937, pp. 73–81; RECORD OF DEATH, Commonwealth of Massachusets Archives, 1882, Vol. 339, p. 195, item 5221; Robin Dougherty to SD, 4 October 1985 and 15 November 1985.

FREDERICK LINCOLN CHEEVER: JC to John Updike, 15 June 1976; JC, THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLE (New York, 1957), p. 99 and throughout: Leander Wapshot in the Wapshot novels is supposed to represent “a loving picture” of his father; Melissa Baumann, “John Cheever Is at Home,” BOSTON MONTHLY, September 1979, p. 14; JC, typescript 21; JC, journal, Brandeis library; Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, interview with JC, February 1969; Callaway, interview with JC, 15 October 1981.

MOTHER, GRANDMOTHER, AND AUNT: JC to William Maxwell, 1968; Frederick L. Cheever, Jr., to Dennis Coates, 20 October 1973; Coates, interview with Frederick L. Cheever, Jr., 22 September 1973; “John Hersey Talks with John Cheever,” YALE ALUMNI MAGAZINE, December 1977, p. 21; JC, typescript 21; JC, journal, Brandeis library; Shirley Silverberg, “A Talk with John Cheever,” WESTCHESTER, May 1976, p. 67; JC to Laurens Schwartz, 3 January 1976; J. W. Savage, “John Cheever: The Long and the Short and the Tall,” CHICAGO TRIBUNE MAGAZINE, 22 April 1979, p. 31.

QUINCY, MORTON, AND ADAMS: H. Hobart Holly, ed., QUINCY 350 YEARS (Quincy, 1974); Louise Randall Pierson, ROUGHLY SPEAKING, New York, 1943; the misbehavior of Thomas Morton is depicted in Hawthorne’s story “The Maypole of Merry Mount”; Henry Adams, “Quincy,” the first chapter of THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS; JC to Max Zimmer, 1977.

CHILDHOOD

FIRST YEARS, WORLD WAR I, MAIDS: JC, typescript 21; John Hersey, “John Cheever, Boy and Man,” NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, 26 March 1978, p. 31.

MOVE TO WOLLASTON, ATMOSPHERE: City directories, Quincy; Rollin Bailey to SD, 2 September 1985 and 23 September 1985, provided details about the way of life in Wollaston during the early 1920s.

CHEEVER AND PLAY, THEATRICS: Rollin Bailey to SD, 25 August 1985, 30 August 1985, 2 September 1985, and 23 September 1985; Baumann, “At Home,” pp. 13–15; Mrs. Richard S. Dennison to SD, 9 August 1985; interview Dr. Raymond Mutter, 22 June 1984; interview Tanya Litvinov, 2 November 1986; Helen Perry to Patricia Hoxie, 1983.

EARLY STORYTELLING, COMMITMENT: Jo Brans, “Stories to Comprehend Life: An Interview with John Cheever,” SOUTHWEST REVIEW, Autumn 1980, p. 338; Marcia Seligson, “Portrait of a Man Reading,” BOOK WORLD, 9 March 1969, p. 2; JC to Frederick Bracher, 15 July 1962; Helen Perry to Patricia Hoxie, 1983; Robert C. Daugherty to SD, 29 November 1984; Lloyd Moss, interview with JC, WQXR, 12 January 1980; according to his brother, Fred, at the age of fourteen Cheever won a short-story contest sponsored by the BOSTON HERALD-TRAVELER: Dennis Coates, “The Novels of John Cheever,” Duke University doctoral dissertation, 1977, p. 25.

BOYHOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH FATHER: Savage, “The Long and the Short,” p. 31; Coates, dissertation, pp. 17–21; interview MC, 6 June 1983; JC, “The National Pastime,” NEW YORKER, 26 September 1953, pp. 29–35; interview Dr. David S. Hays, 14 January 1985; Federico Cheever’s remarks at father’s memorial service, 22 June 1982.

SUMMERS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, CAMP MASSASOIT: JC to Josephine Herbst, 1954; Baumann, “At Home,” p. 14; Rollin Bailey to SD, 27 August 1985; interview MC, 10 April 1985; interview H. Hobart Holly, 4 July 1985; interviews Harold Crowley, Jr., 15 July 1985 and 22 July 1985.

THAYER AND ANNA BOYNTON THOMPSON: THE THAYER ACADEMY: ONE HUNDRED YEARS, 1887–1987; [Lillian H. Wentworth], “Anna Boynton Thompson,” THAYER ACADEMY MAGAZINE, Spring 1984, pp. 3–5; Lillian H. Wentworth to SD, 30 May 1985 and 1 August 1985; JC, “The Temptations of Emma Boynton,” NEW YORKER, 26 November 1949, pp. 29–31; JC, “Thanks, Too, for Memories,” NEW YORK TIMES, 22 November 1976, p. C6.

JC AT THAYERLANDS: Grace L. Osgood to SD, 23 August 1985; JC quoted in Coates, dissertation, p. 23; JC on the Charlie Rose show, Dallas–Fort Worth television, late 1979; THE [THAYERLANDS] EVERGREEN, April 1925, pp. 20, 22, and April 1926, p. 24; Lillian H. Wentworth, “… And Recalled: John Cheever at Prep School,” PARENTS LEAGUE BULLETIN 1984, New York, 1984, pp. 42–43, quotes “The Brook” and “The Stage Ride” in full; THE [THAYERLANDS] EVERGREEN, commencement issue 1926, p. 13; JC, talk at the Peekskill (N.Y.) library, 21 April 1974.

ADOLESCENCE

FATHER’S ECONOMIC COLLAPSE: Frederick Lewis Allen, ONLY YESTERDAY, New York, 1931, pp. 159–61; Winfield Townley Scott, “Shoetown,” COLLECTED POEMS, New York, 1962, p. 31; Susan Cheever, HOME BEFORE DARK, p. 9; Robb, “Cheever’s Story,” p. 13; Beatrice Wood to SD, 26 May 1985; Mrs. Gordon S. Mustin to Lillian H. Wentworth, 21 March 1983; Robert C. Daugherty to SD, 29 November 1984; Rollin Bailey to SD, 4 September 1985.

FATHER’S DRINKING: Robb, “Cheever’s Story,” p. 12; JC, “The President of the Argentine,” ATLANTIC MONTHLY, April 1976, p. 44; JC, journal, Brandeis library; JC, typescript 21; JC to Frederick Exley, 21 July 1972; JC, “The Folding Chair Set,” NEW YORKER, 13 October 1975, p. 38; JC, FALCONER (New York, 1977), pp. 60–62.

MOTHER’S REPUTATION: Robert C. Daugherty to SD, 29 November 1984; Beatrice Wood to SD, 26 May 1985; Mrs. Gordon S. Mustin to Lillian H. Wentworth, 21 March 1983; Rollin Bailey to SD, 23 September 1985.

MOTHER’S BUSINESS CAREER: Thayer Academy transcripts; interview Doris Oberg, 5 June 1985; Rollin Bailey to SD, 4 September 1985; “Open Little Shop Around the Corner,” QUINCY PATRIOT-LEDGER, 30 September 1929, p. 2; JC, typescript 21; interview Eugene and Clayre...