John Cheever

John Cheever (May 27, 1912–June 18, 1982) was a American novelist and short story writer.

His most significant works include the Wapshot books (The Wapshot Chronicle won the National Book Award in 1958) and the collection The Stories of John Cheever, which won the Pulitzer Prize. He was a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.

He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs."

Cheever claimed in his diaries to have been diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder by a marriage counselor that his wife forced him to see. He was also an alcoholic.

Major 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 (1957)
• 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 (1964)
• The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964) - includes 'The Swimmer'
• Homage to Shakespeare (1965)
• Bullet Park (1969)
• The World of Apples (1973)
• Falconer (1977)
• The Stories of John Cheever (1978)
• The Leaves, the Lionfish and the Bear (1980)
• Oh, What a Paradise It Seems (1982)

Fictional portrayal

Cheever's real-life bisexuality was referenced in an episode of Seinfeld, "The Cheever Letters", in which correspondence from Cheever is discovered, revealing that Cheever had an affair with George Costanza's girlfriend's father.

External link

• Biography
• Benjamin Cheever talks about his father, John Cheever, in this 1992 audio interview, RealAudio
• Susan Cheever talks about her father, John Cheever, in these audio interviews (1984, 1985, 1991), RealAudio