Cheever, John (1912-1982), was an American short-story writer and novelist. Cheever’s typical characters are the descendants of genteel old American families, or the inhabitants of comfortable, upper middle-class suburbia. He wrote about these people in a style that is both lyrical and lightly ironic. In his fiction, Cheever balanced the claims of individual freedom and desire against society’s values of emotional restraint and good manners. He often created characters who attempt to disrupt their seemingly tranquil lives to pursue some kind of personal satisfaction. Their attempts usually end partly in defeat and partly in success.
In his related novels The Wapshot Chronicle (1957) and The Wapshot Scandal (1964), Cheever wrote about the modern-day descendants of an old New England seafaring family. The novels reveal how the family’s tradition of strong individualism and eccentricity conflicts with the restrictions of an increasingly impersonal American society. Two of Cheever’s later novels explore darker themes. Bullet Park (1969) tells a story of drug addiction and insanity in a typical suburban setting. Falconer (1977) is a story about a college professor who kills his brother, is imprisoned, and escapes.
Cheever won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Stories of John Cheever (1978). The Journals of John Cheever was published in 1991, after his death. The Library of America published authoritative editions of Cheever’s Collected Stories and Other Writings and Complete Novels (both 2009). Cheever was born on May 27, 1912, in Quincy, Massachusetts. He died on June 18, 1982.
