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Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. ( May 25 , 1938 – August 2 , 1988 ) was an American Short Story Writer and Poet . Carver is considered a major writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the Short Story in the 1980s. LIFE Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon , a mill town on the Columbia River , and grew up in Yakima, Washington . His father, a sawmill worker, was an alcoholic. Carver's mother worked on and off as a waitress and a retail clerk. Carver was educated at a local school in Yakima, Washington. In his spare time he read mostly novels by Mickey Spillane or publications such as Sports Afield and Outdoor Life. In 1956, aged 18, he married his high-school girlfriend, 16-year-old Maryann Burke. She was pregnant and had just graduated from an Episcopalian private school for girls. When their second child was born, Carver was 20. After graduating from Davis High School, Carver supported his family by working as a janitor, sawmill laborer, and salesman. During their marriage, Maryann worked as a waitress, salesperson, administrative assistant, and teacher. Carver became interested in writing in California , where he had moved with his family because his wife's parents had a home in Paradise . Carver attended a creative-writing course, taught by the novelist John Gardner , who had a major influence on Carver's life and career. Carver continued his studies first at Chico State University and then at Humboldt State College in California, receiving his B.A. in 1963, and later at the University Of Iowa . In the mid-60s Carver and his family lived in Sacramento , where he worked as a night custodian at Mercy Hospital. He sat in on classes at what was then Sacramento State College and learned from poet Dennis Schmitz . Carver's first book of poems, ''Near Klamath'', was published in 1968 by the English Club of Sacramento State College. What with his appearance in the respected "Foley collection," the impending publication of ''Near Klamath,'', and the death of his father, 1967 was a landmark year. That was also the year that he moved his family to Palo Alto, California so that he could take a job as a textbook editor for Science Research Associates. He worked there until he was fired in 1970. In the 1970s and 1980s as his writing career began to take off, Carver taught for several years at universities throughout the United States. From 1980 to 1983 he was a professor of English at Syracuse University . During the years of working in different jobs, rearing children, and trying to write, Carver started to drink heavily and stated that alcohol became such a problem in his life that he more or less gave up and took to full-time drinking. In the fall semester of 1973, Carver was a teacher in the Iowa Writers' Workshop with John Cheever , but Carver stated that they did very little teaching or writing but only drank. The next year, after leaving Iowa City, Cheever went to a treatment center to attempt to overcome his Alcoholism , but Carver continued drinking for some years. On June 2, 1977, Carver stopped drinking with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous . In 1982 Carver divorced his first wife, Maryann. From 1979 Carver had lived with the poet Tess Gallagher whom he had met at a writers' conference in Dallas , Texas . They married in 1988 in Reno , Nevada . Two months later, on August 2, 1988, Carver died in Port Angeles , Washington , from Lung Cancer at the age of 50. In the same year, he was inducted into the American Academy Of Arts And Letters . WRITING Carver's career was dedicated to short stories and poetry. He described himself as "inclined toward brevity and intensity" and "hooked on writing short stories" (in the foreword of '' Where I'm Calling From '', a collection published in 1988.) Another stated reason for his brevity was "that the story poem can be written and read in one sitting". This was not simply a preference but, particularly at the beginning of his career, a practical consideration as he juggled writing with work. His subject matter was often focused on Blue-collar experience, and are clearly reflective of his own life. The same could probably be said of the recurring theme of alcoholism and recovery. Carver's writing style and themes are often identified with Ernest Hemingway , Anton Chekhov and Franz Kafka . Carver also referred to Isaac Babel , Frank O'Connor and V. S. Pritchett as influences. Chekhov, however, seems the greatest influence, motivating him to write ''Errand'', one of his final stories, about the Russian writer's final hours. Minimalism is generally seen as one of the hallmarks of Carver's work. His editor at '' Esquire Magazine '', Gordon Lish, was instrumental in shaping Carver's prose in this direction - where his earlier tutor John Gardner had advised Carver to use fifteen words instead of twenty-five, Lish instructed Carver to use five in place of fifteen. During this time, Carver also submitted poetry to James Dickey , then poetry editor of ''Esquire''. His style has also been described as "Dirty Realism," referring to a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s that included Richard Ford , Tobias Wolff - two writers Carver was closely acquainted with - Ann Beattie , and Jayne Anne Philips . These were writers who focused on the sadnesses and losses of the everyday lives of ordinary people--often lower-middle class or isolated and marginalized people who represent Henry David Thoreau 's idea of living lives of "quiet desperation." His first published story appeared in 1960, titled "The Furious Seasons". More florid than much of his later work, the story strongly bore the influence of William Faulkner . "Furious Seasons" was later used as a title for a collection of stories, though the story itself was not included, and can only be found in recent collections ''No Heroics, Please'' and ''Call If You Need Me''. His first collection, ''Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?'' was first published in 1976, and the title story was selected for the ''America's Best Short Stories'' collection. He was further decorated with the 1983 O.Henry Award for the story ''A Small, Good Thing'', about the parents of a young boy involved in a car accident. The piece was included in his 1983 collection, ''Cathedral''. However, it was the title story of this collection, about a man meeting with a blind, old acquaintance of his wife, which Carver pointed to as a turning point in his career, as a "different kind" of story to his earlier work, more spare in subject matter and perhaps more optimistic, though bittersweet, in tone. His final collection of seven stories, ''Elephant'', were composed shortly before his death. The nature of these stories, especially ''Errand'', have led to some speculation that Carver may have been preparing to write his first novel, though this is not corroborated elsewhere. WORKS ''Fiction'' Collections
Compilations
Individual stories include: From "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?":
From "Furious Seasons":
From "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love":
From "Cathedral"
From "Elephant"
''Poetry'' Collections
Compilations
''Essays, Poems, Stories (Uncollected Works)''
These books collate otherwise uncollected works. ''Fires'' covers Carver's career during the period 1966-82. The latter volumes were published posthumously, and include early fiction, essays, and reviews of other authors. ''Call if you Need Me'' was identical to ''No Heroics, Please'' apart from the replacement of poetry in the latter with five new stories which were uncovered in Carver's papers by his last partner, Tess Gallagher . FILMS
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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