Raymond Carver
Born	May 25, 1938(1938-05-25) Clatskanie, Oregon, United States
Died	August 2, 1988 (aged 50) Port Angeles, Washington, United States
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Writing period	1958–1988
Literary movement	Minimalism, Dirty realism
Influences John Gardner, Anton Chekhov, Ernest Hemingway, William Carlos Williams, Flannery O'Connor, James Salter, Isaac Babel, Frank O'Connor
Influenced Jay McInerney, Robert Altman, Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff, Jayne Anne Phillips, Tess Gallagher, Mona Simpson, K.J. Stevens

Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s. Image File history File links Photo of Raymond Carver taken in Iowa City 06/1978 File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... is the 145th day of the year (146th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Clatskanie is a city located in Columbia County, Oregon. ... is the 214th day of the year (215th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Early morning photograph from the pier tower Port Angeles is a city in Clallam County, Washington, United States. ... This article is about work. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... Jan. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... ... For other uses, see Minimalism (disambiguation). ... Dirty realism is a North American literary movement born in the 1970s-80s in which the narrative is stripped down to its fundamental features. ... Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Russian: , IPA: ) was a Russian short story writer and playwright. ... Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 — July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... William Carlos Williams Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. ... Mary Flannery OConnor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. ... James Salter (born 1925) is an American short story writer and novelist. ... Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel, Russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель (13 July [O.S. 1 July] 1894 – January 27, 1940) was a Soviet journalist, playwright, and short story writer. ... For the actor, husband of Ayn Rand, see Frank OConnor (actor). ... Jay McInerney (born in 1955 in Hartford, Connecticut and christened John Barrett McInerney, Jr. ... For other persons named Robert Altman, see Robert Altman (disambiguation). ... Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. ... Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff (born June 19, 1945, in Birmingham, Alabama) is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. ... Jayne Anne Phillips (born July 1952) is an American novelist and short story writer who was born in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia. ... Tess Gallagher (b. ... Mona Simpson (born June 14, 1957 in Green Bay, Wisconsin) is a novelist and essayist. ... is the 145th day of the year (146th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 214th day of the year (215th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is in need of attention. ... A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... A poet (from the ancient Greek ποιητης, poïêtes (artisan) ; ποιέω, poieō) is a person who writes poetry. ... This article is in need of attention. ...

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. His one brother, James Franklin Carver, was born in 1943. Clatskanie is a city located in Columbia County, Oregon. ... The Columbia River (French: fleuve Columbia) is a river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. ... Location of Yakima in Washington Coordinates: , Country State County Yakima Incorporated December 1, 1883 Government  - Mayor Dave Edler Area  - City 20. ...

Carver was educated at local schools in Yakima, Washington. In his spare time he read mostly novels by Mickey Spillane or publications such as Sports Afield and Outdoor Life and hunted and fished with friends and family. After graduating from Yakima High School in 1956, Carver worked with his father at a sawmill in California. In June of 1957, aged 19, he married 16-year-old Maryann Burk. She had just graduated from a private Episcopal school for girls. Their daughter, Christine La Rae, was born in December of 1957. When their second child, a boy named Vance Lindsay, was born the next year, Carver was 20. Carver supported his family by working as a janitor, sawmill laborer, delivery man, and library assistant. During their marriage, Maryann worked as a waitress, salesperson, administrative assistant, and teacher. Frank Morrison Spillane (March 9, 1918 – July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American author of crime novels, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. ... The original North Yakima High School. ... This article is about the Episcopal Church in the United States. ...

Carver became interested in writing in California, where he had moved with his family because his mother-in-law had a home in Paradise. Carver attended a creative-writing course taught by the novelist John Gardner, who became a mentor and 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 Arcata, California, where he was first published and studied with Richard Cortez Day and received his B.A. in 1963. He attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, for one year. Maryann graduated from San Jose State College in 1970 and taught English at Los Altos High School until 1977. This article is about the U.S. state. ... Paradise is an incorporated town in Butte County, in the northwest foothills of Californias Central Valley, in the Sierra. ... California State University, Chico California State University, Chico is the second_oldest campus in the California State University system. ... Not to be confused with Humboldt University of Berlin. ... Arcata is a city located in Humboldt County, California. ... The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa is a graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. ... The University of Iowa, also commonly called Iowa or locally UI, is a major coeducational research university located on a 1,900-acre (8 km²) campus in Iowa City, Iowa, US, on the banks of the Iowa River in East Central 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 including workshops with poet Dennis Schmitz. Carver's first book of poems, Near Klamath, was published in 1968 by the English Club of Sacramento State College. Sacramento redirects here. ... California State University, Sacramento, more commonly referred to as Sacramento State or Sac State, is a public university located in the city of Sacramento, California, USA. It is part of the California State University system. ...

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 for his inappropriate writing style. In the 1970s and 1980s as his writing career began to take off, Carver taught for several years at universities throughout the United States. Location in Santa Clara County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Santa Clara Government  - Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto[1] Area  - City 25. ...

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 less teaching than drinking and almost no writing. The next year, after leaving Iowa City, Cheever went to a treatment center to attempt to overcome his alcoholism, but Carver continued drinking for three years. After being hospitalized three times because of his drinking (between June of 1976 and February or March of 1977), Carver began his 'second life' and stopped drinking on June 2, 1977, with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa is a graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ... AA meeting sign // Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an informal meeting society for recovering alcoholics whose primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. ...

Carver met the poet Tess Gallagher at a writers' conference in Dallas, Texas in 1978. From May until August, 1979, Carver and Gallagher lived in a borrowed cabin near Port Angeles. In September, the two moved to Syracuse, where Gallagher had been appointed the Coordinator of the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University; Carver taught as a professor in the English department. He and Gallagher jointly purchased a house in Syracuse, at 832 Maryland Avenue. In ensuing years, the house became so popular that the couple had to hang a sign outside that read "Writers At Work" in order to be left alone. In 1982, Carver and first wife, Maryann, were divorced.^[1] He married Gallagher in 1988 in Reno, Nevada. Six weeks 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. He is buried at Ocean View Cemetery in Port Angeles, Washington. As his will directed, Tess Gallagher assumed the management of his literary estate. Tess Gallagher (b. ... Reno redirects here. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Nevada. ... Early morning photograph from the pier tower Port Angeles is a city in Clallam County, Washington, United States. ... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ... Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. ... American Academy of Arts and Letters is an organization whose goal is to foster, assist, and sustain an interest in American literature, music, and art. ... A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of the literary estate of an author who has died. ...

In 2001 the novelist Chuck Kinder published Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale, a roman à clef of his friendship with Carver in the 1970s. In 2006 Maryann Burk Carver wrote a memoir of her years with Carver: What It Used To Be Like; A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver. Charles Alfonso Kinder, II (b. ... A roman à clef or roman à clé (French for novel with a key) is a novel describing real-life events behind a façade of fiction. ...

Writing

Carver's career was dedicated 2to 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 and a recipient of an honorable mention in the 2006 New York Times article citing the best works of fiction of the previous 25 years). Another stated reason for his brevity was "that the story [or 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 was clearly reflective of his own life. The same could probably be said of the recurring theme of alcoholism and recovery. Where Im Calling From is a story by Raymond Carver set in a centre for recovering alcoholics. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... A blue-collar worker is a working class employee who performs manual or technical labor, such as in a factory or in technical maintenance trades, in contrast to a white-collar worker, who does non-manual work generally at a desk. ...

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. Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 — July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Russian: , IPA: ) was a Russian short story writer and playwright. ... Kafka redirects here. ... Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel, Russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель (13 July [O.S. 1 July] 1894 – January 27, 1940) was a Soviet journalist, playwright, and short story writer. ... For the actor, husband of Ayn Rand, see Frank OConnor (actor). ... Victor Sawdon Pritchett (December 16, 1900 - March 20, 1997), was a British writer and critic. ...

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, Gordon Lish instructed Carver to use five in place of fifteen. Objecting to the "surgical amputation and transplantation" of Lish's editing, Carver eventually broke with him.^[2]) During this time, Carver also submitted poetry to James Dickey, then poetry editor of Esquire. His style has also been described as Dirty realism, which connected him with a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s that included Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff -- two writers Carver was closely acquainted with -- as well as Ann Beattie and Jayne Anne Phillips. With the exception of Beattie, who wrote about upper-middle class people, these were writers who focused on sadness and loss in 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." For other uses, see Minimalism (disambiguation). ... Esquire is a magazine for men owned by the Hearst Corporation. ... Gordon Jay Lish (born February 11, 1934 in Hewlett, New York) is an American writer. ... Gordon Jay Lish (born February 11, 1934 in Hewlett, New York) is an American writer. ... James Dickey (February 2, 1923 – January 19, 1997) was a popular United States poet and novelist. ... Dirty realism is a North American literary movement born in the 1970s-80s in which the narrative is stripped down to its fundamental features. ... Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. ... Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff (born June 19, 1945, in Birmingham, Alabama) is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. ... Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American short story writer and novelist. ... Jayne Anne Phillips (born July 1952) is an American novelist and short story writer who was born in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia. ... Thoreau redirects here. ...

His first published story appeared in 1960, titled "The Furious Seasons." More florid than 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 published by Capra Press, and can now be found in recent collections No Heroics, Please and Call If You Need Me. William Cuthbert Faulkner (born William Falkner), (September 25, 1897–July 6, 1962) was an American author. ...

His first collection, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, was first published in 1976; the title story had appeared in the Best American Short Stories 1967 collection. The collection itself was shortlisted for the National Book Award, though it sold fewer than 5,000 copies that year. He was nominated again in 1984 for his third major-press collection Cathedral, - the volume generally thought to be Carver's best. Also included in the collection are the award-winning stories "A Small Good Thing", and "Where I'm Calling From" -- a story, first printed in the New Yorker, John Updike selected in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Carver said that he saw Cathedral as a turning point in his career in its move towards a more poetic and optimistic style. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, published in 1976, was the first short-story collection by American writer Raymond Carver. ... John Hoyer Updike (born March 18, 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania) is an American novelist, poet, short story writer and literary critic. ...

His final (incomplete) collection of seven stories, titled Elephant in Britain (included in "Where I'm Calling From") was composed in the five years before his death. The nature of these stories, especially "Errand", have led to some speculation that Carver was preparing to write a novel. Only one piece of this work has survived - the unpromising fragment "The Augustine Notebooks," printed in No Heroics, Please.

Tess Gallagher published five Carver stories posthumously in Call If You Need Me; one of the stories ("Kindling") won an O. Henry Award in 1999. Prior to his death, Carver had won six O. Henry Awards for the stories "Are These Actual Miles" (originally titled "What is it?") (1972), "Put Yourself in My Shoes" (1974), "Are You A Doctor?" (1975), "A Small, Good Thing" (1983), and "Errand" (1988), respectively. The O. Henry Awards are yearly prizes given to short stories of exceptional merit. ...

Works

Fiction

Collections

• Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (first published 1976)
• Furious Seasons (1977)
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)
• Cathedral (1984)
• Elephant (1988)

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, published in 1976, was the first short-story collection by American writer Raymond Carver. ...

Compilations

• Where I'm Calling From (1988)
• Short Cuts: Selected Stories (1993) - (film tie-in)

Where Im Calling From is a story by Raymond Carver set in a centre for recovering alcoholics. ... Short Cuts is a 1993 film directed by Robert Altman. ... Short Cuts is a 1993 film directed by Robert Altman. ...

Poetry

Collections

• Near Klamath (1968)
• Winter Insomnia (1970)
• At Night The Salmon Move (1976)
• Where Water Comes Together With Other Water (1985)
• Ultramarine (1986)
• A New Path To The Waterfall (1989)

// Charles Causley, Underneath the Water Rod McKuen - Lonesome Cities Black Fire, edited by LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal, an anthology of African American poetry See 1968 Governor Generals Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. ... // Charles Causley, Figgie Hobbin See 1970 Governor Generals Awards for a complete list of winners and finalists for those awards. ... // Two poems written in 1965 by Mao Zedong just before the Cultural Revolution, including Two Birds: A Dialogue, are published on January 1[1] Elizabeth Bishop, One Act Marya Fiamengo, In Praise of Older Women Thom Gunn, Jack Straws Castle Derek Walcott, Sea Grapes James Merrill: Divine Comedies, including... // The term New Formalism was first used in the article The Yuppie Poet in the May 1985 issue of the AWP Newsletter in an attack on the poetry movement. ... // March 4 - President Ronald Reagan publicly recites from memory lines from Robert Services The Cremation of Sam McGee Wendy Cope, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis a best-seller December 18 Pforzheimer Collection of the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley and his circle donated to the New York Public Library... // Dead Poets Society, a film with excerpts from many traditional poets, ending with the title and opening line of Walt Whitmans lament on the death of Abraham Lincoln, O Captain! My Captain! My Left Foot, a film about Christy Brown, the Irish poet, and based on his autobiography Edward...

Compilations

• In a Marine Light: Selected Poems (1988)
• All of Us: The Collected Poems (1996)

// Joseph Brodsky, To Urania Federico García Lorca, Poeta en Nueva York first translation into English as A Poet in New York this year (written in 1930, first published posthumously in 1940) Philip Larkin, Collected Poems Michael Palmer, Sun The New British Poetry, a poetry anthology, jointly edited by Gillian... // The movie Dead Man, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, about a man named William Blake on a trek through the American West who is taken as the resurrected Romantic poet by a character named Nobody. ...

Screenplays

• Dostoevsky (1985, with Tess Gallagher)

Essays, Poems, Stories (Uncollected Works)

• Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories (1983)
• No Heroics, Please (1999)
• Call if You Need Me (2000)

These books gather 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 new stories, two found in Carver's desk by his last partner, Tess Gallagher and three found in his archives by scholar William Stull. Tess Gallagher (b. ...

Films

• Short Cuts directed by Robert Altman
• Everything Goes directed by Andrew Kotatko
• Jindabyne (based on So Much Water So Close to Home) directed by Ray Lawrence

Short Cuts is a 1993 film directed by Robert Altman. ... For other persons named Robert Altman, see Robert Altman (disambiguation). ... Everything Goes film poster Everything Goes is a 2004 film directed by Andrew Kotatko. ... Jindabyne is a 2006 Australian drama film adapted from the Raymond Carver short story So Much Water So Close to Home, by award-winning director Ray Lawrence and starring an ensemble cast including Gabriel Byrne, Laura Linney, Deborra-Lee Furness, John Howard. ... Ray Lawrence is an Australian film director. ...

Music

• The 1989 album So Much Water So Close to Home by Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, includes a track Everything's Turning to White which is a re-telling of Carver's story So Much Water So Close to Home

So Much Water, So Close To Home is an album by Paul Kelly & The Messengers and originally released in 1989. ... For other persons of the same name, see Paul Kelly. ...

Books and Articles about Carver

• Carver, Maryann Burk (2006). What It Used to Be Like; A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-33258-0. 

• Nesset, Kirk (1995). Stories Of Raymond Carver: A Critical Study. Ohio University Press. ISBN 0821411004. 

• Charles McGrath. "I, Editor Author", Week in Review, New York Times, October 28, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-28. 

• Stull, William L. and Gentry, Marshall Bruce (editors) (1990). Conversations With Raymond Carver (Literary Conversations Series). University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0878054499. 
• Stull, William L. and Carroll, Maureen P. (editors) (1993). Remembering Ray: A Composite Biography of Raymond Carver. Capra Press. ISBN 0884963705. 

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Raymond Carver

• [2] Rights Battle Brews over Un-Edited Carver Stories, All Things Considered, January 7, 2008
• Carversite Features story, video, photographs, poems, quotations, bibliography, more
• An indepth interview from 1985 in which Carver talks about his father, his early writing, his characters, and the 'dark humour' in some of his stories.
• The Raymond Carver Page
• The International Raymond Carver Society
• Map of Port Angeles marked with Carver's 'haunts' such as the Odyssey Bookshop
• Tell it All this review site for the posthumously published Tell it All, provides numerous links to Carver sites on the web and links to his work
• Swaim, Don (1983, 1986). Audio interviews with Raymond Carver.
• Koehne, David (1978). Echoes of Our Own Lives; An interview with Raymond Carver.
• Yardley, Jonathan (2006). Raymond Carver's first wife remembers the influential American writer.. A review of Maryann Burk Carver's What It Used To Be Like; A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver