The Journals of John Cheever - (Vintage International) (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In these journals, the experiences of one of the most renowned twentieth-century American writers come to life with fascinating, wholly revealing detail. - "A treasure-trove of riches." --The New York Times Book Review

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author's journals provide peerless insights into the creation of his novels and stories. But they are equally the record of a complex, often dark, always closely observed inner world. No American writer of comparable stature has left such an unreservedly revealing and moving account of himself: his family life, his literary life, and his emotional life.

The final word from one of modern America's great writers, The Journals of John Cheever provides a powerful and beautiful capstone to a towering oeuvre.

Review Quotes

"A treasure-trove of riches.... His particular gifts ... place the journals among the very best of the form." --Mary Gordon, The New York Times Book Review

"John Cheever is an enchanted realist, and his voice ... is as rich and distinctive as any of the leading voices of postwar American literature." --Philip Roth

"A provocative introduction to the mind and craft of an important American author." --The Boston Globe

"A stunning itinerary of a lost man intermittently saved by a change of wind or a moment of love... You won't find a more intimate self-portrait of a writer." --Entertainment Weekly

About the Author

John Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1912. He is the author of seven collections of stories and five novels. His first novel, The Wapshot Chronicle, won the 1958 National Book Award. In 1965 he received the Howells Medal for Fiction from the National Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1978 The Stories of John Cheever won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Shortly before his death in 1982, he was awarded the National Medal for Literature from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.