Cheever, John

Related Category: American Literature: Biographies

1912–82, American author, b. Quincy, Mass. His expulsion from Thayer Academy was the subject of his first short story, published by the New Republic when he was 17. With meticulously rendered detail, Cheever writes about life in the affluent American suburbs. Although his works are usually comic, his view is that of a moralist. Among his works are the novels The Wapshot Chronicle (1957), The Wapshot Scandal (1964), and Falconer (1977); and two short-story collections.

See his journals (1991); his letters, ed. by B. Cheever (1988); biographies by S. Donaldson (1988) and S. Cheever, Home Before Dark (1984); study by L. Waldeland (1979).