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42-764: It premiered on January 12, 1982, with The Shady Hill Kidnapping , written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart . Its final broadcast, In the Wings: Angels in America on Broadway , a rerun of a behind-the-scenes look at Tony Kushner 's award-winning play in two parts, aired on January 1, 1994. The series proved to be the springboard for the careers of numerous performers, including David Marshall Grant , Laura Linney , A Martinez , Conchata Ferrell , Eric Roberts , Lynne Thigpen , John Malkovich , Peter Riegert , Lupe Ontiveros , Ben Stiller , and Megan Mullally . As part of WGBH's development of

84-514: A Best Actress nod for Jane Alexander in Testament and a Best Actor nod for Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver . Golden Globe recognitions included three for Stand and Deliver (two for Olmos ( Leading Actor ) and Diamond Phillips ( Supporting Actor ) and one for Best Motion Picture - Drama ). American Playhouse also won a Peabody Award in 1990. Episodes like Nothing but

126-688: A 1981 National Book Award. On April 27, 1982, six weeks before his death, Cheever was awarded the National Medal for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters . His work has been included in the Library of America . John William Cheever was born in Quincy, Massachusetts , the second child of Frederick Lincoln Cheever and Mary Liley Cheever. His father was a prosperous shoe salesman, and Cheever spent much of his childhood in

168-531: A 1992 episode of the TV sitcom Seinfeld , when the character Susan discovers explicit love letters from Cheever to her father. After Blake Bailey published his biography of Richard Yates , A Tragic Honesty (2003), Cheever's son Ben suggested Bailey write an authoritative biography of Cheever. It was published by Knopf on March 10, 2009, and won that year's National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and

210-677: A Man , The Thin Blue Line , El Norte and Stand and Deliver were each inducted into the National Film Registry . Overdrawn at the Memory Bank was featured as an episode of the cult science fiction series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of

252-645: A bedroom and bath with four other men. Driven home by his wife on May 7, Cheever never drank alcohol again. In March 1977, Cheever appeared on the cover of Newsweek with the caption, "A Great American Novel: John Cheever's Falconer . " The novel was No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks. The Stories of John Cheever appeared in October 1978, and became one of the most successful collections ever, selling 125,000 copies in hardback and winning universal acclaim. Cheever

294-474: A congratulatory telegram from William Maxwell: "WELL ROARED LION". With the proceeds from the sale of film rights to "The Housebreaker of Shady Hill", Cheever and his family spent the following year in Italy, where his son Federico was born on March 9, 1957 ("We wanted to call him Frederick", Cheever wrote, "but there is of course no K in the alphabet here and I gave up after an hour or two"). The Wapshot Scandal

336-546: A few months later he met his future wife, Mary Winternitz, seven years his junior. She was a daughter of Milton Winternitz, dean of Yale Medical School , and granddaughter of Thomas A. Watson , an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell during the invention of the telephone. They married in 1941. Cheever enlisted as an infantryman in the U.S. Army on May 7, 1942. He was later reassigned to the Signal Corps . His first collection of short stories, The Way Some People Live ,

378-544: A gloomy summer in Martha's Vineyard . Largely on the strength of these two stories (still in manuscript at the time), Cheever was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship . On May 28, 1951, Cheever moved to Beechwood , the suburban estate of Frank A. Vanderlip, a banker, in the Westchester hamlet of Scarborough-on-Hudson , where he rented a small cottage on the edge of the estate. The house, coincidentally, had been occupied before

420-516: A large Victorian house , at 123 Winthrop Avenue, in the then-genteel suburb of Wollaston, Massachusetts . In the mid-1920s, however, as the New England shoe and textile industries began their long decline, Frederick Cheever lost most of his money and began to drink heavily. To pay the bills, Mary Cheever opened a gift shop in downtown Quincy—an "abysmal humiliation" for the family, as John saw it. In 1926, Cheever began attending Thayer Academy ,

462-501: A long legal battle, eventually resulting in Thirteen Uncollected Stories by John Cheever , published in 1994 by Academy Chicago. Two of Cheever's children, Susan and Benjamin , became writers. Susan's memoir, Home Before Dark (1984), revealed Cheever's sexual relationships with both women and men, which was confirmed by his posthumously published letters and journals. This was parodied to comedic effect in

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504-399: A novella, Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1982). His main themes include the duality of human nature: sometimes dramatized as the disparity between a character's decorous social persona and inner corruption, and sometimes as a conflict between two characters (often brothers) who embody the salient aspects of both—light and dark, flesh and spirit. Many of his works also express a nostalgia for

546-544: A private day school, but he found the atmosphere stifling and performed poorly, and finally transferred to Quincy High in 1928. A year later, he won a short story contest sponsored by the Boston Herald and was invited back to Thayer as a "special student" on academic probation. His grades continued to be poor, however, and, in March 1930, he was either expelled for smoking or (more likely) departed of his own accord when

588-572: A professorship at Boston University the following year and moved into a fourth-floor walkup apartment at 71 Bay State Road. Cheever's drinking soon became suicidal and, in March 1975, his brother Fred, now virtually indigent, but sober after his own lifelong bout with alcoholism, drove John back to Ossining. On April 9, Cheever was admitted to the Smithers Alcoholic Rehabilitation Unit in New York, where he shared

630-564: A protest against the " slice of life " fiction typical of The New Yorker in those years. An early draft of "The Day the Pig Fell into the Well"—a long story with elaborate Chekhovian nuances, meant to "operate something like a rondo ", as Cheever wrote to his friend and New Yorker editor William Maxwell —was completed in 1949, though the magazine did not make space for it until five years later. In 1951, Cheever wrote "Goodbye, My Brother", after

672-420: A sinister radio that broadcasts the private conversations of tenants in a New York apartment building. A startling advance on Cheever's early, more naturalistic work, the story elicited a fan letter from the magazine's irascible editor, Harold Ross : "It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish." Cheever's son Benjamin was born on May 4, 1948. Cheever's work became longer and more complex, apparently

714-476: A vanishing way of life (as evoked by the mythical St. Botolphs in the Wapshot novels), characterized by abiding cultural traditions and a profound sense of community, as opposed to the alienating nomadism of modern suburbia . A compilation of his short stories, The Stories of John Cheever , won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a National Book Critics Circle Award , and its first paperback edition won

756-591: Is somewhat autobiographical, particularly regarding the character of Coverly, who, like Cheever, experiences feelings of bisexuality . The novel was Cheever's first, though he had previously written short stories. It was also the first novel selected for the Book of the Month Club to include the word fuck in the narrative. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Wapshot Chronicle 63rd on its list of

798-516: Is the debut novel by American author John Cheever about an eccentric family that lives in a Massachusetts fishing village. Published in 1957, it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1958, and was followed by a sequel, The Wapshot Scandal , published in 1964. The Wapshot Chronicle is the sometimes-humorous story of Leander Wapshot, his eccentric Cousin Honora, and his sons, Moses and Coverly, as they all deal with life. The story

840-686: The Francis Parkman Prize , and was a finalist for the Pulitzer and James Tait Black Memorial Prize . Also in 2009, Cheever was featured in Soul of a People: Writing America's Story , a 90-minute documentary about the WPA Writers' Project. His life during the 1930s is also highlighted in the companion book, Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America . The Wapshot Chronicle The Wapshot Chronicle

882-523: The Yaddo artist's colony in Saratoga Springs, New York : "The idea of leaving the city", he said, "has never been so distant or desirable." Ames denied his first application but offered him a place the following year, whereupon Cheever decided to sever his "ungainly attachment" to his brother. Cheever spent the summer of 1934 at Yaddo, which would serve as a second home for much of his life. For

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924-467: The Cheever family home. Cheever's daughter, Susan, described her parents' marriage as "European", saying: "they were people who felt their feelings weren't necessarily a reason to shatter a family. They certainly hurt each other plenty but they didn't necessarily see that as a reason for divorce." In the summer of 1981, a tumor was discovered in Cheever's right lung, and, in late November, he returned to

966-582: The Cheevers by another suburban chronicler, Richard Yates . In Scarborough, he was a casual volunteer for the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department . Cheever's second collection, The Enormous Radio , was published in 1953. Reviews were mostly positive, though Cheever's reputation continued to suffer because of his close association with The New Yorker (considered middlebrow by such influential critics as Dwight Macdonald ), and he

1008-861: The Descriptive Video Service (DVS), American Playhouse was one of the first U.S. television programs to air with audio description for the visually impaired on the Secondary audio program (SAP). After trialing the system during previous seasons, the 1990 season was the first to offer it as part of their wider rollout of DVS, initially through 32 member stations. Some of the productions won multiple Emmys: one from Robert Morse in Tru , Outstanding Children's Program for Displaced Person and technical achievements for The Meeting alongside many nominations. Academy Award recognitions included El Norte ' s nomination for Best Original Screenplay ,

1050-543: The July 18, 1964, issue of The New Yorker . Cheever noted with chagrin that the story (one of his best) appeared toward the back of the issue—behind a John Updike story—since, as it happened, Maxwell and other editors at the magazine were a little bewildered by its non- New Yorkerish surrealism. In the summer of 1966, a screen adaptation of "The Swimmer" , starring Burt Lancaster , was filmed in Westport, Connecticut. Cheever

1092-484: The front page of The New York Times Book Review : "John Cheever's short stories are and will remain lovely birds... But in the gluey atmosphere of Bullet Park no birds sing." Cheever's alcoholic depression deepened, and in May he resumed psychiatric treatment (which again proved fruitless). He began an affair with actress Hope Lange in the late 1960s. On May 12, 1973, Cheever awoke coughing uncontrollably and learned at

1134-486: The headmaster delivered an ultimatum to the effect that he must either apply himself or leave. The 18-year-old Cheever wrote a sardonic account of this experience, titled " Expelled ", which was subsequently published in The New Republic . (1930). Around this time, Cheever's older brother, Fred, forced to withdraw from Dartmouth in 1926 because of the family's financial crisis, re-entered Cheever's life "when

1176-499: The hospital and learned that the cancer had spread to his femur, pelvis, and bladder. His last novel, Oh What a Paradise It Seems , was published in March 1982. On April 27, he received the National Medal for Literature at Carnegie Hall , where colleagues were shocked by his ravaged appearance after months of cancer therapy. "A page of good prose", he declared in his remarks, "remains invincible." John Updike wrote that "All

1218-616: The hospital that he had almost died from pulmonary edema caused by alcoholism. After a month in the hospital, he returned home vowing never to drink again; however, he resumed drinking in August. Despite his precarious health, he spent the fall semester teaching (and drinking, both with fellow writer-teacher, Raymond Carver ) at the Iowa Writers' Workshop , where his students included T. C. Boyle , Allan Gurganus , and Ron Hansen . As his marriage continued to deteriorate, Cheever accepted

1260-455: The joint session, however, Hays said (as Cheever noted in his journal) that Cheever himself was the problem: "a neurotic man, narcissistic, egocentric, friendless, and so deeply involved in [his] own defensive illusions that [he has] invented a manic-depressive wife." Cheever soon terminated therapy. Bullet Park was published in 1969, and received a devastating review from Benjamin DeMott on

1302-493: The literary acolytes assembled there fell quite silent, astonished by such faith." When Cheever died on June 18, 1982, flags in Ossining were lowered to half staff for ten days. He is buried at First Parish Cemetery, Norwell, Massachusetts . In 1987, Cheever's widow, Mary, signed a contract with a small publisher, Academy Chicago Publishers , for the right to publish Cheever's uncollected short stories. The contract led to

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1344-578: The magazine. Maxim Lieber became his literary agent, 1935–1941. In 1938, he began work for the Federal Writers' Project in Washington, D.C. , which he considered an embarrassing boondoggle. As an editor for the WPA Guide to New York City , Cheever was charged with (as he put it) "twisting into order the sentences written by some incredibly lazy bastards." He quit after less than a year and

1386-588: The next few years, Cheever divided his time between Manhattan, Saratoga, Lake George (where he was caretaker of the Yaddo-owned Triuna Island), and Quincy, where he continued to visit his parents, who had reconciled and moved to an apartment at 60 Spear Street. Cheever drove from one place to another in a dilapidated Model A roadster, but had no permanent address. In 1935, Katharine White of The New Yorker bought Cheever's story "Buffalo" for $ 45—the first of many that Cheever would publish in

1428-422: The next five years, he would dress in his only suit and take the elevator to a maid's room in the basement, where he stripped to his boxer shorts and wrote until lunchtime. In 1946, he accepted a $ 4,800 advance from Random House to resume work on his novel, The Holly Tree , which he had discontinued during the war. "The Enormous Radio" appeared in the May 17, 1947 issue of The New Yorker —a Kafkaesque tale about

1470-455: The situation was most painful and critical", as Cheever later wrote. After the 1932 crash of Kreuger & Toll , in which Frederick Cheever had invested what was left of his money, the Cheever house on Winthrop Avenue was lost to foreclosure. The parents separated, while John and Fred took an apartment together on Beacon Hill , in Boston . In 1933, John wrote to Elizabeth Ames, the director of

1512-724: The suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan ; the Westchester suburbs; old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts , where he was born; and Italy, especially Rome . His short stories included " The Enormous Radio ", " Goodbye, My Brother ", " The Five-Forty-Eight ", " The Country Husband ", and " The Swimmer ", and he also wrote five novels: The Wapshot Chronicle ( National Book Award , 1958), The Wapshot Scandal ( William Dean Howells Medal , 1965), Bullet Park (1969), Falconer (1977) and

1554-508: Was a frequent visitor on the set, and made a cameo appearance in the movie. By then Cheever's alcoholism had become severe, exacerbated by torment concerning his bisexuality. Still, he blamed most of his marital woes on his wife, and in 1966 he consulted a psychiatrist, David C. Hays, about her hostility and "needless darkness". After a session with Mary Cheever, the psychiatrist asked to see the couple jointly; Cheever, heartened, believed his wife's difficult behavior would finally be addressed. At

1596-542: Was awarded the Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contribution to the arts by the MacDowell Colony in 1979. Cheever's marriage was damaged by his unfaithfulness. He had relationships with both men and women, including a short relationship with composer Ned Rorem and an affair with actress Hope Lange . Cheever's longest affair was with a student of his, Max Zimmer, who lived in

1638-554: Was particularly pained by the general preference for J. D. Salinger 's Nine Stories , published around the same time. Meanwhile, Random House demanded that Cheever either produce a publishable novel or pay back his advance, whereupon Cheever wrote Mike Bessie at Harper & Brothers ("These old bones are up for sale"), who bought him out of his Random House contract. In the summer of 1956, Cheever finished The Wapshot Chronicle while vacationing in Friendship, Maine , and received

1680-487: Was published in 1943 to mixed reviews. Cheever himself came to despise the book as "embarrassingly immature", and for the rest of his life destroyed every copy he could lay his hands on. However, the book may have saved his life after falling into the hands of Major Leonard Spigelgass , an MGM executive and officer in the Signal Corps, who was struck by Cheever's "childlike sense of wonder." Early that summer, Cheever

1722-481: Was published in 1964, and received perhaps the best reviews of Cheever's career up to that point (amid quibbles about the novel's episodic structure). Cheever appeared on the cover of Time magazine's March 27 issue, this for an appreciative profile, "Ovid in Ossining". (In 1961, Cheever had moved to a stately, stone-ended Dutch Colonial farmhouse in Ossining, on the east bank of the Hudson .) "The Swimmer" appeared in

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1764-641: Was transferred to the former Paramount studio in Astoria, Queens , New York City, where he commuted via subway from his apartment in Chelsea , Manhattan, New York City. Meanwhile, most of his old infantry company was killed on a Normandy beach during the D-Day invasion. Cheever's daughter Susan was born on July 31, 1943. After the war, Cheever and his family moved to an apartment building at 400 East 59th Street, near Sutton Place , Manhattan; almost every morning for

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