Raymond Carver

From Philosopedia

Raymond Carver (25 May 1938 - 2 August 1988)

Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, to Clevie Carter, an alcoholic and sawmill worker, and Ella Beatrice, a waitress and retail clerk.

He attended a secondary school, Davis High school in Yakima, Washington, California State University, Chico, then earned his B.A. in 1963 at Humboldt State College, in Arcata, California.

An author and poet, Carver also attended the University of Iowa (where he taught with John Cheever, reportedly both drunk much of the time) and in Vermont Goddard College. From 1980 to 1983 he was a professor of English at Syracuse University.

In 1965 he married Maryann Burk (born 1949, divorced 1982), with whom they had two children. He co-habitated with Tess Gallagher (born 1943) in 1979 and they married in 1988.

Carver has been called a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s.

A humanities humanist, Carver was appreciative of Gordon Lish, an editor at Esquire and then at Alfred A. Knopf. He wrote that Lish

• is remarkably smart and sensitive to the needs of a manuscript. He's a good editor. Maybe he's a great editor. All I know for sure it that he's my editor and my friend, and I'm glad on both counts." Among these stories, which Lish edited, constantly cutting out talks about feelings, were 'Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit,' 'Fat,' and 'Tell the Women We're Going.'

Carver died of lung cancer in Port Angeles, Washington.

Selected Works

Carnations (1962)

Near Klamath (1968)

Winter Insomnia (1970)

Put Yourself In My Shoes (1974)

Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976)

At Night in the Salmon Move (1976)

Furious Seasons and Other Stories (1977)

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)

The Pheasant (1982)

Two Poems (1982)

Cathedral (1983)

If It Please You (1984)

Dostoevsky: A Screenplay (1985, with Tess Gallagher)

Where Water Comes Together With Other Water (1985)

Ultramarine (1986)

We Are Not In This Together (1987, with William Kittredge)

Elephant and Other Stories (1988)

Where I'm Calling From (1988, novel)

In A Marine Light (1988, poetry)

A New Path to the Waterfall (1989, posthumous)

Conversations with Raymond Carver (1990, posthumous)

No Heroics, Please (1991, posthumous)

Carnations (1992, posthumous)

Short Cuts (1993, posthumous)

All of Us: The Collected Poems (1996, posthumous)

Where I'm Calling From: The Selected Stories (1998, posthumous)

No Heroics Please (1999, posthumous)

Call If You Need Me (2000, posthumous)