John Cheever: A Biography

by Scott Donaldson

“A biography of great immediacy. . . . There are many sections of great poignancy, many funny things, many of electric intimacy and candor . . . there is spellbinding power, never more so than in describing Cheever’s death, pages that are both terrible and deeply moving; one is losing an old, beloved friend.” —James Salter, Los Angeles Times Book Review “John A Biography is clearly an indispensable book. Donaldson moves gracefully from the personal to the literary. . . . Solidly researched and entirely readable, admiring of the writer and knowing about the man. Stuffed with fascinating anecdotes. It’s a gut-wrenching story. Donaldson tells it straight, without embellishment, and our attention never strays.” —Dan Cryer, Newsday “A coup of investigative reporting.” —Publishers Weekly “Both erudite and earthly. What emerges is a rich tapestry that gives the reader extraordinary insight into the workings of a master storyteller’s mind.” —Jean Graham, New York Daily News “John A Biography by Scott Donaldson is as readable and ‘unputdownable’ as any thriller.” —T. Coraghessan Boyle “A revelation. What a triumph.” —Frederick Exley “Donaldson has set a high standard that other biographers will find difficult to equal.” —John Blades, Chicago Tribune

Genres: Biography, History

450 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Scott Donaldson was one of the nation's leading literary biographers. His books include the acclaimed Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poet's Life and Archibald MacLeish: An American Life, which won the Ambassador Book Award for biography. His other works are Poet in America: Winfield Townley Scott; By Force of Will: The Life and Art of Ernest Hemingway; Fool for Love: F. Scott Fitzgerald; John Cheever: A Biography; and Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald: The Rise and Fall of a Literary Friendship.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Donaldson wrote one of the few Fitzgerald biographies I haven't read yet, "Fool for Love," which I'll probably get to after this. What's nice about his Cheever biography compared to the newer one is that Cheever doesn't come across as a sexually repressed psychopath living in a hellscape of his own making yet. But then, I've only gotten to the WW2 section so far.

[David]

Cheever was an amazing talent, superb at achieving everything from intriguing fiction to alcoholic gay lust. I've read the Collected Stories; currently working on the novels. The biography reveals a profoundly disturbed erudite attractive train wreck of a human.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though Blake Bailey's mammoth bio of John Cheever gets more attention, Scott Donaldson wrote the first major bio of Cheever. It's complete and thoughtful and largely avoids Bailey's penchant for excessive, sometimes leering, detail. Donaldson is good at providing context for many of Cheever's stories, and he is not afraid of some literary analysis. An alcoholic, a chain smoker and a (frequently) closeted homosexual, Cheever is one of America's greatest writers, one who ranks with Updike and O'Hara in in "number of stories published in The New Yorker." Like Updike and O'Hara, Cheever also wrote novels, though fewer by far. Not bad for a man who did not graduate from high school, let alone attend college.

Having read this, I don't feel any particular need to read Bailey's book, though I do plan to read Susan Cheever's "Home Before Dark" about her father and his demons.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Cheever's life has been well examined by at least three biographies, including one by his daughter, and the publication of his letters and journals. His work lives on in print and with the collected Library of America treatment. I can't compare this 1988 biography with the others, but I can say that it provides a fine overview of the life of a great writer. Though highly honored towards the end of his career, some critics and public tended to dismiss his work as a "New Yorker writer," especially since many of his stories focused on suburbia: "This prejudice was so strong that it kept Norman Mailer from reading Cheever's stories until after Cheever died in 1982. When he did, Mailer found 'gem after gem' and felt 'a great sense of woe. Why didn't I know that man?'" If your reading adventures lead you to rediscover Cheever's short stories and novels, this biography by Scott Donaldson would be a good start to help you "know that man." Recommended.