RAYMOND CARVER
This American author is well-known for his short stories and poems, which made him one of the most prominent writers of the 20th century.
He was born in 1938 in Oregon and died aged 50 in Washington. An early marriage with Maryanne Burk and the birth of two children made him responsible of their financial support since he was 19 years old. He had been working as a delivery man, janitor, library assistent and sawmill laborer before he could start his writing career.
Carver's first steps into literature were supported by John Gardner. His first publication appeared in 1961; it consisted in a story -strongly influenced by Faulkner- called The Furious Seasons. Carver kept improving his writing skills in Chico State University and Humboldt State College, but the authorship of his works was sometimes hidden under pseudonyms.
Once he graduated from college, he managed to combine literature-non-related jobs with long hours dedicated to writing. Carver also attended other literature classes and programs where he stood out and met several literary groups of which he became part.
This frenetic life triggered an addiction to alcohol as a way of escapism. His weakness became stronger, and his mind was no longer able to write as it did before. Eventually he stopped drinking, although he continued smoking marihuana and consuming other drugs. These were possibly the reasons of his early death from lung cancer.
The experiences mentioned above and his turbulent marriages are reflected in his characters:
Raymond Carver’s literature focuses on everyday life in American communities, with particular attention on those who are marginalized and isolated. There is a great human quality to his characters and their weaknesses and failures are as visible as their strengths and kindnesses. We readers care about them and often after reading we continue to be haunted by their fates. (The Artifice)
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Characteristics of minimalism are generally seen as one of the hallmarks of Carver's work, although, as reviewer David Wiegand notes:
"Carver never thought of himself as a minimalist or in any category, for that matter."
" 'He rejected categories generally,' Sklenicka says. 'I don't think he had an abstract mind at all. He just wasn't built that way, which is why he's so good at picking the right details that will stand for many things."
Carver's style has also been described as dirty realism, which connected him with a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s [...] who focused on sadness and loss in the everyday lives of ordinary people—often lower-middle class or isolated and marginalized people. (Wikipedia)
His works are the following:
Fiction
Collections
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (first published 1976)
Furious Seasons (1977)
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)
Cathedral (1983)
Elephant (1988)
Compilations
Where I'm Calling From (1988)
Short Cuts: Selected Stories (1993) - published to accompany Robert Altman film Short Cuts
Collected Stories (2009) - complete short fiction including Beginners
Poetry
Collections
Near Klamath (1968)
Winter Insomnia (1970)
At Night The Salmon Move (1976)
Fires (1983)
Where Water Comes Together With Other Water (1985)
Ultramarine (1986)
A New Path To The Waterfall (1989)
Gravy (Unknown year)
Compilations
In a Marine Light: Selected Poems (1988)
All of Us: The Collected Poems (1996)
Screenplays
Dostoevsky (1985, with Tess Gallagher)
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Here is one of his poems, called Fear.
Fear of falling asleep at night.
Fear of not falling asleep.
Fear of the past rising up.
Fear of the present taking flight.
Fear of the telephone that rings in the dead of night.
Fear of electrical storms.
Fear of the cleaning woman who has a spot on her cheek!
Fear of dogs I've been told won't bite.
Fear of anxiety!
Fear of having to identify the body of a dead friend.
Fear of running out of money.
Fear of having too much, though people will not believe this.
Fear of psychological profiles.
Fear of being late and fear of arriving before anyone else.
Fear of my children's handwriting on envelopes.
Fear they'll die before I do, and I'll feel guilty.
Fear of having to live with my mother in her old age, and mine.
Fear of confusion.
Fear this day will end on an unhappy note.
Fear of waking up to find you gone.
Fear of not loving and fear of not loving enough.
Fear that what I love will prove lethal to those I love.
Fear of death.
Fear of living too long.
Fear of death.
I've said that.
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