Biography carver raymond

Raymond Carver, an outstanding American poet and novelist, emerged as one of the greatest short story writers in the English language during the latter half of the 20th century. Born to a sawmill worker and waitress, Carver's early life was marked by hardship. He married at the age of 18 and toiled in various demanding jobs. Inhe enrolled in a writing course taught by John Gardner, which ignited his passion for writing.

InCarver debuted with his short story "Furious Seasons. He taught at several American universities in the s and s, while balancing his writing with menial jobs to support his family. Brought up in a time and place in which alcoholism went unremarked, Ray had been drinking since he was a teenager. His first date at age 16 ended, by one account, when he "got so drunk he vomited all over his date's dress" "Instead of Dying".

Now he fell in with a wild crowd in the Bay Area and in Missoula, Montana, where his biography carver raymond William Kittredge presided over a legendary court of alcoholic writers. During one visit to Missoula inCarver embarked on an extramarital affair that would last years. From there, said his daughter, "his drinking escalated and it began undermining every aspect of family and work structure he had" Halpert, Accounts of what Carver called his "Bad Raymond" days are as voluminous as they are shabby; one friend described him as akin to "a low-rent criminal" Sklenicka, Ray wrote bad biographies carver raymond, had assignations in multiple time zones, and drove drunk constantly, keeping a bottle under the seat of his bombed-out Mercury Comet.

In he taught at Iowa alongside one of his heroes, the short story master John Cheever. But, as Ray recalled, "I don't think either of us ever took the covers off our typewriters. We made trips to a liquor store twice a week in my car" Simpson and Buzbee, InGordon Lish offered to publish Carver's first story collection under his new imprint at the publisher McGraw-Hill.

The day after the book's release, Ray would stand trial in San Jose for unemployment-insurance fraud. Though found guilty, he received a suspended sentence and was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. By now his drinking had disintegrated him. Several times he attacked and injured Maryann in an intoxicated rage, once nearly killing her when he bludgeoned her with a bottle of vodka and severed an artery.

Ray underwent four hospitalizations in the years as he tried to gain control of his addiction. If he continued to drink, he was told, he would be dead in six months. His story "Where I'm Calling From," whose narrator reports from a lightly fictionalized "drying-out facility," is suggestive of Ray's frailty during this period. Weak and desperate, stalked by withdrawal seizures, the narrator sits smoking on the facility's porch, listening to stories to pass the time.

But there was another part" Collected Stories At Duffy's, Carver learned to taper off his drinking with periodic doses of cheap bourbon called "hummers. I believe these days and nights were the lowest of the low he'd ever felt in his life. Sitting alone in our living room, sometimes in the dark, his marriage was gone, fearing he'd never write again, and that he had nothing" Halpert, Carver kept his things in the basement of a nearby church, where they were once inadvertently put out for sale by parishioners.

Fearing relapse if he socialized with his Bay Area circle, Ray moved alone to Humboldt County, renting a cottage behind a restaurant in McKinleyville. His health remained delicate: a friend recalled that Carver kept all the doors and windows open to the cold coastal air, saying "if he got comfortable he'd want to drink" Sklenicka, In late May, he visited San Francisco for a booksellers' convention and resumed imbibing vodka "as if it were cream soda" at a party Burk Carver, Lifeline in hand, he returned to McKinleyville and "stayed drunk for a couple more days.

Then I just kept not drinking. Gradually I began to put a little distance between myself and the booze. A week. Two weeks. Suddenly it was a month. He was thirty-nine years old. I'll always be an alcoholic, but I'm no longer a practicing alcoholic" Simpson and Buzbee, At Ray's pleading, Maryann took leave from her teaching job and went up to join him in McKinleyville.

There, like the couple depicted in the Carver story "Chef's House," they committed to restoring their marriage. But it didn't last, and in they drifted apart for good. He took a teaching post in El Paso; she remained on the West Coast. Rayet, Jacqueline —. Rayet, Georges Antoine Pons. Raye, Martha — Raye, Martha. Raycole, Jazz —. Raymond Chandler Jr.

Raymond IV count of Toulouse. Raymond James Financial Inc. Raymond Kurzweil. Raymond Martini. Raymond Motor Transportation Company v. Rice U. Raymond Nonnatus, St. Raymond of Capua, Bl. Raymond of Fitero, Bl. Raymond of Marseilles. Raymond of Roda-Barbastro, St. Raymond of Sabunde. Raymond of Toulouse. Raymond of Toulouse, St. Raymond Pearl.

Raymond VI count of Toulouse. Raymond Vieussens. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century. He also helped improve short story writing in the s. He was a fisherman and a heavy drinker. Carver's mother sometimes worked as a waitress and as a clerk in a shop. He had one brother, James Franklin Carver, was born in Carver studied at local schools in Amery, Wisconsin.

In his spare time he read mostly novels by Mickey Spillane or publications such as Sports Afield and Outdoor Life and hunted and fished with friends and family. After graduating from Yakima High School inCarver worked with his father at a sawmill in California. In Juneaged 19, he married year-old Maryann Burk. She had just graduated from a private Episcopal school for girls.

Their daughter, Christine La Rae, was born in December When their second child, a boy named Vance Lindsay, was born the next year, Carver was Carver supported his family by working as a janitor, sawmill laborer, delivery man, and library assistant.

Biography carver raymond

During their marriage, Maryann worked as a waitress, salesperson, administrative assistant, and high school English teacher. Carver became interested in writing in California. He had moved there with his family because his mother-in-law had a home in Paradise. Carver attended a creative-writing course taught by the novelist John Gardner.

Gardner became his mentor and had a major influence on Carver's life and career. Carver received his B. During this period he was first published and served as editor for the university literary magazine called Toyon. Carver included some of his own writing under pen names.