Who Is John Cheever? Age, Biography and Wiki
Born on May 27, 1912, John Cheever made an indelible mark on American literature before passing away in 1982. Known for his insightful storytelling and sharp reflections of suburban life, Cheever's works include celebrated collections such as "The Stories of John Cheever" and novels like "The Wapshot Chronicle." In 2025, John Cheever is often revisited by scholars and fans alike, highlighting his influence on modern literature.
| Occupation | Novelist |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | May 27, 1912 |
| Age | 70 Years |
| Birth Place | Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Gemini |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 18 June, 1982 |
| Died Place | Ossining, New York, U.S. |
Popularity
John Cheever's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
Unfortunately, there are limited records concerning John Cheever's precise physical metrics. However, during his active years in the literary scene, he was typically described as of average height and build, reflective of the era's customary aesthetic without any notable emphasis on physicality.
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
John Cheever's personal life included a long marriage to Mary Cheever, with whom he had three children. While the couple faced challenges, their partnership remained a significant aspect of his turbulent life. In 2025, discussions about Cheever's relationships frequently intersect with examinations of his themes concerning family dynamics, showcasing how his personal experiences informed his writing.
John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs".
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 a novella, Oh What a Paradise It S
eems (1982).
Net Worth and Salary
At the time of his passing, John Cheever's net worth was estimated to be around $1 million. His income primarily stemmed from book sales, royalties, and various writing projects. While exact figures for 2025 cannot accurately depict his earnings as a posthumous author, the continued sales of his works and adaptations of his stories into film and theater sustain his legacy in the literary market.
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 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 a congratulatory telegram from William Maxwell: "WELL ROARED LION".
Career, Business and Investments
John Cheever's literary career spanned several decades. He began writing short stories while in college and established a name for himself in the 1940s and 1950s. Cheever received numerous accolades, including the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His astute observations of American life have continued to resonate through adaptations and academic analyses into 2025. Investments in the preservation of his literary legacy have ensured that Cheever's work remains influential.
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, 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 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.
Social Network
John Cheever's social circle included notable figures in the literary world. Though Cheever's life predated the advent of digital social media, his influence is celebrated on various platforms dedicated to literature. Fans and scholars discuss his works on forums, book clubs, and academic circles, thus keeping his spirit alive in contemporary discourse.
Cheever's work became longer and more complex, apparently 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 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 the Cheevers by another suburban chronicler, Richard Yates. In Scarborough, he was a casual volunteer for the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department.
Education
Cheever attended Boston University for a brief period before dropping out to pursue a career in writing. Despite not completing his formal education, Cheever's relentless self-education through reading and writing led him to become one of the most notable writers of his time. His educational experiences often impacted the themes he explored in his stories, particularly the nuances of American identity and personal crises.
