Known above all for what is called “short fiction”, Raymond Carter has made himself known for his simple stories with normal protagonists often struck by despair, which the reader suddenly discovers after an apparent simple story of everyday life.
Who was Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (Clatskanie, May 25, 1938 – Port Angeles, August 2, 1988) was an American writer. It grows in one humble family, made up of mother waitress and father workers at a sawmill, which leads him from an early age to find new jobs. In his life, however, there is a great passion that he cultivates in parallel: writing.
With i economic hardships caused by the war, however, can only put aside his passion.
However, it still succeeds during the years of training to continue with his readings which will become an important point of reference for his career. After completing his studies he decides to move to a small town in California to join his father and work with him, but he realizes that he cannot support the job in the sawmill so he returns to his town to work as a delivery boy in the pharmacy.
The beginning of Raymond Carver’s career
In 1957, still very young, he married Maryann from whom his daughter Christine Rae was born. Having a family to take care of prevents him from devoting himself to free writing and therefore, under his wife’s encouragement, he decides to enroll in correspondence writing school. He also attended courses in creative writing and literature, publishing for the first time in a magazine of his college.
Under the Gardner’s guide decides to move to the city of Chico with the hope of being able to enter the intellectual environment. From the readings of Hemingway he is now in an interesting environment, heavily influenced by his mentor and the well-known Gordon Lish. Despite this positive career start, writing in the university magazine does not allow him to support a family and so he decides to look for work in the timber sector. With the conclusion of the course of study and the attainment of the degree he succeeds in obtaining the title of editor of the university magazine.
Raymond Carver and the long-awaited success
The need to learn more continues for him and thus participates in highly disputed seminars. He then moves to Sacramento where he starts work in the bookstore as a caretaker and here he works night shifts that allow him to devote himself to writing. A few years later he manages to get a assignment at a well-known publishing house where he gets the role of both editor and advertiser.
After several difficulties, the moment of notoriety with the beginning of the ’70s where he begins to publish on “Esquire” obtaining moderate success. In recent years he also received the position of professor at the University of California, continuing to publish in journals. The university period as a teacher, however, proves to be unsuccessful in other respects as he falls into the habit of alcoholism which also leads him to question personal relationships.
After this difficult period he dedicated himself to writing his first novels with which he also gets nominations for well-known literary prizes. To devote himself more to artistic production he also retires to the Yadoo Corporation, a well-known retreat for artists that has helped artists such as Truman Capote and Henry Roth. In these years he obtains great recognition and the desire to live by dedicating himself entirely to writing is realized for him. It also gets the nomination for the well-known Pulitzer Prize for his “Cathedral” collection.
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