John Cheever suffered with alcohol and drugs for many years until he signed himself into a clinic and never again took a drink of liquor. He is known for his keen, often critical view of the American middle class sometimes reflecting an acceptance of his own bisexuality.
John Cheever Early Life
John Cheever was born on May 27, 1912 in Quincy, Massachusetts, the second son of Frederick Lincoln Cheever and Mary Devereaux Liley Cheever. His father owned a shoe factory that was lost during the 1930’s Great Depression. As a child of older parents, he felt rejected and ignored and was haunted by a story that his father had invited an abortionist to dinner during the time his mother was pregnant with him. When Cheever’s father lost his job as a salesman, his mother opened a gift shop to support the family. Because of this Cheever resented his mother, feeling that his father had been emasculated by being supported by a wife who became the breadwinner
John Cheever was sent to Thayer Academy at at age seventeen, but was expelled for smoking and getting poor grades when he was supposed to be Harvard bound. It was during this time that his first short story appeared in The New Republic on October 1, 1930. After leaving school, Cheever toured Europe with his brother and later moved to New York where he would later become associated with The New Yorker which began publishing his stories in 1934. John Cheever and Marty Winternitz were married on March 22, 1941. During this time he spent four years in the army and later began writing television scripts. He was bisexual and is said to have affairs outside of his marriage.
John Cheever Bisexuality.
John Cheever struggle with coming to terms with his sexual orientation was first reflected in his stories such as “Late Gathering” (1931), and “The Brothers” (1937), both of which had homosexual overtones. In “Clancy in the Tower of Babel” (1953) he dealt with homosexuality overtly for the first time and as he become more accepting of his own sexual orientation, it was included in his work. Cheever depicts bisexual experiences free of guilt or remorse in “The Leaves, the Lion-Fish, and the Bear” (1974) and “Oh What a Paradise It Seems” (1982).
John Cheever Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
John Cheever began his 20-year use alcohol and drugs at the height of his career. He struggled with alcohol-related problems, marital troubles and depression. At the urging of his family, he signed himself into Smithers Alcohol Rehabilitation Center and never took another drink or drugs after the 28-day treatment program. His daughter wrote in “Home Before Dark” that “In three years, he went from being an alcoholic with a drug problem who smoked two packs of Marlboros a day to being a man so abstemious that his principal drugs were the sugar he used in his desserts and the…tea that he drank instead of whisky.”
John Cheever was among the very few authors who were able to recover from alcoholism and drug abuse perhaps because of the strong support of his family. He had won many coveted awards for his writing including the National Book Award (1957), the Pulitizer Prize (1978), and the National Medal for Literature (1982). John Cleever died of cancer that year on June 18.
Bibliography:
Donaldson, Scott. John Cheever: A Biography, Indiana: Author House,2002
Cheever,John and Robert Gottlieb, Editor. The Journals of John Cheever. NY: Vintage, 2008.
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