John Cheever

Excerpts from the diary of John Cheever.

John Cheever’s notes on his family, his writing, and America.

From 1964: An explorer-type bound to the suburbs endeavors to “swim across the county” through his neighbors’ backyard pools, drinking liquor along the way.

Seton is the author of a TV serial called "The Best Family". When he realizes he is dealing with mediocrity, he goes, with his wife and two boys, to a …

Fiction, from 1956: I have yearned for some women—turned green, in fact—but it seemed to me that I had never yearned for anyone the way I yearned that night for money.

A short story by John Cheever about an affair and its surprising aftermath.

Fiction, from 1951: “He could make a grievance out of anything, and it sometimes seemed that as he sat darkly at the dinner table, every word of disparagement, wherever it was aimed, came home to him.”

A classic short story by John Cheever, chronicling an apartment-building elevator operator’s Christmas Day at work.

An account of the last days of Emma Boynton, an eccentric cousin of the writer's grandmother. She was a distinguishes old lady who had taught Greek and…

Jack Lorey knew Joan Harris from their home town in Ohio. They met when they both came to New York. This is the story of how Joan, who always appeared …