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"The first biography of america&#8217;s best-known short story writer of the late twentieth century.The London Times called Raymond Carver \"the American Chekhov.\" The beloved, mischievous, but more modest short-story writer and poet thought of himself as \"a lucky man\" whose renunciation of alcohol allowed him to live \"ten years longer than I or anyone expected.\" In that last decade, Carver became the leading figure in a resurgence of the short story. Readers embraced his precise, sad, often funny and poignant tales of ordinary people and their troubles: poverty, drunkenness, embittered marriages, difficulties brought on by neglect rather than intent. Since Carver died in 1988 at age fifty, his legacy has been mythologized by admirers and tainted by controversy over a zealous editor&#8217;s shaping of his first two story collections. Carol Sklenicka penetrates the myths and controversies. Her decade-long search of archives across the United States and her extensive interviews with Carver&#8217;s relatives, friends, and colleagues have enabled her to write the definitive story of the iconic literary figure. Laced with the voices of people who knew Carver intimately, her biography offers a fresh appreciation of his work and an unbiased, vivid portrait of the writer.&nbsp;&nbsp;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://books.simonandschuster.com/Raymond-Carver/Carol-Sklenicka/9781439160589>