Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver was a prominent author who worked during the second half of the 20th century. Carver lived from 1938 to 1988, when he died from lung cancer. He was born into a working class family in Oregon and moved frequently during his childhood. His father was an alcoholic and his mother worked hard to support the family. Carver’s interest in literature began when he read mysteries by Mickey Spillane in high school. After high school, he married his sixteen year old girlfriend and had two kids with her. His writing career commenced when he was in night school at Humboldt State College. His works consisted of many poems and short stories. Carver like his dad, had a substance abuse problem which affected his writing and led to his death. At the start of his career, he wrote with a minimalistic style which featured a lack of detail and as he became more experienced, his stories began to have more detail. Boxes was one of the first few stories in which Carver started using more detail. His most famous works include Winter Insomnia, and the Cathedral. Carver died from lung cancer in 1988 as a result of his alcohol and tobacco addictions.