American short story writer and poet Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, in 1938 and died in Port Angeles, Washington, in 1988. Very few writers have been more influential on future generations of American and international authors. Carver played a major role in reviving the American short story form in the 1980s, and he has been referred to as one of the “greatest modern short story writers” and as “the American Chekhov”...Though he may be best known for his eight books of short fiction, he also wrote essays, plays, a screenplay, reviews, introductions, and seven books of poetry.  Ten films have been adapted from his stories....

Carver married and had two children shortly after his high school graduation and made his living in a series of menial jobs.... Like the characters in his fiction and poetry, who often struggled with alcoholism, divorce, or bankruptcy, Carver’s family life was difficult, and the strain eventually unraveled his first marriage.  Unlike many of his characters, who are not quite able to put their feelings into words, Carver was able to tap into the kind of suffering he had lived and observed and ultimately to relate these conflicts to readers in his carefully crafted and highly realistic stories and poems.  

After multiple hospitalizations due to severe alcoholism, Carver finally confronted his addiction starting in 1977....His sobriety date was June 2, 1977.  In 1977, he also met the poet Tess Gallagher and began a relationship with her that would continue until his death.... In 1983, ... Carver received the Mildred and Harold Strauss award [that] required that he quit teaching and devote himself fully to writing.... This timely award, Carver's sobriety, and his companioning by the writer Tess Gallagher, who became his wife June 17, 1988, allowed him to become incredibly prolific in his final years. Raymond Carver lost his battle with lung cancer in 1988.