 First edition cover, 1983 | |
| Author | Raymond Carver |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short story |
| Publisher | Knopf |
Publication date | 1983 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 228 |
| 813/.54 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.A7894 C3 1983 |
Cathedral is the third major-press collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver, published in 1983. [1] It received critical acclaim and was a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. [2]
Cathedral was enthusiastically received by critics. In The New York Times book Review, critic Irving Howe wrote:
Mr. Carver has been mostly a writer of strong but limited effects - the sort of writer who shapes and twists his material to a high point of stylization. In his newest collection of stories, Cathedral, there are a few that suggest he is moving toward a greater ease of manner and generosity of feeling; but in most of his work it's his own presence, the hard grip of his will, that is the strongest force. It's not that he imposes moral or political judgments; in that respect, he's quite self-effacing. It's that his abrupt rhythms and compressions come to be utterly decisive." [3]
The Washington Post wrote that "there are no arid places in Cathedral. Instead there are a dozen stories that overflow with the danger, excitement, mystery and possibility of life." [4]
The collection contains the following stories:
Richard Ford is an American novelist and short story writer, best known for his novels featuring Frank Bascombe.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1983.
Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. He published his first collection of stories, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, in 1976. His breakout collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), received immediate acclaim and established Carver as an important figure in the literary world. It was followed by Cathedral (1983), which Carver considered his watershed and is widely regarded as his masterpiece. The definitive collection of his stories, Where I'm Calling From, was published shortly before his death in 1988. In their 1989 nomination of Carver for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the jury concluded, "The revival in recent years of the short story is attributable in great measure to Carver's mastery of the form."
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Denis Hale Johnson was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992). His most successful novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), won the National Book Award for Fiction. Johnson was twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Altogether, Johnson was the author of nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, three collections of poetry, two collections of plays, and one book of reportage. His final work, a book of short stories titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published posthumously in 2018.
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Gordon Lish is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Rick Bass, and Richard Ford. He is the father of the novelist Atticus Lish.
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976) was the first major-press short-story collection by American writer Raymond Carver. Described by contemporary critics as a foundational text of minimalist fiction, its stories offered an incisive and influential telling of disenchantment in the mid-century American working class.
Mary Cennamo Robison is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel Why Did I Ever, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, released in 2009, is One D.O.A., One on the Way. She has been categorized as a founding "minimalist" writer along with authors such as Amy Hempel, Frederick Barthelme, and Raymond Carver. In 2009, she won the Rea Award for the Short Story.
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"Cathedral" is a short story written by American writer and poet Raymond Carver. It was the first story written after finishing What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. "Cathedral" was first published in the September 1981 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. It was later collected in a short story collection of the same name in 1983.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a 1981 collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver, as well as the title of one of the stories in the collection. Considered by many one of American literature's most ambitious short-story collections, it was this collection that turned Raymond Carver into a household name in the publishing industry.
"Chef's House" is a short story written by Raymond Carver.
"Popular Mechanics" is a short story by American writer Raymond Carver. It was originally titled "Mine" and first appeared in Carver's 1977 collection Furious Seasons and Other Stories. It was then republished as "Little Things" in Fiction, as "Mine" again in Playgirl, as "Popular Mechanics" in Carver's 1981 collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and again as "Little Things" in Carver's 1988 collection Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories. There are minor revisions between the version of "Mine" in Furious Seasons and the version published as "Popular Mechanics".
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Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories is a 1988 collection of short stories compiled by American author Raymond Carver. The collection includes 30 stories selected from four previously published volumes, and seven new stories. They appear in the order of their original publication. The book was published by the Atlantic Monthly Press in May 1988, three months before Carver's death. The seven new stories were later published as a separate book in the United Kingdom, titled Elephant and Other Stories, in August 1988. A paperback edition was published by Vintage Contemporaries in June 1989, under the title Where I'm Calling From: Selected Stories. The book received positive reviews from critics and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
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