Cheever_ A Life - Blake Bailey [400]
I am beholden to Cheever's niece Jane Carr, who gave me a guided tour of the South Shore and let me rummage through her father's papers. Her brother, David, also sent a pile of Fred's letters from his last five years or so—a fascinating glimpse into the mind of that scrappy, jovial, maddening, lovable man, so like and yet unlike his brother. I also learned a great deal from my interviews with Fred's younger daughters, Sarah Connoway and Ann Adams, whose tender memories of their father are all the more touching in light of the occasional havoc he wreaked in their lives.
Anyone who reads this book will readily grasp why Max Zimmer would prefer to be left alone, and I am very thankful for his cooperation. Once he'd overcome his initial reluctance, he provided me with every pertinent document, no matter how mortifying, in return for which he asked only that I tell the unvarnished truth. We have differed over certain of my conclusions, while respecting the integrity of each other's viewpoint. I'm also grateful to Scott Donaldson, Cheever's first biographer, who was courteous and helpful during the early stages of my research. His papers at William and Mary were indispensable to me—particularly his interview notes, which put me in touch with the various people who have died during the twenty-odd years between his book and mine. Many thanks, too, to Edward Hirsch and G. Thomas Tanselle and everyone else at the Guggenheim Foundation, whose generous fellowship made it possible to persevere after my family and I lost our house and almost everything in it to Hurricane Katrina.
The following people sent letters, photographs, and/or other helpful material, in addition to spending (in many cases) long and perhaps tedious hours in conversation with me: Jennifer Boyer, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Dodie Merwin Captiva, Jane and Barrett Clark, Dennis Coates, Rob Cowley, Larry David, John Dirks, Pamela Spear Goff, Allan Gurganus, Hugh Hennedy, Michael Janeway, James Kaplan, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Tanya Litvinov, Ray Mutter, M.D., Nick Puner, Don and Ginger Reiman, Natalie Robins, Ned Rorem, David Rothbart, Raphael Rudnik, Philip Schultz, Rick Siggelkow, Roger Skillings, Clare and Eugene Thaw.
A number of others also granted interviews or else provided written reminiscences: Renata Adler, Martin Amsel, Gino Anelli, Roger Angell, Martin Aronchick, Rollin Bailey, Helen Barolini, Richard Bausch, Marvin Bell, Peter Benelli, Anne Bernays, Simon Michael Bessie, LeClair Bissell, Tina Bourjaily, Vance Bourjaily, Douglas Brayfield, Connie Brothers, Emilie Buchwald, Joseph Caldwell, James Campbell, Susan Colgan, Elizabeth Logan Collins, Evan S. Connell, Molly Cook, Susan Crile, Susan Deakins, Ruth Denney, David Diamond, Dorothy Farrell, Thomas Foley, David Frieze, Linda Gillies, Dana Gioia, Herbert Gold, Ivan Gold, Robert Gottlieb, Christopher Gresov, Piri Halasz, Oakley Hall III, Daniel Halpern, Ron Hansen, Pauline Hanson, Shirley Hazzard, Aurie Henry, Rick Henry, Sandra Hochman, Joseph and Eugenia Hotchkiss, Jeanette Howland, Lee Hyla, Sarah Irwin, Joseph Kahn, Olivia Kahn, Justin Kaplan, Frederica Kaven, Carol Kitman, Arthur Laurents, John Leggett, William Luers, James McConkey, Janet Maslin, Lucy McCord, Charles McGrath, George McLoone, Melissa Meyer, Paul Moor, Lynn Nesbit, Jeffrey Newhouse, Mary Oliver, Anne Palamountain, Anne Peirce, Jean Phillips, Petru Popescu, Robert Ricter, Philip Roth, David Rothbart, Stephen Sandy, Robert Schneider, Grace Schulman, Laurens Schwartz, Joan Silber, J. William Silverberg, M.D., Kate Spear, Elizabeth Spencer, Sol Stein, Toby Stein, Richard Stern, Sarah Stevenson, William Styron, David Swope, Calvin Tomkins, John Updike, Aileen Ward, Mary Weatherall, Maureen and Roger Willson, Bill