Cheever_ A Life - Blake Bailey [415]
187 “I am like a prisoner who is trying to escape”: JJC, 5.
188 “He was a man of principle”: JC to Clark [c. April 1954], CFP.
188 “ ‘Isn't MaCarthy [sic] wonderful?’ “: JC to WM [c. April 1954], Berg.
189 “Just pass the [vermouth] bottle over the gin”: NFB, 15.
189 “She would take me out to lunch”: author int. Jane Carr, May 30, 2004.
190 “an exciting place like New York”: FLC Jr. to Sarah Cheever, Feb. 22, 1972, PJC.
190 “Where there's a Cheever, there's color“: FLC Jr. to David Cheever, July 15, 1970.
190 “Hey, Joey!” Fred would hail him: HBD, 203–4.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN {1952–1954}
193 “because poor little Benjy is dressed in rags”: GT, 71.
193 “The only thing to come my way so far”: JC to Herbst, July 8 [1952], Yale.
193 “a quiet man with a twinkle”: SD int. Ezra Stone, Oct. 11, 1985, Swem.
193 “long-winded suggestions”: JC to Mrs. James Byrne, Dec. 17, 1952, Columbia.
193 “I don't recall whether”: JC, “Don't Leave the Room During the Commercials,” TV Guide, Jan. 9, 1982, 20.
194 “stand reading and rereading”: Linscott to JC, June 7, 1951, Columbia.
194 “looking around desperately”: LJC, 159.
194 “to get a clearer idea”: JC to Herbst [c. April 1953], Yale.
194 “to old, tender-hearted, soft-brained friends”: GT, 73.
195 “The short story is determined”: quoted in Harvey Breit, “In and Out of Books,” New York Times Book Review, May 10, 1953, 8.
195 Reviews of The Enormous Radio: James Kelly, in New York Times Book Review, May 10, 1953, 21; William Peden, in Saturday Review, May 11, 1953, 43–44; Arthur Mizener, in New Republic, May 25, 1953, 19–20; William DuBois, in New York Times, May 1, 1953, 19.
196 “one hell of a story”: JC to Lobrano, Jan. 30, 1948, NYPL-MSS.
197 “to find the self-designated intellectuals”: quoted in GT, 73.
197 “I suppose the happiest days of my life”: JC to Natalie Robins, Dec. 3 [1969].
197 “very riveted”: author int. Sarah Stevenson, Dec. 6, 2004.
197 “very pleasant ritual”: CJC, 22.
197 “Almighty God, maker of all things”: JC, “Thanks, Too, for Memories,” New York Times, Nov. 26, 1949, C1.
198 “Physical contact was not encouraged”: HBD, 36.
200 “[Susan's] smile was broad and forced”: LJC, 157.
200 “I yearned to discharge”: JJC, 31.
200 “D-e-r-e daddy, don't leave us”: Raymond Carver, Fires (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Capra Press, 1983), 200.
201 “I would like to move along”: JJC, 39.
201 “I keep writing a story”: LJC, 155.
201 “the theme of aging children”: JC to Cowley, Jan. 12 [1953], Newberry.
202 “the rayon blanket tycoon”: LJC, 174.
203 Fred had fired a secretary: author int. David Cheever, July 15, 2004.
203–204 “by refusing to speak to her for a week or two”: JJC, 273.
205 “[A]n extraordinary story”: WM to JC [c. April 1953], NYPL-MSS.
205 “[She] kept chatting about American poetry”: JC to Clark, Aug. 12, 1953, CFP.
205 “I'm going to go as the late Warren G. Harding”: GT, 77.
205 Mary was “the seven-eyed Sybil”: LJC, 302.
205 “wire-recording of the ‘strange tongues’ “: JC to Clark, Nov. 4 [1953], CFP.
206 “comical character”: GT, 83.
207 “homosexual concerns”: Bernard Glueck to SD, March 11, 1985, Swem.
210 “no greater pleasure”: JC, “What Happened,” Understanding Fiction, ed. Cleanth Brooks and R. P. Warren (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1959), 572.
211 “half-a-dozen particular favorites”: Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions (New York: Vintage, 1990), 312.
211 “I saw a script before we sailed”: JC to Boyers, Nov. 17 [1956].
211 “I read in the newspaper”: CJC, 190. In the interview, Cheever uses the word “blandly” to describe his mother's dismissive tone of voice. Eleven years before, he'd recorded the exchange in his journal as follows: “I see that you've won a prize, she said. Yes, I said, I didn't write you because it isn't terribly important. I know it isn't she said harshly [my italics].”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN {1954–1956}
212 “even if I were traveling … wrong direction”: LJC, 165.
212 “Mary thinks that the University called”: ibid., 166.
212 “wasn't a crime” to be a writer: author int. Piri Halasz, Sept. 3, 2004.