Cheever_ A Life - Blake Bailey [422]
334 “a suave, fictional dialect”: Dana Gioia, “Meeting Mr. Cheever,” Hudson Review 39, no. 3 (Autumn 1986), 423.
334 “Noble might be a better word”: JC, in Atlantic Brief Lives, ed. Louis Kronenberger (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971), 275.
335 “I can't connect my life”: SD int. John and Mary Dirks, July 16, 1984, Swem.
335 “he had his New England mumble”: SD int. Hope Lange, Oct. 24, 1984, Swem.
336 “a writer of consequence, witty”: SD int. David Lange, June 6, 1985, Swem.
337 “Will success spoil John Cheever?”: HBD, 153.
337 Mary “flash[ed] her rubies and diamonds”: JC to Kronenberger [c. July 1964], Copley.
337 “I have the disposition of an adder”: JC to Biddle, July 21, 1964, LC.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE {1964}
340 “somber and mysterious trip to Russia”: GT, 172.
341 “I loved the stories so much”: Litvinov to JC, April 9, 1961, Columbia.
341 a “lost generation” of Russian youths: Harrison Salisbury, “ ‘Lost Generation’ in Soviet Union, Bored and Nihilistic, Worries Regime,” New York Times, Feb. 9, 1962, 1, 4.
341 “I was told that my liberty would be in danger”: LJC, 242.
342 “pour[ing] vodka into [his] ears”: CJC, 81.
342 “Then a man comes in with the boodle”: GT, 173–74.
342 “It seemed as if he were in sort of a cloud”: SD int. William Luers, Aug. 22, 1985, Swem.
343 neither side wanted any “bad incidents”: author int. Luers, July 30, 2004.
343 “through oceans of sheep”: JC to Litvinov, Nov. 2 [1965].
343 “Welcome to the house of … Chekhov”: JC, “The Melancholy of Distance,” in Chekhov and Our Age: Responses to Chekhov by American Writers and Scholars, ed. James McConkey (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Center for International Studies, 1984), 126.
344 “How many letters do you get?”: CJC, 54.
344 “Everybody says that [Voznesensky is] a better poet”: JC to Litvinov, May 16 [1967?].
344 “I seem to love him”: JJC, 201.
344 “You drink like Siberian worker!”: author int. Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Oct. 5, 2004.
345 “May I kiss you?” Cheever asked: Litvinov to author, Dec. 22, 2004.
345–346 “I'm getting conditioned to the ads”: Litvinov to JC, April 6 [1965?], CFP.
346 “note how this is the dream”: SD int. Raymond Carver, Oct. 23, 1984, Swem.
346 “We all enjoy your letters tremendously”: JC to Litvinov, March 15 [1965].
346 “on some sort of International Amity Excursion”: LJC, 250.
346 “heartwarming reunion with the Maxwell's”: Litvinov to JC, May 16, 1978, CFP.
347 “I am sure that when I die”: LJC, 273.
347 “I sincerely admire the brilliance”: JC to JU [c. March 1964?], Houghton.
347 “He greeted us with glee”: Mary Weatherall to SD, Dec. 17, 1984, Swem.
348 “as gay as an April in Paris”: OJ, 112.
348 “Cheever's confession made me sad”: ibid., 116.
348 “[Updike] tried to upstage me”: LJC, 248.
349 “At one of our joint appearances”: OJ, 115.
349 “John [Updike] loved Cheever's writing”: author int. Mary Weatherall, April 3, 2007.
350 “I would go to considerable expense and inconvenience”: LJC, 245.
350 “this is nothing you take with you”: LJC, 242.
351 “As for Paul [Moor]”: JC to Litvinov, Sept. 14 [1965].
351 “I would like to live in a world”: LJC, 264.
352 “fifteen minute impersonation of Yevtushenko”: ibid., 246.
352 “I am not a political person”: JC to Boris Ryurikov, Jan. 31, 1967, NYPL-MSS. A note is attached: “The following letter was brought to the attention of the FBI on February 28, 1967.” The letter is among papers collected by Herbert Mitgang via the Freedom of Information Act for his book Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1988).
352 “My name is mud”: JC to Bracher [c. Sept. 1965], Bancroft.
352 “We all miss and love you”: Frieda Lurie to JC, Dec. 14, 1964, CFP.
354 “can do the twist beautifully”: FLC Jr. to Sarah Cheever, Nov. 16, 1964, PJC.
354 “trying to establish a sales pattern”: FLC Jr. to Denise Davidoff, Dec. 4, 1965, PJC.
* See page 128.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX {1964–1965}
355 “Where the hell