Chronology

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The majority of this chronology comes from Professor William Stull’s chronology in Raymond Carver’s book No Heroics, Please. Some additions and changes have been made by other sources, though, mainly Tess Gallagher.

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May 25, 1938 – Raymond Carver, Jr. is born in Clatskanie, Oregon. His parents are Clevie Raymond Carver and Ella Beatrice Casey.

1941 – The Carver family moves from Clatskanie, Oregon to Yakima, Washington. Raymond is only three years old.

1956 – Raymond Carver graduates from Yakima High School and moves to Chester, California, where he and his father both work in a sawmill. In November, Raymond returns to Yakima.

1957 – Raymond’s father suffers a mental and physical breakdown in February. Raymond marries sixteen-year-old Maryann Burk in Yakima, where he works as a pharmacy deliveryman and takes classes at Yakima Community College. While making a delivery, Raymond receives his first copy of Poetry magazine. [See "Some Prose on Poetry."] The Carver’s first child, Christine LaRae, is born on December 2, in the same hospital and one floor directly above the mental ward where Raymond's father is being treated for a breakdown. This is an important year for Raymond. He later writes that his children were the biggest single influence in his writing (See Fires, title essay.) Carver also writes about the birth of his child in "My Father’s Life."

1958 – Raymond moves his family to Paradise, California and enrolls in Chico State College as a part-time student. The Carver’s second child, Vance Lindsay, is born on October 19.

1959 – Raymond takes Creative Writing 101 at Chico State, taught by John Gardner. In "John Gardner: The Writer As Teacher," Carver says about Gardner: "He believed in revision, endless revision; it was something very close to his heart and something he felt was vital for writers, at whatever stage of their development. And he never seemed to lose patience reading a student story, even though he might have seen it in five previous incarnations."

1960 – Raymond founds and edits the first issue of the Chico State literary magazine, Selection. After the academic year is over, in June, Carver moves again, this time to Eureka, California, where he works in a sawmill. At the start of the next academic year, Carver transfers to Humboldt State College.

1961 – Raymond publishes his first story, "The Furious Seasons," in Selection 2 (Winter 1960-1.) In June, Carver moves his family to Arcata, California.

1962 – Raymond’s first play, Carnations, is performed at Humboldt State College.

1963 – Raymond graduates from Humboldt State, receiving his A.B. degree. Carver spends the summer working at the University of California library in Berkeley. After the summer, the Carvers move to Iowa City, Iowa, where Raymond studies at the Iowa Writers' Workshop after receiving a $500 fellowship to help finance the expedition.

1964 – Raymond returns from Iowa to California, where he works as a custodian at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento.

1967 – The Carvers file for bankruptcy in the spring. Raymond’s father, Clevie Raymond Carver, dies on June 17. Raymond is hired as a textbook editor at Science Research Associates (SRA). The Carvers move again, this time to Palo Alto, California, where Raymond meets Gordon Lish, the editor and writer. Raymond’s story "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" is included in The Best American Short Stories 1967.

1968 – Maryann Carver receives a one-year scholarship to study at Tel-Aviv University, so Raymond obtains a one-year leave of absence from SRA and the Carvers move to Israel. Their stay there is short lived – they leave in June but return to California in October. In February 1969, Raymond is rehired by SRA to be an advertising director. Raymond starts drinking heavily.

1970 – Raymond receives a National Endowment for the Arts Discovery Award for poetry, and his short story "Sixty Acres" is included in The Best Little Magazine Fiction, 1970. Also, Carver’s first book, Winter Insomnia, is published by Kayak Books. In June, the Carvers move to Sunnyvale, California. In September, Raymond’s position at SRA is eliminated, but the severance pay and unemployment benefits he receives allows him to go on writing for almost an entire year.

1971 – Gordon Lish publishes Raymond’s story "Neighbors" in Esquire magazine’s June issue. Raymond is also appointed visiting lecturer in creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In August, the Carvers move to Ben Lomond, California. Raymond’s story "Fat" appears in the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

1972 – Raymond receives a Wallace E. Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. Raymond is also appointed as visiting lecturer in fiction writing at UC Berkeley. In July, the Carvers move to Cupertino, California.

1973 – Raymond is appointed visiting lecturer at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. When in Iowa, Raymond lives alone in the Iowa House upstairs from John Cheever. Raymond's story "What Is It?" is included in the O. Henry Awards annual, Prize Stories 1973, and five of his poems are reprinted in New Voices in American Poetry.

1974 – Raymond is appointed visiting lecturer at UC Santa Barbara. H flies between the jobs at UC Santa Barbara and Iowa, but alcoholism and family problems force him to resign in December. By this time, Raymond is sick with alcoholism and really not able to meet his classes in either place at times. He is also not living much with his wife because of this back and forth life. The Carvers file for their second bankruptcy. Mariann is also drinking during this period, contributing to the acceleration of Raymond's own drinking problems and the family's general chaos, according to her son Vance in the PBS documentary "To Write and Keep Kind."Raymond's wife, Mariann, is drinking heavily at this period, contributing to the acceleration of Raymond's own driking problems and the family's general chaos, according to her son Vance in the PBS documentary "To Write and Keep Kind." Unemployed, Raymond moves back to Cupertino, California, where he lives with his family for two years, writing very little.

1976 – Raymond’s third book of poetry, At Night the Salmon Move, is published by Capra Press. In March, his first major-press book, a collection of short stories, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? is published by McGraw-Hill. But the real news is that between October, 1976 and January, 1977 Raymond is hospitalized on four separate occasions for acute alcoholism. Subsequently, the Carvers house in Cupertino is sold and Raymond and his wife start living apart again.

1977 – Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? receives a National Book Award nomination. Raymond moves alone to McKinleyville, California. On June 2, 1977 he stops drinking. This is perhaps the most important day of Raymond’s life – it is the end of his life as a drunk and the start of his sober life. One of Raymond's later stories, "Chef's House," focuses on this time of his life, though it is not written until 1980, three years after Raymond goes dry. But after Raymond goes dry, his wife moves back in with him and in November Furious Seasons and Other Stories is published by Capra Press. Also that month, while in Dallas, Texas for a writers’ conference, Ray meets the poet Tess Gallagher.

1978 – Raymond receives a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and from March through June, he and his wife live together in Iowa City. In July Raymond moves to the University of Texas, El Paso, where he has been named distinguished writer in residence. At this point, Mariann is supposed to come to El Paso with Raymond. In fact, Raymond even obtains a three bedroom house for them prior to his arriving by bus in El Paso in August. But Mariann makes another choice and thereafter Raymond's life takes a final turn out of the marriage. In August, Raymond meets Tess Gallagher again, and the two begin their close association with each other. Raymond’s book reviews begin appearing in the Chicago Tribune,Texas Monthly, and the San Francisco Review of Books.

1979 – On January 1, Raymond and Tess start living together in El Paso. In the summer, they move to Chimacum, Washington, near Gallagher’s home town of Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula. In September, Raymond and Tess move to Tucson, Arizona, where Tess teaches at the University of Arizona. Raymond is appointed Professor of English at Syracuse University, but defers his appointment for one year while he draws on his Guggenheim Fellowship to write.

1980 – Raymond receives a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for fiction. He begins teaching at Syracuse a semester earlier than expected, however, because of an unexpected retirement. From May until August, Raymond and Tess live in a borrowed cabin near Port Angeles. In September, the two move to Syracuse, where Tess becomes the Coordinator of the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse. Raymond and Tess jointly purchase a house in Syracuse, at 832 Maryland Avenue. In years to come, the house becomes so popular that they have to hang a sign outside that reads "Writers At Work" in order to be left alone.

1981 – Raymond’s second major-press book, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, is published, this time by Knopf, on April 20. The book is severely edited by Gordon Lish, against Raymond's pleas, admonishions and outright wishes against the loss of many deep aspects of these stories – some of them cut by a third their original length. For example, the story "So Much Water So Close to Home" is cut from nineteen pages to seven. "Bath" also suffers, cut from twenty pages to eight. In his later book, Where I'm Calling From , Raymond revises these two stories, restoring (and even adding to) the original versions. Raymond's story "Chef’s House" is published in the New Yorker, the first time an article of his has appeared in the magazine. In subsequent years, Raymond becomes a frequent contributor to the magazine.

1982 – During the summer, Tess is invited to teach at the University of Zurich, and Raymond accompanies her to Switzerland. John Gardner, guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 1982, includes "Cathedral" in the collection. Later, on September 14, Gardner dies tragically in a motorcycle accident. Raymond and his first wife are legally divorced on October 18. After the divorce Mariann marries Larry Girard, a Canadian. Raymond nevertheless pays her a monthly agreed upon stipend, which is to cease once she is on her feet. After his death six years later Mariann still believes herself not to be on her feet and sues his estate attempting to get, among other things, back payment of this monthly consideration. She does not succeed in any of her grievances.

1983 – Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories is published by Capra Press on April 14. On May 18, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters awards Raymond its first Mildred and Harold Strauss Livings: renewable five-year fellowships that carry annual tax-free stipends of $35,000. As a condition of the award, Ray resigns from his job at Syracuse. Raymond’s third major-press book of stories, Cathedral, is published by Knopf on September 15. On December 12, it receives a National Book Critics Circle Award nomination.

1984 – Raymond flies to Port Angeles to escape East Coast publicity and various intrusions on the social scene in Syracuse which included his x-inlaws, the Ungers, from his former marriage. Living by himself at Sky House, he writes poetry during the day and nonfiction at night. Tess joins Raymond at Thanksgiving and they both spend time writing poems. In the summer, Raymond and Tess fly to South America, where they visit Brazil and Argentina on behalf of the US Information Service. In the fall, they return to Syracuse. Tess makes arrangements to teach only one semester each year. Cathedral receives a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

1985 – Poetry magazine publishes five of Raymond’s poems in their February issue. Raymond soon becomes a frequent contributor to the magazine. Where Water Comes Together With Other Water is published by Random House on May 1. Raymond and Tess travel together to England, where Fires and The Stories of Raymond Carver are published. They also travel to the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. In November, Raymond receives Poetry magazine’s Levinson Prize.

1986 – Raymond serves as the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 1986. On November 7, Random House publishes his poetry collection, Ultramarine. Later that winter, Raymond travels to Australia while Tess finishes out a teaching stint at University of Washington.

1987 – Raymond’s last published story, "Errand," is published in the New Yorker on June 1. From April to July, Raymond and Tess travel in England, Scotland, and continental Europe. They visit Paris, Wiesbaden, Zurich, Rome, and Milan. In September, Raymond experiences pulmonary hemorrhages, and on October 1 doctors in Syracuse remove two-thirds of his cancerous left lung.

1988 – In March, Raymond’s cancer resurfaces. Between April and May he undergoes a seven-week course of full-brain radiation treatments in Seattle. Where I’m Calling From is published in May by Atlantic Monthly Press. Raymond is inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters on May 18. Shortly afterward, cancer reappears in Raymond’s left lung. Tess and Raymond go to Reno, Nevada, on June 17, and get married. In July, they make a fishing trip to Alaska. Raymond and Tess buy a house, later to be called Ridge House, east of Port Angeles, Wa., within walking distance from Tess' Sky House. Raymond finally has his ideal study overlooking Morse Creek Valley and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Olympic Mountains in view to the south. There is a fireplace and extensive shelving to hold all the foreign language versions of his stories. He continues work on what will be his last book, A New Path to the Waterfall, a book of poems. On August 1, before going to bed, Raymond and Tess kiss each other three times on the lips and they both say "I love you." He dies the next morning, August 2, at 6:20 a.m.

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