Fabulous Forties?

November 21, 2009

I suppose I find some comfort in knowing that John Cheever didn’t publish his first novel until he was in his 40s–The Wapshot Chronicle (1957–he was 45). Of course, he had been publishing stories in the New Yorker for about a decade already. An interesting tidbit from his bio (Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey–yes i’m still reading it!) is that The Wapshot Chronicle was the first-ever selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club that contained the word “fuck.”

Here are some interesting UK covers of Cheever’s books– so very ‘Mad Men,’ right? With a sort of gay twist.

–as some of you may know, i’ll be in Vermont in January at the Vermont Studio Center where I have a month long writing residency. Let’s hope this helps me get my own book done before i’m 45.