American · 1912–1982
John Cheever won the 1958 National Book Award for "The Wapshot Chronicle" and the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for his collected stories. The American author chronicled suburban life—its commuters, cocktails, and infidelities—with a style that combined realism with flashes of the mythic. "The Swimmer" remains one of the most anthologized American stories. Cheever's journals, published posthumously, revealed the struggles with alcoholism and sexuality that underlay his polished surfaces.