John Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer, sometimes known as the 'Checkhov of the suburbs'. His The Stories of John Cheever won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1979.He was a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and was considered one of the purest examples of 'the New Yorker writer'.
Cheever's main theme was the spiritual and emotional emptiness of life. He especially described the manners and morals of middle-class, suburban America, with an ironic humour which softened his basically dark vision.
Cheever died from cancer in 1982, and his posthumously published letters and journals revealed his bisexuality - although he enjoyed a long marriage and fathered 3 children, he had numerous affairs with both men and women.
His attitude towards his own bisexuality is reflected in his novels and short stories, moving from ambivalence and stereotypical portrayal in his earlier works to later acceptance and redemption.