Read Call If You Need Me Online
Authors: Raymond Carver
After John Gardner’s death in a motorcycle accident on 14 September 1982, an excerpt from “Fires” appeared under the title “John Gardner: A Trial by Fire for a Young Writer” in
Chicago Tribune Book World
,
26
September 1982, 1–2. To the excerpt RC added:
Now, the news of his death having just reached me, I’m sitting here this morning trying to make sense out of the senseless—and of course I can’t. My feeling of personal loss is terrific but in time I’ll be able to accommodate that. (That’s what I tell myself, anyway.) But his loss to the national literature is tremendous and incalculable.
I’m trying to remember things. I remember the last time I saw him alive. It was last March, at his place in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. We’d spent the night, Tess Gallagher and I, and John was taking leave of us that morning out in the drive. There was snow on the ground, but the weather wasn’t so bad—the sun was out and I had my jacket over my arm. We
gave each other a hug. “Have a good trip back,” he said. “Drive safely.”
“You bet,” I said.
Then he grinned, and I grinned. We were leading charmed lives, and we knew it. We’d talked about it the night before. He’d won his bout with cancer, and I’d won mine with alcohol. And we’d come a distance from Chico. “Good-bye, John,” I said.
First published as “John Gardner: Writer and Teacher” in
Georgia Review
[University of Georgia], 37, no. 2 (summer 1983): 413–19. Reprinted, in slightly different form, as RC’s “Foreword” to Gardner’s
On Becoming a Novelist
(New York: Harper & Row, 1983), xi–xix, and in
F2
, 40–47.
Text and photograph from
Granta
[Cambridge, England], no. 25 (autumn 1988): 155–61.
Untitled statement from
Commencement
[15 May 1988] (West Hartford, Conn.: University of Hartford, 1988), 24–25. RC received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Hartford at this graduation ceremony. The “Meditation” was his last-written work of prose.
EARLY STORIES
Text from
Furious Seasons and Other Stories
(Santa Barbara, Calif.: Capra Press, 1977), 94–110. Previously published under the title “The Furious Seasons” in
December
[Western Springs, Ill.] 5, no. 1 (fall 1963): 31–41. An earlier version of this story, also titled “The Furious Seasons,” appeared in
Selection
[Chico State College], no. 2 (winter 1960–61): 1–18, and was RC’s first published short story.
Text from
Toyon
[Humboldt State College] 9, no. 1 (spring 1963): 27–30. This issue of
Toyon
, the Humboldt State College literary magazine, was edited by RC. A revised version of “The Hair” appeared in
Sundaze
[Santa Cruz, Calif.] 2, no. 6 (7–20 January 1972): n. pag. That version is reprinted in
Those Days: Early Writings by Raymond Carver
, ed. William L. Stull (Elmwood, Conn.: Raven Editions, 1987), 19–23.
Text from
Toyon
[Humboldt State College] 9, no. 1 (spring 1963): 5–9. RC published “The Aficionados” under the pseudonym “John Vale.”
Text from
Toyon
[Humboldt State College] 9, no. 1 (spring 1963): 24–25. A slightly different version of “Poseidon and Company” appeared in
Ball State Teachers College Forum
[Muncie, Ind.] 5, no. 2 (spring 1964): 11–12.
Text from
Gato Magazine
[Los Gatos, Calif.] 2, no. 1 (spring–summer 1967): 8–13.
FRAGMENT OF A NOVEL
Text from
Iowa Review
[University of Iowa] 10, no. 3 (summer 1979): 38–42. RC did not continue the novel beyond this point.
OCCASIONS
Untitled essay from
Cutting Edges: Young American Fiction for the ’70s
, ed. Jack Hicks (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973), 528–29. Source for “Neighbors”:
WICF
, 68–73.
Text from
New Voices in American Poetry
, ed. David Allan Evans (Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop Publishers, 1973), 44–45. Source for “Drinking While Driving”:
AOU
, 3.
Published as RC’s “Afterword” to
F1
, 187–89. RC’s dates of composition for several works are unreliable.
RC’s untitled introduction to
Dostoevsky: A Screenplay
by RC and Tess Gallagher, Capra Back-to-Back Series V (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Capra Press, 1985), 7–12. A slightly different version of this essay appeared in
NER/BLQ
[
New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly
, Hanover, N.H.] 6, no. 3 (spring 1984): 355–58.
Published as “Occasions” in
The Generation of 2000: Contemporary American Poets
, ed. William Heyen (Princeton, N. J.: Ontario Review Press, 1984), 24–26. RC’s dates of composition for several poems are unreliable. Source for poems:
AOU:
“Bobber” (42), “Prosser” (33–34), “Your Dog Dies” (6–7), “Forever” (48–49), “Looking for Work” (13, 237–38), “Wes Hardin: From a Photograph” (36–37), “Marriage” (37–38).
Untitled essay from
Literary Cavalcade
[Scholastic, Inc., New York, N.Y.] 39, no. 7 (April 1987): 8. Source for “For Tess”:
AOU
, 138.
Untitled essay from
The Best American Short Stories 1988
, selected from U.S. and Canadian magazines by Mark Helprin with Shannon Ravenel (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), 318–19. Source for “Errand”:
WICF
, 419–31.
First published as “A Special Message for the First Edition” in
Where I’m Calling From
, The Signed First Edition Society (Franklin Center, Pa.: The Franklin Library, 1988), n. pag. [vii–ix]. Reprinted as “Author’s Foreword” to
WICF
, xi—xiv. RC in fact published his first short story, “The Furious Seasons,” in 1960.
INTRODUCTIONS
“Foreword” to
Syracuse Poems and Stories 1980
, selected by RC (Syracuse, N.Y.: Department of English, Syracuse University, 1980), iv-v. The quotation attributed to Ezra Pound (“fundamental accuracy of statement.…”) is not to be found in Pound’s
ABC of Reading
(1934). Contents: Andrew Abrahamson, “Five Places with Rob and Haines”; Brooks Haxton, “Thanksgiving Friday”; Anthony Robbins, “Kathy” and “Vita Nuova”; Marianne Loyd, “Everyone Has a Hobby”; Ron Block, “My Feral Child” and “Charles Billiter”; Penelope Phillips, “from
Minding the Heavens
” (“To Leonhard Euler”); Jay Grover-Rogoff, “Homage to Redon: Ophelia among the Flowers”; William C. Elkington, “Leech”; Allen Hoey, “When the Cows Come Down to Drink”; Nancy E. LeRoy, “The Red Couch”; David O’Meara, “A Country for Old Men.”
“Introduction” to
The Best American Short Stories 1986
, selected from U.S. and Canadian magazines by RC with Shannon Ravenel (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986), xi—xx. Contents: Donald Barthelme, “Basil from Her Garden”; Charles Baxter, “Gryphon”; Ann Beattie, “Janus”; James Lee Burke, “The Convict”; Ethan Canin, “Star Food”; Frank Conroy, “Gossip”; Richard Ford, “Communist”; Tess Gallagher, “Bad Company”; Amy Hempel, “Today Will Be a Quiet Day”; David Michael Kaplan, “Doe Season”; David Lipsky, “Three Thousand Dollars”; Thomas McGuane, “Sportsmen”; Christopher McIlroy, “All My Relations”; Alice Munro, “Monsieur les Deux Chapeaux”; Jessica Neely, “Skin Angels”; Kent Nelson, “Invisible Life”; Grace Paley, “Telling”; Mona Simpson, “Lawns”; Joy Williams, “Health”; Tobias Wolff, “The Rich Brother.”
Untitled statement on
The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings
, trans. Avrahm Yarmolinsky (New York: Ecco Press, 1987), outside back wrapper.
“Introduction” to
American Short Story Masterpieces
, ed. RC and Tom Jenks (New York, Delacorte Press, 1987), xiii—xvi. The essay is signed off by both editors. Contents: James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”; Ann Beattie, “Weekend”; Gina Berriault, “The Bystander”; Vance Bourjaily, “The Amish Farmer”; Richard Brautigan, “1/3, 1/3, 1/3”; Harold Brodkey, “Verona: A Young Woman Speaks”; Carol Bly, “Talk of Heroes”; Raymond Carver, “Fever”; Evan S. Connell, “The Fisherman from Chihuahua”; Frank Conroy, “Midair”; E. L. Doctorow, “Willi”; Andre Dubus, “The Fat Girl”; Stanley Elkin, “A Poetics for Bullies”; Richard Ford, “Rock Springs”; Tess Gallagher, “The Lover of Horses”; John Gardner, “Redemption”; Gail Godwin, “Dream Children”; Lawrence Sargent Hall, “The Ledge”; Barry Hannah, “Water Liars”; Mark Helprin, “Letters from the
Samantha
”; Ursula K. Le Guin, “He Forest”; Bernard Malamud, “The Magic Barrel”; Bobbie Ann Mason, “Shiloh”; James Alan McPherson, “The Story of a Scar”; Leonard Michaels, “Murderers”; Arthur Miller, “The Misfits”; Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”; Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”; Grace Paley, “The Used-Boy Raisers”; Jayne Anne Phillips, “The Heavenly Animal”; David Quammen, “Walking Out”; Philip Roth, “The Conversion of the Jews”; James Salter, “Akhnilo”; John Updike, “The Christian Roommates”; Joy Williams, “The Wedding”; Tobias Wolff, “The Liar.”
Untitled contribution to “A Symposium on Contemporary American Fiction,”
Michigan Quarterly Review
[University of Michigan] 26, no. 4 (fall 1987): 710–11.
“Introduction” to
American Fiction 88
, ed. Michael C. White and Alan Davis (Farmington, Conn.: Wesley Press, 1988), xi—xv. RC served as guest judge of this second annual American Fiction competition. Contents: Antonya Nelson, “The Expendables” (first prize); Paul Scott Malone, “Bringing Joboy Back” (second prize); Sandra Dorr, “Writing in the Dark” (third prize); Ursula Hegi, “Saving a Life”; Patricia Page, “Escapade”; Mary Elsie Robertson, “Parting Words”; Michael Blaine, “Suits”; Mark Vinz, “Almost October”; Donna Trussell, “Dream Pie”; Scott Driscoll, “Waiting for the Bus”; Pat Harrison, “The Winner”; Gordon Jackson, “In the Garden”; Toni Graham, “Jump!”; Michael Hettich, “Angels”; Patti Tana, “Harbor Island”; Ron Tanner, “The Hart House”; Stephen Tracy, “Fools’ Experiments”; Lila Zeiger, “Fine Details”; Leslee Becker, “The Funny Part.”
BOOK REVIEWS
Title and text from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 29 October 1978, 1, 6. A slightly different version of this review appeared as “A Man and His Fish” in
Texas Monthly
, December 1978, 222, 225.
Title from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 28 January 1979, 1. Text from “Barthelme the Scribbler,”
Texas Monthly
, March 1979, 162–63.
Title from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 13 May 1979, 1. Text from untitled version in
San Francisco Review of Books
5, no. 5 (October 1979): 23–24.
Title and text from
San Francisco Review of Books
5, no. 2 (July 1979): 20–21. Reprinted in
American Book Review
2, no. 2 (October 1979): 2, and
Quarterly West
, no. 10 (winter-spring 1980): 125–26. A shorter version of this review appeared as “
Van Gogh Field
: Troubling and Unforgettable Stories of the West,”
Chicago Tribune
, 25 August 1979,
sec. I, p. 13. A later revision became RC’s “Foreword” to
We Are Not in This Together: Stories by William Kittredge
(Port Townsend, Wash.: Graywolf Press, 1984), vii–x. The second quotation attributed to Kittredge (“What you do matters.…”) is not to be found in “The Van Gogh Field” or any other story by Kittredge. Compare, however, the statement attributed to “Miller” in RC’s unfinished novel,
The Augustine Notebooks:
“
What we do matters, brother
…” (173).
Title and text from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 20 January 1980, 1. A slightly different version of this review appeared, untitled, in
San Francisco Review of Books
5, no. 10 (March 1980): 10.
Title from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 18 May 1980, 1, 10. Text from untitled version in
San Francisco Review of Books
6, no. 1 (June 1980): 19.
Title and text from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 26 October 1980, 3.
Title and text from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 15 February 1981, 5. A shorter version of this review appeared, untitled, in
San Francisco Review of Books
6, no. 4 (January—February 1981): 22.
Title and text from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 19 April 1981, 2. A slightly different version of this review appeared, untitled, in
San Francisco Review of Books
6, no. 5 (March-April 1981): 29–30. In summarizing the novel, RC has rearranged the sequence of several passages.
Title and text from
Chicago Tribune Book World
, 5 July 1981, 1.
Title and text from
NewYork Times Book Review
, 22 April 1984, 6–7.