| Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. | |||||
| 小瑞蒙·克列维·卡佛 | |||||
阅读雷蒙德·卡佛 Raymond Carver在诗海的作品!!! | |||||
雷蒙德·卡佛中文名： 雷蒙德·卡佛
外文名： Raymond Carver
国籍： 美国
出生地： 美国 俄勒冈州 克拉茨卡尼
出生日期： 1938年5月25日
逝世日期： 1988年8月2日
职业： 小说家，诗人
毕业院校： 爱荷华大学
代表作品： 《大教堂》，《请你安静些，好吗？》，《愤怒的季节》
人物介绍
雷蒙德·卡佛（Raymond Carver，1938—1988），美国当代著名短篇小说家、诗人，1938年5月25日出生于俄勒冈州克拉斯坎尼镇，1988年8月2日因肺癌去世。高中毕业后，即养家糊口，艰难谋生，业余学习写作。1966年，获衣阿华大学文学硕士学位。1967年，作品第一次入选《美国年度最佳小说选》；70年代后写作成就渐受瞩目，1979年获古根海姆奖金，并两次获国家艺术基金奖金；1983年获米尔德瑞──哈洛斯特劳斯终生成就奖；1985年获《诗歌》杂志莱文森奖；1988年被提名为美国艺术文学院院士，并获哈特弗大学荣誉文学博士学位，同时获布兰德斯小说奖。卡佛一生作品以短篇小说和诗为主，还有一部分散文。著作主要包括短篇小说集《请你安静一下好不好？》（1976年）、《愤怒的季节》（1977年）、《当我们谈论爱情时我们在谈论什么》（1981年）、《大教堂》（1983年）、《我打电话的地方》（1988年），诗集《冬季失眠症》（1970年）、《鲑鱼夜溯》（1976年）《海水交汇的地方》（1985年），《海青色》（1986年），《通往瀑布的新路》（1989年）等。
社会评价
读雷蒙德·卡佛作品的第一印象，是众多美国梦的鼓吹者，定然不会喜欢他。在那些保守的批判者看来，他的小说“不够乐观”、“集中展现事物的阴暗面”、“写的不是真正的美国人”，如此等等，一言以蔽之，“没有给美国涂脂抹粉”。的确，他笔下的小人物能让第 雷蒙德·卡佛
三世界国家望“美”兴叹的人找到些许心理平衡：原来美国老百姓也是辛苦工作赚钱养家，歇下来只想看电视；他们也做着永远实现不了的梦，凑合着度过平庸的每一天；他们也外表默不作声，内心歇斯底里。 卡佛的小说，乍一看像是流水账，仔细一看，是写得挺不错的流水账。但他在流水账中倾注的情绪，是相当有特色的。卡佛与爵士时代的短篇作家林·拉德纳有一点很相似：他也看到平民日常生活的乏味、琐碎、无聊，背后的愚昧、平庸、悲哀、无奈。只是他不像拉德纳那样冷嘲热讽、酣畅淋漓。他认认真真记流水账，仿佛没有情绪，内心压抑的郁闷不时通过主人公及其难听的话或歹毒之至的小动作表现出来。 《大教堂》是他最著名的短篇之一。主人公的妻子多年来与一位盲人朋友保持联系。一次，盲人朋友终于要来拜访这对夫妇，妻子兴致勃勃，主人公却非但不激动，反而竭力克制自己毫无理由的敌意和鄙夷。和其他一些故事一样，主人公对生活这种无所谓和厌弃相混合的态度，始终是个没有提示的谜题。除了从卡佛自己的生活经历入手，恐怕很难找到别的解释。《大教堂》结尾，主人公在闭着眼睛和盲人一起画画的过程中，绷紧的神经终于放松下来。不是四两拨千斤，而是花大量篇幅在天平一端放了过多郁闷之后，在另一端放一茶匙淡淡的欢欣意思意思。然而，这便是雷蒙德·卡佛。
影响
“极简主义”“肮脏现实主义”是评论家给他的定义，反过来，他一点不喜欢这样的标签。但是他的确标志着“一种新的小说”、“一种新的语调和文学质地”在美国的出现。正是这种语调与文学质地，深刻影响了日本的村上春树、中国的作家王朔、苏童、韩东、朱文、李洱等。
主要作品
短篇小说集
《请你安静些，好吗？》（1976）； 《愤怒的季节》（1977）； 《当我们谈论爱情时，我们在谈论什么》（1981）； 《大教堂》（1983）； 《何方来电》（1988）； 《大象》（1988）。
诗集
《离克拉马斯河很近》（1968）； 《冬季失眠症》（1970）； 《鲑鱼夜溯》（1976）； 《海水交汇的地方》（1985）； 《海青色》（1986）； 《通往瀑布的新路》（1989）。
卡佛自话
“用普通但准确的语言，去写普通的事物，并赋予这些普通的事物，以广阔而惊人的力量，这是可以做到的。写一句表面上看起来无伤大雅的寒暄，并随之传递给读者冷彻骨髓的寒意，这是可以做到的。”卡佛这样写道，并且身体力行。 “我开始写东西的时候，期望值很低。在这个国家里，选择当一个短篇小说家或一个诗人，基本就等于让自己生活在阴影里，不会有人注意。” “孩子很小的时候，我们没钱。我们工作累得吐了血，我和我爱人都使尽了全力，但生活也没有任何进展。那时，我一直是干着一个接一个的狗屁工作。我爱人也一样。她当招待员或是挨家挨户地推销东西。很多年以后，她终于在高中里教书了，但那是很多年以后。我则在锯木厂，加油站，仓库里干过，也当过看门人，送货员——你随便说吧，我什么都干过。有一年夏天，在加州，我为了养家，白天给人家采郁金香，晚上饭店打烊之后，我给一家‘免下车餐厅’做清洁，还要清扫停车场。有比写小说和写首诗更重要的事情，明白这一点对我来说是很痛苦的，但我只能接受。要把牛奶和食物放在餐桌上，要交房租，要是非得做出选择的话，我只能选择放弃写作。” “亨利·米勒四十多岁写《北回归线》的时候，曾经谈到，他要在一个借来的房间里写作，随时他都可能不得不停下手中的笔，因为他坐着的椅子可能要被别人拿走。直到最近为止，这种事态一直是我生活的常态。从我有记忆开始，从我还是个十几岁的小孩开始，我就要无时无刻不担心自己身下的椅子随时都会被人移走。一年又一年，我爱人和我整日奔波，努力保住自己头顶上的屋顶。我们曾有过梦想，我和我爱人。我们以为我们可以弯下脖子，尽力工作，做所有我们想做的事。但我们想错了。”
他人评价
李敬泽
（文学评论家） 卡佛重塑了中国作家的价值观 卡佛到底对中国作家有什么影响？第一个或者是首要的影响，可能是影响了他们的文学价值观。关于文学、小说的写作，什么值得我们作家提笔观察或者是表达，过去的中国作家受一种潜在的价值观影响，通常认为是要有希望的，要在他的生活和命运中表达了充分意义的，即使是个倒霉蛋，最后也一定表达了一种希望的姿态，总而言之一定是要有充分意义的东西才值得写。 但是到了卡佛这里，我们看到了另外一种写作的可能性，或者是看世界的可能性。有些东西实际上是过去我们没有看到的，有些东西过去被我们原来的价值观屏蔽掉了。而他提出的是，没希望的人生是不是就不值得写？卡佛笔下都是些倒霉的人、失意的人、潦倒的人、不成功的人或者是软弱的人，醉酒者，通过这些，卡佛为中国作家打开了眼前一座屏障，让我们看到了生活、看到了人，或者说我们看到了生活或者人另外一种希望。在这个意义来说，卡佛对中国文学的气质，或者是看人、看物的广度上特别的重要。特别对中国上世纪90年代的一些年轻的作家都有影响，像韩东、苏童、李洱。 有意思的是卡佛在美国也不被右翼、保守派喜欢，美国的右翼跟我们中国一些人的逻辑是一样的：难道我们美国人是这样的，我们美国人天天过着快乐幸福的生活，大家都很昂扬向上，怎么像你卡佛写的这样的。但是正如卡佛所做的那样，也正如我们很多中国作家在卡佛的潜在影响下，在80年代末和90年代初期和中期做的那样，他让我们看到在我们给定的意义之下，真实的人生，真实的人的痛苦、人的绝望、人的那些在微笑尺度上的挣扎。说到卡佛的极简主义，很容易被理解为一个修辞手段的问题，事实上，卡佛说到的简化，绝不仅仅是一个修辞上的简化。而是一种世界观，是一个表达对他自身和他所写那个世界的一些根本看法。意思是说，在人的生命中，在真实的生活处境中，是存在着巨大的沉默的。一种无法用言语表达的伤痛，只好放到沉默里。
苏童
（作家） 卡佛留下的是文字锻造的一把匕首 美国作家中我个人最倾心的是雷蒙德·卡佛，为此，评论家李陀还曾跟我急，他说，你的短篇不比他差啊。为什么崇拜他？其实我不是崇拜，而是从中发现了一种自由精神。它吸引我，是因为他在我所有阅读范畴中，带给我一种崭新目光，一个新的切入点。所有雷蒙德·卡佛的小说，你都觉得在记流水账。照理，记流水账，水是往低处流的，但他这样的小说笔法，水是往高处流。我觉得它非常好地解决了我在小说创作中的问题，如何把日常生活与我们所探讨的关于人的处境问题、人与人、人与世界不可调和的关系处理好。流水账也是一个非常好的切入点，这是我从他的小说中得到的启发。因为他切入得很成功。对于我，这等于打开一个新窗口。一开始我说很喜欢他时，还是犹豫的。是不是显得……后来我发现，有好多外国作家也喜欢他。喜欢的力量是无穷的。我英语不好，但因为太喜欢雷蒙德·卡佛了，所以就找过他的原作小说来读，那才叫死磕。最初我是从《外国文艺》刊物上发现他的《大教堂》、《马辔头》。我以为他是个冷门作家，结果有一次在意大利，翻译我《妻妾成群》的译者，他家书架上就有《雷蒙德·卡佛小说全集》（英文版），他看我喜欢，就送给了我。而我真就啃了原作。雷蒙德·卡佛是喝酒喝死的，我对这种喝酒喝死的人，天生有一种爱。 卡佛小说里的一切尖锐得令人生畏，如果说他“杀人不见血”有点夸大他对读者的精神压迫的话，说他拿着刮胡子刀片专挑人们的痛处可能比较被人赞同。有批评家论及卡佛的世界观，说是黑色的。怎么会呢？那是把追求简单叙述的卡佛一起简单化了，我反而觉得卡佛是个很复杂的作家，只有复杂的作家会对语言有超常的狠心肠，杀的杀，剐的剐，留下的反而是文字锻造的一把匕首。
肖复兴
（作家） 卡佛的小说为心想事不成的人而写 我是通过苏童的文章了解卡佛的。那一年暑假肖铁（即本书译者）回来探亲，带来卡佛的几本书，一个是《大教堂》，一个是《请你安静些好吗》。像我这样的英语水平借助字典完全可以看懂，我印象当中他写的东西跟我们的不一样，表现方法不一样。 从小说而言，卡佛的小说很大程度上是为心想事不成写的，哪怕现在事业成功了，内心也一定有这样的成分躁动。读卡佛的时候我想到另外一个美国的小说家库佛，应该说库佛是卡佛的前辈。他们的小说有很多相似的东西，但是也有很大的不同。库佛小说可能更多是写那些美国的知识分子、中产阶级，也写下层人士。比如说他的一篇小说《重逢》，而卡佛有一个《软座包厢》，写的是父子。而前者也是把这一对父子矛盾放在火车站重逢，只是重逢结果不一样。后来我想他们的差异在哪里，并不在于他们写的对象不一样，也不在于他们的手法不一样。而在于一个作家艺术的积累和生活积累的背后，内心潜伏的对文学的认知、立场、情感以及最终抵达的地方差异很大。 我还想补充一句话。其实卡佛的诗特别好，我不懂诗也不看诗，但是看了他的诗后很被触动。他的诗不像诗，就是大白话，但是可以打动你。所以从本质而言，我觉得卡佛是一个诗人，否则不会这样对待生活。他的生活不如意，说老实话比我们的打工者混得还惨。但是他有这样文学的追求，这种反差我找不到一个确切的答案。
更多信息
极简主义
最早来自评论家赫金格对卡佛作品的定义，“表面的平静，主题的普通，僵硬的叙述者和面无表情的叙事，故事的无足轻重以及想不清楚的人物。” 小说家杰弗里·伍尔夫更干脆地把卡佛及他的追随者命名为“减法者”。而颇具号召力的“加法者”约翰·巴斯，则以一种喜恨交加的语态，为“极简主义”文学做出了最令人信服的定义：“极简主义美学的枢纽准则是：艺术手段的极端简约可以增强作品的艺术效果——即回到了罗伯特·勃朗宁的名言‘少就是多’──即使这种节俭吝啬会威胁到其他的文艺价值，比如说完整性，或陈述的丰富性和精确性。” 穷困 写作从来就没有带给他生活中的改变，这是卡佛成名后接受访谈时常常提到的。他多次宣告经济破产，曾经靠失业救济金活了一年。 酒 父亲是酒鬼，卡佛也一喝就是十几年。但是，一直把戒酒看做自己最大成就的卡佛，最后却是死于吸烟。 职业 卡佛高中毕业后辍学，当过锯木厂工人、清洁工、在医院当过守门人兼擦地板，在好莱坞卖过电影票。
《大教堂》
卡佛公认的成熟之作，曾被选入《1982年美国最佳短篇小说选》。 作品改编 《大教堂》小说集中的《好事一小件》与《维他命》曾一起被改编进了美国导演奥特曼的电影《浮世男女》（又名《银色性男女》。《羽毛》也被改编成电影。
Early life
Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mill town on the Columbia River, and grew up in Yakima, Washington. His father, a skilled sawmill worker from Arkansas, was a fisherman and a heavy drinker. Carver's mother worked on and off as a waitress and a retail clerk. His one brother, James Franklin Carver, was born in 1943.
Carver was educated at local schools in Yakima, Washington. In his spare time he read mostly novels by Mickey Spillane or publications such as Sports Afield and Outdoor Life and hunted and fished with friends and family. After graduating from Yakima High School in 1956, Carver worked with his father at a sawmill in California. In June 1957, aged 19, he married 16-year-old Maryann Burk, who had just graduated from a private Episcopal school for girls. Their daughter, Christine La Rae, was born in December 1957. When their second child, a boy named Vance Lindsay, was born the next year, Carver was 20. Carver supported his family by working as a janitor, sawmill laborer, delivery man, and library assistant. During their marriage, Maryann worked as a waitress, salesperson, administrative assistant, and high school English teacher.
Writing careerCarver became interested in writing in California, where he had moved with his family because his mother-in-law had a home in Paradise. Carver attended a creative-writing course taught by the novelist John Gardner, who became a mentor and had a major influence on Carver's life and career. Carver continued his studies first at Chico State University and then at Humboldt State College in Arcata, California, where he studied with Richard Cortez Day and received his B.A. in 1963. During this period he was first published and served as editor for Toyon, the university literary magazine, in which he included several of his own pieces under pseudonyms. He later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, for one year. Maryann graduated from San Jose State College in 1970 and taught English at Los Altos High School until 1977.
His first published story appeared in 1960, titled "The Furious Seasons." More florid than his later work, the story strongly bore the influence of William Faulkner. "Furious Seasons" was later used as a title for a collection of stories published by Capra Press, and can now be found in recent collections No Heroics, Please and Call If You Need Me.
In the mid-1960s Carver and his family lived in Sacramento, where he worked as a night custodian at Mercy Hospital. He would do all of the janitorial work in the first hour and then write at the hospital through the rest of the night. He sat in on classes at what was then Sacramento State College, including workshops with poet Dennis Schmitz. Carver and Schmitz soon became friends, and Carver's first book of poems, Near Klamath, was later written and published under Schmitz's guidance.
With his appearance in the respected "Foley collection," the impending publication of Near Klamath by the English Club of Sacramento State College, and the death of his father, 1967 was a landmark year for Carver. That was also the year that he moved his family to Palo Alto, California, so that he could take a job as a textbook editor for Science Research Associates. He worked there until he was fired in 1970 for his inappropriate writing style.
His first collection, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, was first published in 1976; the title story had appeared in the Best American Short Stories 1976 collection. The collection itself was shortlisted for the National Book Award, though it sold fewer than 5,000 copies that year.
In the 1970s and 1980s as his writing career began to take off, Carver taught for several years at universities throughout the United States.
During his years of working different jobs, rearing children, and trying to write, Carver started to drink heavily. By his own admission, eventually he more or less gave up writing and took to full-time drinking. In the fall semester of 1973, Carver was a teacher in the Iowa Writers' Workshop with John Cheever, but Carver stated that they did less teaching than drinking and almost no writing. The next year, after leaving Iowa City, Cheever went to a treatment center to attempt to overcome his alcoholism, but Carver continued drinking for three years. After being hospitalized three times (between June 1976 and February or March 1977), Carver began his 'second life' and stopped drinking on June 2, 1977, with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. Carver believed he would have died of alcoholism at the age of 40 if he hadn't found a way to stop drinking. When he knew the cancer would kill him, he wrote a poem about that bonus of 10 years, called "Gravy."
Carver was nominated again in 1984 for his third major-press collection, Cathedral, the volume generally perceived as his best. Included in the collection are the award-winning stories "A Small, Good Thing", and "Where I'm Calling From." John Updike selected the latter for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. For his part, Carver saw Cathedral as a watershed in his career, in its shift towards a more optimistic and confidently poetic style
Personal life and deathCarver met the poet Tess Gallagher at a writers' conference in Dallas, Texas in November, 1977. Beginning in January, 1979, Carver and Gallagher lived together in El Paso, Texas, in a borrowed cabin near Port Angeles, in western Washington state, and in Tucson, Arizona. In 1980, the two moved to Syracuse, where Gallagher had been appointed the coordinator of the creative writing program at Syracuse University; Carver taught as a professor in the English department. He and Gallagher jointly purchased a house in Syracuse, at 832 Maryland Avenue. In ensuing years, the house became so popular that the couple had to hang a sign outside that read "Writers At Work" in order to be left alone. In 1982, Carver and first wife, Maryann, were divorced. He married Gallagher in 1988 in Reno, Nevada. Six weeks later, on August 2, 1988, Carver died in Port Angeles, Washington, from lung cancer at the age of 50. In the same year, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Carver is buried at Ocean View Cemetery in Port Angeles. The inscription on his tombstone reads:
LATE FRAGMENT
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
His poem Gravy is also inscribed.
As Carver's will directed, Tess Gallagher assumed the management of his literary estate.
(In Carver's birth town of Clatskanie, Oregon a memorial park and statue was constructed in the late 2000s spearheaded by the local Friends of the Library, using mostly local donations. Tess Gallagher was present at the dedication. It is located in the old town on the corner of Lillich and Nehalem Streets, across from the library. A block away, the building where Raymond Carver was born still stands. There is a plaque of Carver in the foyer).
Raymond Carver Memorial in Clatskanie, Oregon. Located at Nehalem and Lillich Streets in old town...
Legacy and posthumous publicationsIn 2001 the novelist Chuck Kinder published Honeymooners: A Cautionary Tale, a roman à clef of his friendship with Carver in the 1970s. In 2006 Maryann Burk Carver wrote a memoir of her years with Carver: What It Used To Be Like: A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver. An unauthorized biography, Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life by Carol Sklenicka, published by Scribner in 2009, was named one of the Best Ten Books of that year by The New York Times Book Review. Carver's widow refused to cooperate with Sklenica.
His final (incomplete) collection of seven stories, titled Elephant in Britain (included in "Where I'm Calling From") was composed in the five years before his death. The nature of these stories, especially "Errand", have led to some speculation that Carver was preparing to write a novel. Only one piece of this work has survived - the unpromising fragment "The Augustine Notebooks," printed in No Heroics, Please.
Tess Gallagher published five Carver stories posthumously in Call If You Need Me; one of the stories ("Kindling") won an O. Henry Award in 1999. In his lifetime Carver won five O. Henry Awards; these winning stories were "Are These Actual Miles" (originally titled "What is it?") (1972), "Put Yourself in My Shoes" (1974), "Are You A Doctor?" (1975), "A Small, Good Thing" (1983), and "Errand" (1988).
Tess Gallagher fought with Knopf for permission to republish the stories in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love as they were originally written by Carver, as opposed to the heavily-edited and altered versions that appeared in 1981 under the editorship of Gordon Lish. The book, entitled 'Beginners', was released in hardback on October 1, 2009 in Great Britain. 'Beginners' also appears in a new Library of America edition collecting all of Carver's short fiction.
Literary characteristicsCarver's career was dedicated to short stories and poetry. He described himself as "inclined toward brevity and intensity" and "hooked on writing short stories" (in the foreword of Where I'm Calling From, a collection published in 1988 and a recipient of an honorable mention in the 2006 New York Times article citing the best works of fiction of the previous 25 years). Another stated reason for his brevity was "that the story [or poem] can be written and read in one sitting." This was not simply a preference but, particularly at the beginning of his career, a practical consideration as he juggled writing with work. His subject matter was often focused on blue-collar experience, and was clearly reflective of his own life.
Minimalism is generally seen as one of the hallmarks of Carver's work. His editor at Esquire magazine, Gordon Lish, was instrumental in shaping Carver's prose in this direction - where his earlier tutor John Gardner had advised Carver to use fifteen words instead of twenty-five, Gordon Lish instructed Carver to use five in place of fifteen. Objecting to the "surgical amputation and transplantation" of Lish's heavy editing, Carver eventually broke with him. During this time, Carver also submitted poetry to James Dickey, then poetry editor of Esquire. His style has also been described as Dirty realism, which connected him with a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s that included Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff -- two writers Carver was closely acquainted with—as well as Ann Beattie and Jayne Anne Phillips. With the exception of Beattie, who wrote about upper-middle class people, these were writers who focused on sadness and loss in the everyday lives of ordinary people—often lower-middle class or isolated and marginalized people—who represent Henry David Thoreau's idea of living lives of "quiet desperation."
WorksSee also: Raymond Carver bibliography
Fiction
CollectionsWill You Please Be Quiet, Please? (first published 1976)
Furious Seasons (1977)
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)
Cathedral (1983)
Elephant (1988)
CompilationsWhere I'm Calling From (1988)
Short Cuts: Selected Stories (1993) - published to accompany Robert Altman film Short Cut
Collected Stories (2009) - complete short fiction including Beginner
Poetry
CollectionsNear Klamath (1968)
Winter Insomnia (1970)
At Night The Salmon Move (1976)
Fires (1983)
Where Water Comes Together With Other Water (1985)
Ultramarine (1986)
A New Path To The Waterfall (1989)
CompilationsIn a Marine Light: Selected Poems (1988)
All of Us: The Collected Poems (1996)
ScreenplaysDostoevsky (1985, with Tess Gallagher)
Films and theatre adaptationsShort Cuts directed by Robert Altman
Everything Goes directed by Andrew Kotatko and starring Hugo Weaving and Abbie Cornish
Jindabyne (based on So Much Water So Close to Home) directed by Ray Lawrence
Everything Must Go directed by Dan Rush and starring Will Ferrell based on Carver's short story "Why Don't You Dance?"
What's in Alaska? directed by Jim Field
Carver a production directed by William Gaskill at London's Arcola Theatre in 1995, adapted from five Carver short stories including What's in Alaska, Put Yourself in My Shoes and Intimacy
Studentova žena (Croatian) directed by Goran Kovač based on "The Student's Wife"
After the Denim directed by Gregory D. Goyin
Carousel (Croatian) directed by Toma Zidić inspired by "Ashtray"
MusicThe 1989 album So Much Water So Close to Home by Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, includes a track "Everything's Turning to White" which is a re-telling of Carver's story So Much Water So Close to Home.
The 2004 EP by Owen includes a song titled Gazebo, named after Carver's short story. The song mentions Carver's name, and also quotes the final line of Gazebo; "In this too, she was right."
The 2005 album Pocket Revolution by dEUS includes a song titled "What We Talk About (When We Talk About Love)".
The 2011 album Summer of Lust by Library Voices includes a song titled "If Raymond Carver Were Born in the 90's".
Books and articles about CarverCarver, Maryann Burk (2006). What It Used to Be Like; A Portrait of My Marriage to Raymond Carver. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-33258-0.
Nesset, Kirk (1995). Stories Of Raymond Carver: A Critical Study. Ohio University Press. ISBN 0-8214-1100-4.
Charles McGrath (October 28, 2007). "I, Editor Author". Week in Review, New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/weekinreview/28mcgrath.html. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
Pieters, Jesús (2004). El silencio de lo real: sentido, comprensión e interpretación en la narrativa de Raymond Carver. Monte Ávila Editores Latinoamericana. ISBN 978-980-01-1219-9.
Stull, William L. and Gentry, Marshall Bruce (editors) (1990). Conversations With Raymond Carver (Literary Conversations Series). University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0-87805-449-9.
Stull, William L. and Carroll, Maureen P. (editors) (1993). Remembering Ray: A Composite Biography of Raymond Carver. Capra Press. ISBN 0-88496-370-5.
Runyon, Randolph Paul (1994). Reading Raymond Carver. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2631-2.
Kleppe, Sandra Lee and Miltner, Robert (editors) (2008). New Paths to Raymond Carver; Critical Essays on His Life, Fiction, and Poetry. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-724-5.
Halpert, Sam (1995). Raymond Carver. An Oral Biography. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-502-3.
Sklenicka, Carol (Nov 2009). Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-7432-6245-3.
Ródenas, Gabri (2009), “Jarmusch y Carver: Se ha roto el frigorífico” in Fernández, P. (Ed.), Rompiendo moldes: Discursos, género e hibridación en el siglo XXI. Zamora/Sevilla: Editorial Comunicación Social. ISBN 978-84-96082-88-5. Available at Google Books.