Cathedral
A widely acclaimed mature story collection and accessible entry point to Carver's fiction.
Author guide
Raymond Carver Books in Order
Raymond Carver (1938–1988) was an American short-story writer and poet whose work helped define late twentieth-century literary minimalism. He published influential story collections including Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral, and Where I'm Calling From, as well as poetry, essays, a screenplay co-written with Tess Gallagher, and a one-act play. His writing is noted for compressed prose, emotional understatement, and attention to precarious domestic and working-class lives.
short storiespoetryessaysscreenplaysplays
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
The first major story collection and a foundation of Carver's literary reputation.
A New Path to the Waterfall
The principal posthumous collection of Carver's late poetry.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Short fiction (9)
- Put Yourself in My Shoes
short-story-chapbook · 1974
- Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
short-story-collection · 1976
The first collection of stories from “one of the great short story writers of our time” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) breathed new life into the American short story, showing us the humor and tragedy that dwell in the hearts of ordinary…
- Furious Seasons and Other Stories
short-story-collection · 1977
A history and description of the Three Turkey House site in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, with black and white photographs accompanied by appreciative quotes from various authors.
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
short-story-collection · 1981
In his second collection of stories, as in his first, Carver's characters are peripheral people--people without education, insight or prospects, people too unimaginative to even give up. Carver celebrates these men and women.
- Cathedral
short-story-collection · 1983
In the title story of this collection the hand of a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see.
- The Pheasant
short-story-chapbook · 1982
- Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories
short-story-collection · 1988
- Elephant
short-story-chapbook · 1988
- Three Stories
short-story-chapbook · 1990
Essays and speeches (1)
- My Father's Life
essay-chapbook · 1986
Poetry (13)
- Near Klamath
poetry-collection · 1968
- Winter Insomnia
poetry-collection · 1970
- At Night the Salmon Move
poetry-collection · 1976
- Where Water Comes Together with Other Water
poetry-collection · 1985
Winner of Poetry Magazine’s Levinson Prize • An illuminating collection of poems from the middle of Carver's career that “function as distilled, heightened versions of his stories, offering us fugitive glimpses of ordinary lives on the…
- This Water
poetry-chapbook · 1985
- Two Poems
poetry-chapbook · 1982
- Ultramarine
poetry-collection · 1986
- Intimacy
poetry-chapbook · 1986
- Early for the Dance
poetry-chapbook · 1986
- Two Poems
poetry-chapbook · 1986
- In a Marine Light: Selected Poems
poetry-collection · 1987
- The Painter and the Fish
poetry-chapbook · 1988
- A New Path to the Waterfall
poetry-collection · 1989
Plays (2)
- Dostoevsky: A Screenplay
screenplay · 1985
- Carnations
play · 1992
Other (4)
- Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories
mixed-genre-collection · 1983
- Those Days: Early Writings by Raymond Carver
mixed-genre-chapbook · 1987
- No Heroics, Please: Uncollected Writings
mixed-genre-collection · 1991
- Call If You Need Me: The Uncollected Fiction and Other Prose
mixed-genre-collection · 2001
Frequently asked questions about Raymond Carver
Who was Raymond Carver?
Raymond Carver was an American short-story writer and poet whose spare, emotionally restrained fiction focused on working- and middle-class lives. He was a major figure in the revival of the American short story during the 1970s and 1980s.
Sources: poetryfoundation.org (opens in a new tab)oregonencyclopedia.org (opens in a new tab)
When and where was Raymond Carver born, and when did he die?
He was born on May 25, 1938, in Wauna, near Clatskanie, Oregon, and died of lung cancer on August 2, 1988.
What did Raymond Carver do during his career?
Carver supported his family through various manual and service jobs before establishing himself as a writer. He later taught creative writing and English at institutions including the University of Iowa, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Syracuse University.
Sources: poetryfoundation.org (opens in a new tab)encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)
What influenced Raymond Carver’s writing?
His fiction was shaped by his Pacific Northwest upbringing, working-class experience, and years of precarious employment. He studied with John Gardner and cited writers including Tolstoy, Chekhov, Hemingway, Isaac Babel, and Ann Beattie among the fiction writers he valued.
Sources: poetryfoundation.org (opens in a new tab)theparisreview.org (opens in a new tab)
What awards did Raymond Carver receive, and what is his literary legacy?
Carver received National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His direct, compressed storytelling helped define American literary minimalism and continues to influence short-fiction writers.
Sources: arts.gov (opens in a new tab)artsandletters.org (opens in a new tab)oregonencyclopedia.org (opens in a new tab)