...on Raymond Carver's grave. Ocean View Cemetery. Who knew? (Near-about everybody but me, but nevermind.) Took my 48-hour houseguest there on Saturday afternoon. We were armed with a couple of books of Carver stories from the library, though not the story S. wanted, the yard sale story ("Why Don't You Dance"). She read Carver. I wandered around taking pictures.
Then we went back to town, and out onto Ediz Hook (map) to watch Sun Ruby sail across the harbor and out onto the Strait. More about that later.
This post is for all the past houseguests whom I did not bring to Ocean View Cemetery, especially EW, JK, and PH, my library colleague peeps back in the day; and for Sam, who isn't here.
2 comments:
Sally found her sweater! The famous sweater is back!
This is an elegant memorial design. I went to Chico State in the '70s, when its history with Carver (and John Gardner) was still a big deal:
"1958 – Raymond moves his family to Paradise, California and enrolls in Chico State College as a part-time student. The Carver’s second child, Vance Lindsay, is born on October 19.
1959 – Raymond takes Creative Writing 101 at Chico State, taught by John Gardner. In "John Gardner: The Writer As Teacher," Carver says about Gardner: "He believed in revision, endless revision; it was something very close to his heart and something he felt was vital for writers, at whatever stage of their development. And he never seemed to lose patience reading a student story, even though he might have seen it in five previous incarnations."
1960 – Raymond founds and edits the first issue of the Chico State literary magazine, Selection."
How do you feel about Tess Gallagher's claim that Carver's sadistic editor was actually responsible for the work's minimalism? Have you seen the "restored" versions?
Wish I was there. love
Chico State's lit mag was called _Watershed_ when I was there; I think it still is. I made it into one issue.
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