Born May 27: John Cheever

Closeted, self-hating, alcoholic, miserably married, and a frequent liar, John Cheever was the bard of the suburbs and his best writing is beautiful. Not coincidentally his most accomplished novel, Falconer, is the one that deals openly with love between men, and a handful of his stories are even better. He slept with everyone from Walker Evans when he was young to Allan Gurganus when he was old. (Read Cheever's memory of the Evans hookup here.) Blake Bailey's recent biography covers his life in 784 pages.