Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon in 1938. Carver's alcoholic father, C.R. Carver, died on June 17, 1967. For a time, Carver studied under the author John Gardner at Chico State College in Chico, California. He published a number of short stories over his lifetime that describe blue collar life in a number of periodicals, including The New Yorker and Esquire, which were later collected into books.
Carver eventually remarried, to the poet Tess Gallagher. He was good friends with Tobias Wolff and Richard Ford. In 1988, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Carver's writings are often associated with minimalism. His editor at Esquire, Gordon Lish, was instrumental in shaping Carver's prose. For example, where Gardner had advised Carver to use 15 words instead of 25, Lish instructed Carver to use 5 in place of 15. During this time, Carver also submitted poetry to James Dickey, then poetry editor of Esquire.
Carver died in Port Angeles, Washington from lung cancer, at the age of 50.