John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 - June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Westchester suburbs, and old New England villages. A compilation of his short stories, The Stories of John Cheever, won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and a 1981 National Book Award. The following is from a 1977 interview where Cheever discusses his novel Falconer.