Carver, Maryann Burk (Carver, Raymond)

What It Used to Be Like: A Portrait of my Marriage to Raymond Carver

ISBN: 0312332580
New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2006. First Edition. Hardcover. "Maryann Burk Carver met Raymond Carver in 1955, when she was fifteen years old and he was seventeen. In What It Used to Be LIke, she recounts a tale of love at first sight in which the two teenagers got to know each other by sharing a two-year long-distance correspondence that soon after found them married and with two small children. Over the next twenty-five years, as Carver's fame grew, the family led a nomadic life, moving from school to school and teaching post to teaching post. In 1972, they settled in Cupertino, California, where Raymond Carver gave his wife one of his sharpened pencils and asked her to write an account of their history. The result is a breathtaking memoir of a marriage, replete with an intimacy of detail that fully reveals the talents and failings of this larger-than-life man, his complicated relationships, and his profound loves and losses." (from front flap) A memoir by Maryann Burk Carver about her 25-year marriage to Raymond Carver (1938-1988, b. Raymond Clevie Carver Jr.), the canonical American author considered by some critics to be among the ever-most important, & whose works are now enshrined in the Library of America series. The Carvers were married in 1957, while still in their late teens, & divorced in 1982. This acclaimed memoir recounts in great detail the personal & professional struggles, triumphs & failures of the Carvers & their children- the "larger-than-life" iconic literary figure is brought very much down-to-earth. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, "First Edition: July 2006" as stated on copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. With many captioned family photographs throughout. An essential collectible for the core Carver devotee in its rarest original form. Book in very fine condition with only thin line of slight fading from black lower edges & corners of front cover & spine (quite possibly a minor flaw as issued); a bit of rubbing & sparse spotting at edges of text block. Interior very fine, substantially mint. Dust jacket fine with very light rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a few tiny bumps, creases at lower edges & corners of same & flaps; more significant bumps & esp. creases at/from upper edges of same. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #5744]

Price: $50.00 save 10% $45.00