Raymond Carver is best known for his four major collections of short stories. His first collection published by a major press, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976), comprised stories written over a period of fourteen years. The second, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981), established his national reputation as a leading short story writer. The third, Cathedral (1984), is considered Carver's masterpiece. The fourth, Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories (1988), includes major revisions of previously published stories.

Carver is perhaps best known for his characterization of the sector of struggling white, working poor Americans and the atmosphere of despair and defeat in which they take place. Adam Meyer claims that "of the writers who attempted to depict the history of this 'blue collar despair,' none did so as fully and accurately as Raymond Carver." Carver himself was born into a working...