Raymond Carver was born in Clatskanie, Oregon in 1938. He married early and for years writing had to come second to earning a living for his young family. Despite some early publication by small presses, it was not until the success of Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976) that his work began to reach a larger audience. This was the year he gave up alcohol, and in 1977, after the break-up of his marriage, he met the writer Tess Gallagher with whom he spent the last eleven years of his life. During this prolific period he wrote three collections of stories, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Cathedral and Elephant. Fires, a collection of essays, poems and stories, appeared in 1985, followed by three further collections of poetry. He completed his last book of poems, A New Path to the Waterfall, shortly before his death in 1988.