The Five-Forty-Eight Study Guide

John Cheever's “The Five-Forty-Eight” was first published on April 10, 1954 in The New Yorker. Four years later, the story was reprinted as part of a collection of Cheever's short stories, The Housebreaker of Shady Hill. The short story examines white-collar, masculine anxiety in Cheever's typically sardonic and surreal fashion. In May 1955, "The Five-Forty-Eight" won Cheever the Benjamin Franklin Magazine Award for best short story of 1954. In later years, as Cheever's writing took on increasing fame, the story was adapted into other mediums. In 1979, it was adapted into film by Terrence McNally as part of a video series of Cheever stories, aired on PBS in 1979. In 1983, Raymond Carver was so moved by the story that he wrote a sequel to it, "The Train," and dedicated it to Cheever.