Richard Yates

Born

in Yonkers, New York, The United States

February 03, 1926

Died

November 07, 1992

Genre

Fiction, Short Stories

Influences

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gustave Flaubert, Anton Chekhov

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Richard Yates shone bright upon the publication of his first novel, Revolutionary Road, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1961. It drew unbridled praise and branded Yates an important, new writer. Kurt Vonnegut claimed that Revolutionary Road was The Great Gatsby of his time. William Styron described it as "A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." Tennessee Williams went one further and said, "Here is more than fine writing; here is what, added to fine writing, makes a book come immediately, intensely, and brilliantly alive. If more is needed to make a masterpiece in modern American fiction, I am sure I don't know what it is."

In 1962 Eleven Kinds of Loneliness was published, his first collection of sh Richard Yates shone bright upon the publication of his first novel, Revolutionary Road, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1961. It drew unbridled praise and branded Yates an important, new writer. Kurt Vonnegut claimed that Revolutionary Road was The Great Gatsby of his time. William Styron described it as "A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." Tennessee Williams went one further and said, "Here is more than fine writing; here is what, added to fine writing, makes a book come immediately, intensely, and brilliantly alive. If more is needed to make a masterpiece in modern American fiction, I am sure I don't know what it is."

In 1962 Eleven Kinds of Loneliness was published, his first collection of short stories. It too had praise heaped upon it. Kurt Vonnegut said it was "the best short-story collection ever written by an American."

Yates' writing skills were further utilized when, upon returning from Los Angeles, he began working as a speechwriter for then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy until the assassination of JFK. From there he moved onto Iowa where, as a creative writing teacher, he would influence and inspire writers such as Andre Dubus and Dewitt Henry.

His third novel, Disturbing the Peace, was published in 1975. Perhaps his second most well-known novel, The Easter Parade, was published in 1976. The story follows the lives of the Grimes sisters and ends in typical Yatesian fashion, replicating the disappointed lives of Revolutionary Road.

However, Yates began to find himself as a writer cut adrift in a sea fast turning towards postmodernism; yet, he would stay true to realism. His heroes and influences remained the classics of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flaubert and short-story master, Chekov.

It was to his school and army days that Richard turned to for his next novel, A Good School, which was quickly followed by his second collection of short stories, Liars in Love. Young Hearts Crying emerged in 1984 followed two years later with Cold Spring Harbour, which would prove to be his final completed novel.

Like the fate of his hero, Flaubert, whose novel Madame Bovary influenced Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade, Richard Yates' works are enjoying a posthumous renaissance, attracting newly devoted fans across the Atlantic and beyond. ...more

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Richard Yates’s books

Average rating: 3.91 · 100,561 ratings · 8,773 reviews · 38 distinct works • Similar authors

	Revolutionary Road 3.90 avg rating — 70,818 ratings — published 1961 — 103 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Easter Parade 4.03 avg rating — 6,785 ratings — published 1976 — 52 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eleven Kinds of Loneliness 4.10 avg rating — 3,861 ratings — published 1962 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Collected Stories by Richard Yates, Richard Russo (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 4.32 avg rating — 2,468 ratings — published 2001 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Disturbing the Peace 3.79 avg rating — 1,974 ratings — published 1975 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cold Spring Harbor 3.71 avg rating — 2,043 ratings — published 1986 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Young Hearts Crying 3.90 avg rating — 1,594 ratings — published 1984 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Good School 3.65 avg rating — 1,583 ratings — published 1978 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Special Providence 3.84 avg rating — 932 ratings — published 1969 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Liars in Love 4.07 avg rating — 767 ratings — published 1981 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Richard Yates…

Quotes by Richard Yates

“if you wanted to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone.”
― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

tags: alone, honesty, yates

595 likes

“It's a disease. Nobody thinks or feels or cares any more; nobody gets excited or believes in anything except their own comfortable little God damn mediocrity.”
― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

tags: apathy, mediocrity

590 likes

“No one forgets the truth; they just get better at lying.”
― Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

317 likes

See all Richard Yates's quotes »

Polls

What book that King has recommended do you want to read in October?

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

39 votes, 14.6%

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

34 votes, 12.7%

1984 by George Orwell

27 votes, 10.1%

Weaveworld by Clive Barker

26 votes, 9.7%

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

24 votes, 9.0%

The Ruins by Scott B. Smith

22 votes, 8.2%

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

21 votes, 7.8%

A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

20 votes, 7.5%

The Uninvited by Liz Jensen

12 votes, 4.5%

Dark Mountain by Richard Laymon

11 votes, 4.1%

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

8 votes, 3.0%

Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard

7 votes, 2.6%

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

7 votes, 2.6%

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

7 votes, 2.6%

The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard

3 votes, 1.1%

268 total votes

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