Richard Yates (novelist)

Richard Yates
Richard Yates in 1960
Born	February 3, 1926 Yonkers, New York
Died	November 7, 1992(1992-11-07) (aged 66) Birmingham, Alabama
Occupation	novelist, short story writer
Nationality	American
Literary movement	Realism

Richard Yates (February 3, 1926 – November 7, 1992) was an American fiction writer, identified with the mid-century "Age of Anxiety". His first novel, Revolutionary Road, was a finalist for the 1962 National Book Award. His first short story collection, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, brought comparisons to James Joyce. His critical acclaim, however, was not reflected in commercial success during his lifetime, though interest in Yates has revived somewhat since his death, partly because of an influential 1999 essay by Stewart O'nan in the Boston Review, a 2003 biography by Blake Bailey and the 2008 Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning film Revolutionary Road, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Born in Yonkers, New York, Yates came from an unstable home; his parents divorced when he was 3 and much of his childhood was spent in many different towns and residences. Yates first became interested in journalism and writing while attending Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Connecticut. After leaving Avon, Yates joined the Army, serving in France and Germany during World War II. By the middle of 1946, he was back in New York.

Upon his return to New York City, he worked as a journalist, freelance ghost writer (briefly writing speeches for Attorney General Robert Kennedy) and publicity writer for Remington Rand Corporation. His career as a novelist began in 1961 with the publication of the widely heralded Revolutionary Road. In 1962, he wrote the screenplay for a film adaptation of William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness. He subsequently taught writing at Columbia University, the New School for Social Research,Boston University (where his papers are archived), at the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, at Wichita State University, the University of Southern California Master of Professional Writing Program, and at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.