Richard Yates (writer)

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Richard Yates (born February 3, 1926 in Yonkers , New York , † November 7, 1992 in Birmingham , Alabama ) was an American writer. He attracted particular attention through his debut novel Revolutionary Road ( Times of Turmoil ) , published in 1961, and the 1976 novel The Easter Parade ( Easter Parade ). Despite the esteem of many fellow authors, he was forgotten with increasing age. After two failed marriages he lived lonely for the last few years and devoted himself exclusively to writing. It was only after his death that his work was rediscovered and its importance for modern American literature was recognized.

Life

Youth, the military and marriage

Richard Walden (a middle name he disliked) Yates was born in 1926, the second child of Vincent and Ruth “Dookie” Mason Yates. The marriage was broken at the time of birth and divorced in 1929. Both parents showed artistic ambitions. Vincent Yates had studied singing, but found a job as a sales manager at General Electric . Ruth Maurer trained as a sculptor without ever being able to realize the artistic and social successes she dreamed of. The family lived in Hastings-on-Hudson until the divorce , after which Richard stayed with his mother in changing homes in New York and some suburbs in Connecticut . The relationship between the adolescent Richard and his father, who died in 1942, was distant, and the son preferred the mother despite or perhaps because of her complexity. In the autobiographical preface of A Good School ( A good school , 1978) described Yates knew "I, it was unreasonable and irresponsible, she talked too much, she made over nothing insane scenes, allowing it to be expected that they are in a crisis collapsed, but I had gradually got the grim suspicion that I might be structured in a very similar way. "

Because of poor academic performance, Yates attended Avon Old Farms in Avon , Connecticut, from 1941 to 1944 , a private school that specialized in difficult students. It was here that he began to write (as editor of the school magazine) and to smoke, two passions that would have stayed with him throughout his life. Upon graduation, Yates was drafted into the army. He trained in Camp Pickett , Virginia , before being shipped to Europe with the 75th Division in January 1945, where he took part in the final months of World War II in France, Belgium and Germany . In the course of the fighting over the Colmar bridgehead , he contracted pneumonia and pleurisy, from which he did not fully recover in his life. Yates was subsequently considered a semi-invalid. He dealt with his military service several times in his works, in particular in his second novel A Special Providence ( A Special Providence , 1969).

After his discharge from the army in January 1946, Yates stayed in France for a few weeks before returning to New York in June 1946. Yates attended writing classes at Columbia University , but did not take up studies to become a writer without a delay. Later he always found the lack of a university degree to be a flaw. He made his living in the business department of United Press . In 1947 he met his first wife Sheila Bryant, whom he married in June 1948. In 1949 he took a job at the computer manufacturer Remington Rand , which was well paid but bored him. He satirized this activity in his first novel Revolutionary Road ( Times of Troubles , 1961). In his spare time he wrote short stories. The marriage soon began to run into turmoil, but separation was repeatedly postponed: in March 1950 through the birth of their daughter Sharon, from February 1951 through a stay of several years in Europe in Paris , Antibes and Cannes and from 1952 in London . This stay was financed by a disability pension awarded to Yates after several weeks in a sanatorium on Staten Island .

Writing career

In February 1953, appeared with Jody rolled the Bones ( the dice can be rolled Jody ) a first narrative Yates' in The Atlantic Monthly . In September of that year Yates returned to the United States, where he reduced his work at Remington Rand to devote his free time to his first novel. The family moved to Redding , Connecticut. In 1957, the second daughter Monica was born, but tensions between the spouses grew. Yates drank and lamented his artistic stagnation. In August 1959 he left the family and moved to New York, where he ran a writing workshop at the New School for Social Research . Yates lived in a shabby apartment near Sheridan Square and suffered from depression. In the fall of 1960, after a collapse, he was admitted to the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital for a week. In early 1961, Sheila filed for divorce.

Yates' greatest literary success came in the year of the divorce. His debut novel Revolutionary Road was published by Little, Brown and Company and received rave reviews, including from Alfred Kazin , William Styron and Tennessee Williams . He was among the finalists for the National Book Award . The collection of short stories Eleven Kinds of Loneliness ( Eleven species of Solitude , 1962) cemented the following year Yates's reputation, and he received scholarships from the Guggenheim - and Rockefeller Foundation . In the spring of 1962, Yates received a call from Hollywood . John Frankenheimer commissioned him to write a script for Styron's Lie Down in Darkness . Yates worked in Malibu for a few months , but the plans for the film fell apart. Another script formed the basis for the film Die Brücke von Remagen in 1969 , but it was changed so much that the author angrily closed the film business. Another call overtook him in 1963 from Washington, DC : Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was looking for a ghostwriter for his speeches. Although he valued Yates' texts, he remained skeptical because of his excessive drinking, and the activity came to an end after a few months, following the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy .

From the fall of 1964 on, Yates taught for seven years in the renowned Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa , interrupted by stays in Los Angeles and New York, where he also spent several weeks in psychiatric hospitals. In Iowa , he met friends like Andre Dubus and Kurt Vonnegut and met his second wife, Martha Speer, a student who was almost 20 years his junior and whom he married in 1968. By her side, Yates' life normalized and his alcohol addiction temporarily improved. In 1969, in quick succession Yates's also addicted to alcohol sister and his mother died, he could finally get his second novel, A Special Providence ( a special providence publish) after it had loaded the expectations of the successor long. The novel was not well received, which was due to its compositional deficiencies as well as to the changed zeitgeist. By now, experimental literature had replaced Yates' preferred realistic storytelling. Their representative Robert Coover , who also teaches in Iowa, became a personal enemy for Yates.

After Yates did not get the lifelong position he had hoped for in Iowa, he looked for alternatives and moved to Wichita , Kansas for two years , where he held the post of Distinguished Writer in Residence at Wichita State University . Yates 'third daughter Gina was born here in June 1972, but the marriage suffered from his increasing alcohol consumption, which grew into attacks of epilepsy and paranoia with Yates' previous mental illnesses . After Yates found a part-time job at Columbia University, Martha left him in the spring of 1974. Three years later, the marriage ended in divorce. Previously made Yates again literary attention to itself: In contrast to the moderate appeal to his third novel Disturbing the Peace ( disturbing the peace , 1975) had found celebrated the criticism the written from an unusual female perspective and in an unusual speed fourth novel The Easter Parade ( Easter Parade , 1976) as a glamorous comeback. No subsequent work should trigger such euphoric reactions.

Last years

In June 1976, a smoldering cigarette set Yates' apartment on fire. The writer suffered severe burns and subsequently a collapse, after which he was again admitted to a psychiatric hospital. After his release, Yates moved to Boston in a significantly deteriorated condition , where he lived in a sparsely furnished two-room apartment and from then on devoted his entire life to writing. In Boston three novels and a band originated from tales: A Good School ( A good school , 1978), Liars in Love ( Lovers Liar , 1981), Young Hearts Crying ( A bright future , 1984) and Cold Spring Harbor (1986). In the essay Some Very Good Masters , Yates wrote in 1981: “Even with my eighth book, which I have just started - deeply regretful not to be sitting on my eleventh or twelfth book because of the sad waste of time - I still feel like I am not really having started. And I suspect this rather ridiculous state, whatever happens, will continue until my time runs out. "

Neither Yates nor his publisher could make enough money with his late books, so that in 1988 he accepted an offer from his former student David Milch to move into his guest house in Los Angeles and write scripts for television series, but not a single one of Yates' drafts met the requirements . In 1989, friends arranged a teaching position at the University of Southern California . In 1990 Yates moved to the south, which he hated to Tuscaloosa , where he found a position as writer in residence at the University of Alabama . Here he wanted to complete a novel project under the title Uncertain Times , which was based on his time as a speechwriter Robert Kennedy. When the university no longer extended his teaching post, he moved into a nearby apartment, where emphysema sufferer Yates continued to work under meager circumstances, while he took turns smoking and using an oxygen machine. He never completed the manuscript that was found in the refrigerator after his death. The last entry was dated August 28, 1992. Two and a half months later, Richard Yates died in the Veterans Hospital in Birmingham , Alabama.

reception

Richard Yates did not write a bestseller in his lifetime. He was generally considered a "writer's writer", that is, an author who was valued more by his fellow writers than by the general public. He enjoyed a certain reputation among literary critics, without playing a major role in the literary business. His debut novel Revolutionary Road ( Revolutionary Road , 1961), which was behind his death more than 30 years at the time, remained his greatest success. Two memorial services were held in the year after his death - one by longtime publisher Seymour Lawrence and friend Kurt Vonnegut, another by Andre Dubus and the literary magazine Plowshares - and the Richard Yates memorial book - An American Writer. Tributes issued in memoriam with contributions from colleagues and literary scholars. However, this could not prevent the author from being forgotten and his books no longer being reprinted.

Stewart O'Nan coveted 1999 in his comprehensive essay The Lost World of Richard Yates ( The Lost World of Richard Yates ) in the Boston Review against this state: "How can a writer who was recognized by his colleagues and even so loved an author who is capable of moving his readers so deeply, is practically out of print, and in such a short time? ”Yates illustrates“ the forlornness of the age of fear ”as aptly as F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates that of the age of jazz, he I have “influenced icons of American literature like Raymond Carver and Andre Dubus ” and I am “ so straightforward and direct in his prose and in the choice of his characters”. Nevertheless, his books are only available in antiquarian versions. “And how is it that nobody knows? How is it that nobody does anything about it? "

A new edition of Revolutionary Road appeared in the following year , to which Richard Ford contributed a foreword, also printed in the New York Times Book Review , in which he described the novel as a cult book and a standard in American literature that had been praised by other writers and who influenced her. He praised the seeming ease, complete accessibility, and brilliant accuracy of the book, which approaches people with deep seriousness and provides shocking insights about them. Another year later, Henry Holt published The Collected Stories of Richard Yates , a compilation of the volumes Eleven Kinds of Loneliness and Liars in Love with nine previously unpublished short stories. In the introduction, Richard Russo resisted the label "writer's writer" and instead emphasized the great accessibility of Yates' prose, which did not raise any experimental barriers.

Two pessimistic prophecies by Stewart O'Nan that there was no biography of the author in sight and that no one was interested in film adaptations of his works were also dispelled in the following years. In 2003, journalist Blake Bailey published an extensive and in-depth biography of Yates. Four years later, Sam Mendes filmed Yates' debut novel with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the lead roles. The film Zeiten des Aufruhrs was released in 2008 (German premiere on January 15, 2009) and was nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and Oscars in 2009. The film version of the book made it onto the New York Times bestseller lists for the first time .

During Yates' lifetime, only the novel Revolutionary Road appeared in German under the title The Year of Empty Dreams in the translation by Heide Lipecky in the East German publishing house Volk und Welt . The blurb gave the political reading in the GDR: "In this novel, Richard Yates paints an unpretentious and haunting image of a modern marriage that no longer knows how to counter the growing loss of communication in a society that is only oriented towards the outside world." the judgment that provokes such phenomena with critical consistency. ”It was not until 2002 that Hans Wolf's translation with the now popular title Zeiten des Aufruhrs appeared at the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt in Munich First translations published. In 2012 the same publisher published the first German-language biography about Richard Yates by Rainer Moritz .

Works

  • Revolutionary Road . Atlantic / Little Brown, Boston 1961.
  • Eleven Kinds of Loneliness . Atlantic / Little Brown, Boston 1962.
    • German eleven kinds of loneliness. Short stories . Trans. V. Anette Grube and Hans Wolf. DVA, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-421-05859-8 .
  • A Special Providence . Knopf, New York 1969.
  • Disturbing the Peace . Delacorte / Seymour Lawrence, New York 1975.
  • The Easter Parade . Delacorte / Seymour Lawrence, New York 1976.
  • A good school . Delacorte / Seymour Lawrence, New York 1978.
  • Liars in Love . Delacorte / Seymour Lawrence, New York 1981.
  • Young Hearts Crying . Delacorte / Seymour Lawrence, New York 1984.
  • Cold Spring Harbor . Delacorte / Seymour Lawrence, New York 1986.
  • The Collected Stories . Holt, New York 2001.
    • German one last love affair. Short stories (selection of previously unpublished stories). Trans. V. Thomas Gunkel, DVA, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-421-04618-5 .

Filmography

Literary template

script

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Yates: A Good School . DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04394-8 , pp. 10-11.
  2. ↑ a b Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 25-50, 197-200.
  3. ↑ See the entry Avon Old Farms in the English language Wikipedia .
  4. ↑ Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 51-73, 197-200.
  5. ↑ a b Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 74-95, 197-200.
  6. ↑ a b Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 96-118, 197-200.
  7. ↑ Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 119-137, 197-200.
  8. ↑ Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 138-166, 197-200.
  9. ↑ Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 149-166, 197-200.
  10. ↑ Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 149-182, 197-200.
  11. ↑ Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 7-16, 167-190, 197-200.
  12. ↑ Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 7-24.
  13. ↑ Stewart O'Nan : The Lost World of Richard Yates. How the great writer of the Age of Anxiety disappeared from print ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bostonreview.net archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Boston Review , October / November 1999. In German: Stewart O'Nan: Richard Yates' lost world. How the great writer of the Age of Fear disappeared from the book trade. In: Krachkultur 10/2004. Quotes from: Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 19-20.
  14. ^ Richard Ford : American Beauty (Circa 1955) . In: The New York Times Book Review . April 9, 2000.
  15. ↑ a b c Rainer Moritz: The fatal belief in happiness. Richard Yates - his life, his work. DVA, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-421-04452-5 , pp. 17-24.
personal data
SURNAME Yates, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and essayist
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Yonkers , New York
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1992
Place of death Birmingham , Alabama