Yates, Richard (writer)

Richard Yates was born in the town of Yonkers, New York State. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and he spent all his childhood moving from place to place. Yeats became interested in journalism and literature while attending Avon Old Farms , a private boys' school in Avon , Connecticut .

After graduating from Avon school, Yates joined the army, which fought in France and Germany, and returned to America in 1946. Richard Yates settled in New York, where he worked as a journalist and speechwriter (including with Senator Robert Kennedy . Only in 1961, when Yates was 35 years old, was his first book, The Road to Change, a great success for critics. Thanks to this, he was invited to teach at Columbia University , and later taught at a number of universities.

On June 8, 1948, Richard Yates married Sheila Bryant , the daughter of British actor Charles Bryant (who is best known as the civil husband of an American actress of Russian origin Alla Nazimova ) and his official wife, Marjorie Gilholi Bryant.

Richard and his wife had two daughters, Sharon and Monica, but in 1959 the couple divorced. In 1968, Richard married again, Martha Speer, another daughter was born in this marriage, Gina. In 1992, the elderly Richard Yates died in Birmingham, Alabama, after an unsuccessful operation.

Yates' artwork echoes the details of his own life. Yeats was born in 1926, as a result of which he was 17 years old in 1943, as many as William Grove, the protagonist of the novel Good School; Yeats was 29 in 1955, as much as Frank Wheeler in Road of Change.

For most of his life, Yeats' writings have received almost universal acclaim by critics, but not one of his books has sold over 12,000 copies in a hardcover edition. Posthumously all his novels were also reprinted, moreover, his popularity with readers increased significantly. This surge in popularity began with what is believed to be the Stuart O'Nan essay, “Richard Yates: How the Great Anxiety Writer Went Out of Print,” published in 1999 in the Boston Review .

In connection with the revival of interest in the life and work of Yeats, writer Blake Bailey published his first detailed biography of Yeats, “Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates” (2003). In 2008, director Sam Mendes filmed The Road of Change. The film was nominated for BAFTA , Academy Award and Golden Globe Awards. Speaking at the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, Kate Winslet in her speech expressed gratitude to Richard Yeats for writing such a powerful novel and bringing out such a strong female image.

Since the 1980s, Yeats' works have been repeatedly mentioned in popular culture. They are read by the heroes of the films “ Hannah and Her Sisters ” ( Woody Allen , 1985) and “ Lone Jim ” ( Steve Buscemi , 2005), as well as the heroes of the books of Nick Hornby and Tao Lina , whose autobiographical novel is called “ Richard Yates ”.

In recent years, many works of Richard Yates, which are available in various publications, have been translated into Russian, for example:

• Road of Changes. [trans. from English A. Safronova] - Moscow: ABC classic, 2009. - 320 p. ISBN 978-5-395-00409-3
• Easter parade. [trans. from English S. Taska] - Moscow: ABC classic, 2009. - 256 ISBN 978-5-395-00429-1
• Cold harbor. Moscow: ABC classic, 2009 .-- 192 p. ISBN 978-5-9985-0093-0
• Loving liars. Moscow: ABC classic, 2010 .-- 288 p. ISBN 978-5-9985-0760-1
• The breath of fate. [trans. from English V. Minushina] - Moscow: ABC classic, 2011. - 352 p. ISBN 978-5-389-01267-7
• Eleven types of loneliness. [translation team] - Moscow: Alphabet, 2017. - 320 p. ISBN 978-5-389-13693-9
• Crying young hearts. [trans. from English O. Serebryanoy] - Moscow: Alphabet, 2011. - 416 p. ISBN 978-5-389-01760-3

The book "Good School" has not yet been translated into Russian.