American writer Richard Yates

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

American writer Richard Yates set after him the novels that have become popular today. However, during the life of the author, his works were not in demand and often stood idle on the shelves of bookstores. The topics that he touched on in his books were relevant in the past years, but, apparently, now people have a need to understand their thoughts and feelings, comparing themselves with the characters that Richard Yates invented.

Growing Interest

He was born in the winter of 1926. He grew up in an incomplete family, his parents divorced when the boy was only three years old. This was followed by numerous transfers. Richard Yates traveled to various cities and became interested in journalism while living in Connecticut. But he managed to get a job as a journalist only after the Second World War. During it, he served in the army. In 1946 he returned to New York, where he pursued his favorite profession. Attorney General RobertKennedy always used a prepared speech written for him by Richard Yates during his speeches. His passion for writing allowed him to earn money by adapting works of art for film adaptations and writing scripts.

Strong personality

Being ill with tuberculosis in 1950, as a young man, he could not immediately overcome the misfortune that fell on him. Therefore, for a long time he was pursued by poverty and problems with alcohol. Richard Yates has been married twice. He married for the first time at the age of 22 to Sheila Briant. Initially, the relationship with her was excellent. She even gave birth to two daughters for him, although the family had to live on the disability pension that the army allocated after Richard's illness. However, in 1959, his wife left him along with the children. During the period that their relationship lasted, Yeats spent a lot of time reading and writing his own works. At first they were stories. One of them, Jody Rolled the Bones, even won an award from The Atlantic Monthly magazine.

The second time, Richard was married already in adulthood - to Martha Spears, who also gave birth to his daughter and whom he divorced in 1975. Perhaps these difficult family relationships provided material for writing books about the life of married couples.

Creative activity

Overcoming the hardships of life, Richard Yates, whose biography is described in this article, was writing books. His first novel saw the light of day two years after the first divorce. It was the "Road of Changes". In all his life hewrote 8 novels, the last of which - Uncertain Times - never finished.

Among the works of Yeats - "Easter Parade", "Breath of Destiny", "Cry of Young Hearts" and others. In addition, collections of short stories "Eleven Kinds of Loneliness" and "Liars in Love" by Richard Yates were published.

His books make an impression and do not leave readers indifferent. They all agree on one thing: Yeats' work is filled with melancholy, hopelessness, loneliness. All of his characters are miserable. Life in the books of this writer is shown without embellishment, such as it is in his opinion. Not all readers agree with this, but Yeats' style captivates and makes you read the work to the end.

First Book

In his first novel, the author tells about the life of April and Frank. Some time after the wedding, having given birth to two children, they suddenly find themselves living a boring life in which there is no place for their dreams to come true. They decide to move to Paris, hoping that the change of residence will bring something new to their lives. But, having moved, the spouses understand that it was about themselves, but you can’t run away from yourself. It turned out that they were connected not by love, but by affection.

This book was filmed in 2008. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The film received positive reviews and was loved by many viewers, although some of them did not even suspect that it was based on the work of Richard Yates.

The writer, like many unrecognized geniuses,lived the rest of his life in poverty. He drank a lot, ate poorly, lived in rented apartments abandoned and unloved by everyone. The body could not stand such treatment, and in 1992 Yates died from complications after a minor operation, which could not have happened if he had paid a little more attention to his he alth.