A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates

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A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates Page 77

by Blake Bailey


  the Seinfeld episode: Larry David kindly provided me with a videotape of this episode.

  “scalded”: Int. J. R. Jones.

  “I’d like to kill that son of a bitch!”: Int. Tim Parrish.

  “a bomb on wheels”: Quoted in Featherstone, “November 7, 1992,” 161.

  “I loved and hated Richard Yates”: RYAW, 21.

  The details of RY’s adventure in New York were mostly provided by Susan Braudy, RY’s daughters, Ned Leavitt, and one or two others.

  “He couldn’t seem to finish it”: Lacy, “Remembering Richard Yates,” 218.

  “drop a hint”: from Prettyman’s personal diary, July 18, 1991.

  “She’s gone and married an electrician”: Int. Mark Costello.

  “Congratulations,” he wrote: RY drafted his reply in holograph on Martha’s announcement, dated July 11, 1991.

  He told Prettyman … “performance”: Prettyman’s diary, July 18, 1991.

  “I feel like taking a gun”: Int. Susan Braudy.

  “vintage Yates”: Quoted in Lacy, “Remembering RY,” 219.

  Yates was appalled: Int. Tony Earley.

  The manuscript of Uncertain Times is now part of the Richard Yates Collection at Boston University. An excerpt from the novel was published in Open City 3 (1995), 35–71.

  “He ended the conversation”: Letter to author from Loree Rackstraw.

  “I got smashed last night”: Lacy, “Remembering Richard Yates,” 220.

  “Dropping the telephone”: RYAW, 22.

  “Richard Yates … finest post-war novelist”: Scott Bradfield, “Follow the Long and Revolutionary Road,” The Independent, November 21, 1992, 31.

  “Sam, I’m dying”: RYAW, 61.

  Epilogue

  “two inches in the Times”: E-mail to author from John P. Lowens; Robert Lehrman, Workshop, 746.

  “Dick let himself die”: Int. Pat Dubus.

  “forced march”: RYAW, 13–15.

  Gaiser … startled the crowd: Int. Grace Schulman.

  “He drank too much”: RYAW, 61.

  “[He] managed to squeeze out”: Robert Riche, What Are We Doing in Latin America? (Sag Harbor, NY: Permanent Press, 1990), 75.

  “Reading about ‘Pritchard Bates’”: RY to Riche, March 3, 1991.

  “So big deal Bob Parker”: Monica Yates to Robert Parker, undated, Parker papers.

  “painful conclusion”: Lawrence to Monica Yates, March 8, 1993.

  “many important writers”: Seymour Lawrence’s obituary appeared in the New York Times, January 7, 1994, A22.

  “one of the few good voices”: RYAW, 31.

  “the descriptions of things, like a hanger”: Edwin Weihe, Workshop, 743.

  “finally the British reading public”: Paul Connolly, The Times (London), January 27, 2001.

  “I remember how much you laughed”: RYAW, 27.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Note: Titles by Richard Yates are listed in their alphabetical place. Women are listed by their maiden names.

  Abbott, Raymond

  Abels, Cyrilly

  Académie Julian (Paris)

  Adams, Alice

  Alabama, Yates in

  alcohol

  as medication

  and writing

  See also Yates, Richard, drinking and alcoholism of

  Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

  Alexander, Dr.

  Algren, Nelson

  Allen, Woody

  Alpert, Hollis

  America

  American Express

  American Library Association

  Amherst College

  Andreasen, Nancy

  Angell, Roger

  final rejection letter from New Yorker

  Anglesea Pub (London)

  anti-Semitism

  Argosy

  Arlen, Michael

  Artists for Victory

  Associated Willkie Clubs of America

  Associated Writing Programs

  Atheneum

  athletics, school

  Atlantic-Little, Brown

  Atlantic Monthly

  Atlantic Monthly Press

  Atlas, James

  Auburn State Prison

  Austen, Jane

  Austin, Texas

  The Avonian school newspaper

  Avon Old Farms school

  Babaril estate

  Bachelor

  Balanchine, George

  Baldwin, James

  Bantam Books

  anthology of stories published by, collected by Yates

  Bard College

  Barker (Kowalsky), Ann

  “The B.A.R. Man”

  characters and plot

  Baron, Richard

  Barrett, B. L.

  Barth, John

  Battle of the Ardennes (“Bulge”)

  Baturka, Natalie

  Beattie, Ann

  Bedford Street apartment

  Bedford VA Hospital

  Beechwood estate

  Beekley, Mason

  Behan, Brendan

  Bell, Madison Smartt

  Bell, Marvin

  Bellevue Hospital (New York City)

  Bellow, Saul

  “Bells in the Morning”

  Benedict, Russell

  Benedict, Stephen

  Bennington College

  Berger, Thomas

  Bernays, Anne

  Berriault, Gina

  Berryman, John

  “The Best of Everything”

  characters and plot

  TV adaptation

  Beury, Barbara Singleton

  Bialek, Doris

  Bialek, Mary

  Bicycle Café (Los Angeles)

  Bigelow, David

  Bigler, Julia Ann (Yates’s maternal great-grandmother)

  Blue Mill (New York City)

  Bluestone, George

  Bogdanovich, Peter

  bohemianism

  Bonnie (a Yates girlfriend)

  Book-of-the-Month Club

  Borno, Andy

  Boroff, David

  Bostelman, Mr.

  Boston

  Yates moves to

  Yates’s apartments in

  Boston University

  Richard Yates Collection

  Botany Mills

  Botteghe Oscure

  Bourjaily, Vance

  Bowen, Natalie

  Bradfield, Scott

  Bradford, Governor William

  Brandeis University Creative Arts Award

  Braudy, Susan

  Brautigan, Richard

  Bray, Bill

  Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference

  The Bridge at Remagen (film script)

  Brodigan, Michael

  Bronxville High School

  Brooks, Cleanth

  Brooks Brothers (clothiers)

  Brown, Dr. (in Iowa)

  Broyard, Anatole

  marries

  negative reviews of Yates’s work

  womanizing of

  Brustein, Robert

  Bryant, Charles, Jr. (Sheila’s brother)

  mental breakdown of

  present life

  teaches Yates to drive

  Bryant, Charles (Sheila’s father)

  Bryant, Sheila (Yates’s first wife)

  acting experience

  compatibility with Yates

  divorce from Yates

  early life

  fights with Yates

  final meetings with Yates

  first baby

  ghostwriting for Yates

  jobs

  learns to drive

  in London

  manuscript typing and grammar corrections of Yates’s writing by

  married life

  m
eets and marries Yates

  present life

  reunions with Yates

  second baby

  separations from Yates

  Buchman, Frank

  “Builders”

  characters and plot

  Buitenhuis, Peter

  Burr, Winthrop

  Cabau, Jacques

  Cain, Blanchard “Jerry”

  Cain, Jessie

  Cain, Robin

  Calvinism

  Camp Pickett (Virginia)

  Canadian Broadcasting Company

  “The Canal”

  characters and plot

  Candels, Lothar

  Cannes, Yateses in

  Cape Cod

  Carole (a Yates girlfriend)

  Carver, Raymond

  Casey, John

  Cassill, Kay

  Cassill, R. Verlin

  Clem Anderson by

  Cavendish Trading Corporation

  Central Islip Hospital (Long Island, N.Y.)

  Central Oregon Community College

  Chambrun, Jacques

  Chantal (Sheila’s friend in Paris)

  Chappell, Fred

  characters, Yates’s

  autobiographical nature of

  development of

  exposing the limitations of

  names of, thinly disguised

  Charm

  Cheever, John

  Cheever, Susan

  Chekhov, Anton

  Cheuse, Alan

  Chicago Tribune

  Child, Julia

  Child, Paul

  Childress, Dan

  Chrysler Museum

  Chumley’s (New York City)

  Ciardi, John

  Cincinnati Art Academy

  City Center (New York City)

  Civil Rights Bill

  Clark, Geoffrey

  Clayton, Jack

  Cleveland, Clarissa Antoinette (Yates’s paternal grandmother)

  clothing

  and breeding

  dress code at prep schools

  See also Yates, Richard, clothing and style

  Cocks, Jay

  Cold Spring Harbor

  characters and plot

  film adaptation project

  reviews of

  Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.

  The Collected Stories of Richard Yates

  Collier’s

  Columbia Pictures

  Columbia University

  School of General Studies

  Commentary

  “A Compassionate Leave”

  characters and plot

  “The Comptroller and the Wild Wind”

  characters and plot

  Connell, Evan

  Connolly, Paul

  Conrad, Joseph

  Conroy, Frank

  “A Convalescent Ego”

  Coover, Robert

  Corman, Roger

  Cosmopolitan

  Costello, Mark

  Cox, Elizabeth

  Craige (a Yates girlfriend)

  Crane, Stephen

  Crossroads Irish Pub

  Crumley, Jim

  Cubeta, Paul

  Cullinan, Elizabeth

  Cuomo, George

  Curtis Brown agency

  Cushman, Elisabeth

  Cushman, Howard

  Cushman, Nancy

  Cutler, Bruce

  Cuttmacher, Alan F.

  Dalrymple, Jean

  Dalton, Elizabeth

  Dalton School

  Daly, Dorothy

  Darke County, Ohio

  David, Larry

  David, Saul

  Davison, Peter

  “dead white males”

  Delacorte

  Dell

  Delynn, Jane

  Democratic Party

  Dempsey, Jack

  Derrick, Clarence

  Deux Magots (Paris)

  DeVoto, Avis

  Dewey, Donna

  Dial

  Dickens, Charles

  Dickey, James

  Didion, Joan

  Dintenfass, Mark

  Discovery

  Disney, Walt

  Disturbing the Peace

  characters and plot

  reviews of

  sales

  writing of

  Dobson, John

  “Doctor Jack-o’-Lantern”

  characters and plot

  Doctorow, E. L.

  Doe, Sue

  Doel, Frances

  Doherty, Bob

  Donleavy, J. P.

  Donoso, José

  Dostoyevsky

  Douglas, Mitch

  Douglas “Something” (in London)

  Downing, Catherine

  drinking

  Yates’s encouragement of

  See also Yates, Richard, drinking and alcoholism

  Dubus, Andre

  eulogy of Yates

  Dubus, Pat

  Dufault, Peter Kane

  Duncan, Isadora

  Dunne, John Gregory

  Dutton

  Earley, Tony

  Easter Bonnet Tea Dance

  The Easter Parade

  autobiographical nature of

  characters and plot

  film and TV adaptation projects

  publication

  reprints

  reviews of

  sales

  Éditions Robert Laffont

  Edward, Thomas R.

  Eimerl, Sarel

  Eleven Kinds of Loneliness

  characters and plot

  publication

  reprints

  reviews of

  sales

  Eliot, George

  Eliot, T. S.

  Ellison, Ralph

  Emerson College

  “The End of the Great Depression”

  Engle, Paul

  Episcopalians

  Epstein, Leslie

  Epstein, Miriam

  Epstein, Seymour

  Esquire

  Estabrook, Reed

  Evans, Evans

  “Evening on the Côte d’Azur”

  characters and plot

  Express

  Fagin, Barbara

  Fagin, Gemma

  Fagin, Mary

  Fairfield Hospital (Connecticut)

  Farber, Jackie

  Faulkner, William

  Feld, Ross

  Fess (friend of Sheila’s)

  Fitzgerald, F. Scott

  Crack-Up

  The Great Gatsby

  Fitzgerald, Zelda

  Five Kinds of Dismay project

  Flaubert, Gustave

  Madame Bovary

  Fleischer, Larry

  Flesch, Rudolf

  Flynn, Harry

  Food Field Reporter

  Ford, Elise

  Ford, Ford Madox

  Ford, Richard

  “Forgive Our Foolish Ways” (early story)

  characters and plot

  “Forms of Entertainment” (lost story)

  Forster, E. M.

  “Foursome” (lost story)

  France, Yateses moving to

  France, Anatole

  Frankenheimer, John

  Franklin Simon (clothiers)

  Frede, Richard

  Friedman, Bruce Jay

  Frost, Robert

  Frye, Northrop

  “Fun with a Stranger”

  Funk & Wagnall’s

  Gaiser, Carolyn

  “The Game of Ambush”

  Gannett, Lewis

  Garelick, Jon

  Garrett, George

  Geer, Will

  Gehman, Richard

  General Electric Company

  Gentry

  Gerber, John

  German immigrants in the Midwest

  The Getaway (early version of Revolutionary Road)

  Gieves and Hawkes

  Gilhooley, Marjorie

  Gingrich, Arnold

  Ginsberg, Allen

  Glamour />
  “A Glutton for Punishment”

  characters and plot

  Godoy, Arturo

  Gold, Herbert

  Golditch (lawyer)

  Goldwasser, Jim

  Goldwasser, Tom

  Goldwyn, Sam, Jr.

  “A Good and Gallant Woman”

  A Good School

  characters and plot

  publication

  reprints

  reviews of

  sales

  Gotham Book Mart (New York City)

  Gottlieb, Robert

  Grace Church School (New York City)

  Graham, Sheilah

  Grand Street

  Grassi, Andrea

  Green, Hannah

  Greenville, Ohio

  Greenwich Village, New York

  Greenwood Press

  Grumman Aviation

  Guggenheim Fellowship

  Guild, Nicholas

  Guirey, Mr.

  Guthman, Edwin

  Hale, Nancy

  Halifax Courier and Guardian

  Halloran Hospital (Staten Island)

  Harper’s

  Harris, Robert

  Harrison, William

  Hartford, Conn.

  Harvard Club (New York City)

  Harvard Extension

  Harvard University

  Harwood, Mr.

  Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.

  Hawkes, John

  Haydn, Hiram

  Hayes, Harold

  Hayes, Helen

  Hecht, Dr. George

  Heller, Joseph

  Hemingway, Ernest

  Hendrie, Don

  Henry, DeWitt

  Hetzel, Jennifer

  Hicks, Granville

  High Hedges, St. James, Long Island

  Hills, Rust

  hippies

  Hippler, Shelley

  Hitchcock, Alfred

  Hoagland, Edward

  Hodgson Portable Chapel

  Hollins Writing Conference

  Hollywood

  effect on writers

  producers

  Yates in

  Holm, Celeste

  Holt

  homosexuality

  prep school jokes about

  Yates’s fear of being identified with

  Yates’s intolerance of

  Houghton-Mifflin

  housekeeping

  Dookie’s avoidance of

  Sheila’s excellent

  Yates’s idea of

  Howard, Maureen

  Hoyt, Bud

  Hudson, Helen

  Hudson Review

  Hudson Street (New York City)

  Humphrey, William

  Hunter, Commander (at Avon)

  Hunter, “Ret”

  Hunter, Ross

  Hunter High School (New York City)

  International Writers’ Workshop

  Iowa, University of

  Iowa City, Yates in

  Iowa Workshop

  Yates seeks tenure at

  IQ test, Yates’s

  Ireland

  IRS

  Irving, John

  Jacobs, Hayes

  Jacobus, Lee

  Jaffe, Marc

  James, Henry

  James, William

  Jamison, Kay

  Jarrell, Randall

  Jennings, Irv

  Joan (Yates’s girlfriend overseas)

  “Jody Rolled the Bones”

  characters and plot

  John Birch Society

  Johnson, Johnny

 

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