Richard Yates author page

Richard Yates biography

Richard Yates (1926–1992) was an American novelist and short story writer. His debut novel, Revolutionary Road (1961), was shortlisted for the 1962 National Book Award and established his reputation for precise, unsentimental realism.

Yates published two major collections of stories – Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (1962) and Liars in Love (1981) – and a sequence of novels that examined ambition, family strain and disillusionment: A Special Providence (1969), Disturbing the Peace (1975), The Easter Parade (1976), A Good School (1978), Young Hearts Crying (1984), and Cold Spring Harbor (1986). His work has been kept in print by publishers including Vintage and Penguin Random House.

After his death, interest in Yates’s writing grew further, helped by reissues and the 2008 film adaptation of Revolutionary Road directed by Sam Mendes. He died on 7 November 1992.