Richard Yates, Novelist, 66, Dies - Chronicler of Disappointed

Richard Yates, Novelist, 66, Dies - Chronicler of Disappointed ... http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/09/obituaries/richard-yates-no...

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Richard Yates, Novelist, 66, Dies; Chronicler of Disappointed Lives By ERIC PACE Published: November 9, 1992

Richard Yates, who wrote "Revolutionary Road" and other novels FACEBOOK

about self-deception, disappointment and grief, died on Saturday at TWITTER the Birmingham (Ala.) Veterans Administration hospital. He was 66 GOOGLE+ years old and had lived in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for two years. EMAIL He died of emphysema, which he had had for 10 years, and of SHARE complications from minor surgery, said his daughter Monica Yates. PRINT She said he smoked heavily until a year ago. REPRINTS

"Revolutionary Road," Mr. Yates's first novel, published by Atlantic- MOST EMAILED RECOMMENDED FOR YOU Little, Brown in 1961, was what the New York Times critic Orville Prescott called a "brilliantly dismal" account of an unhappy articles viewed dennis recently All Recommendations 30-year-old couple, Frank and April Wheeler, who "lived in one of 112 those new little houses on Revolutionary Road not very far from 1. STATE OF THE ART Debunking the Latest Predictions of Stamford, Conn." Facebook’s Demise

When it was reissued by Delta-Seymour Lawrence in 1983, Michiko Kakutani, reviewing it 2. MACHINE LEARNING in The New York Times, wrote, "It remains a remarkable and deeply troubling book -- a Messaging Apps Offer Do-It-All Services in Bid for Higher Profits book that creates an indelible portrait of lost promises and mortgaged hopes in the suburbs of America." 3. Q&A Restoring the iCloud Drive Icon

Halfway through "Revolutionary Road," April Wheeler says wistfully: "I still had this idea 4. Video: Obama Reviews Science Education that there was a whole world of marvelous golden people somewhere. People who made Program their lives work out the way they wanted without even trying, who never had to make the best of a bad job because it never occurred to them to do anything less than perfectly the 5. Facebook Opens Messenger for App first time." A Novel on Washington Developers

Mr. Yates's other novels included "A Special Providence" (1969), "Disturbing the Peace" 6. THE ETHICISTS (1975), "The Easter Parade" (1976), "A Good School" (1978), "Young Hearts Crying" (1984) Must I Drive My Friend to Have an Abortion? and "Cold Spring Harbor" (1986). 7. Facebook May Host News Sites’ Content Mr. Yates was born in Yonkers and grew up in Manhattan, Scarsdale, N.Y., and Cold Spring Harbor, L.I. He graduated from Avon Old Farms school in Avon, Conn., and served in the Army in World War II. He was a publicity writer for Remington Rand Inc. in New 8. APP SMART Video Feature: Classic Board Games, York City before becoming a freelance writer in 1953. He later taught writing on various Reimagined for a Mobile App World campuses. 9. Drones Beaming Web Access Are in the Seymour Lawrence, Mr. Yates's longtime publisher, said that the writer had been working Stars for Facebook for years on a novel, "Uncertain Times," about Washington in the Kennedy Administration. He knew the subject firsthand, having written speeches for Attorney 10. Starbucks Ends Tempestuous Initiative on Race General Robert F. Kennedy in those years.

Go to Your Recommendations » Mr. Lawrence said that he and Houghton Mifflin had planned to publish the novel jointly, What’s This? | Don’t Show

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but that he did not know whether the manuscript was in publishable form.

Mr. Yates was also the author of two short-story collections, "11 Kinds of Loneliness" (1962) and "Liars in Love" (1981).

His 1948 marriage to Sheila Bryant ended in divorce in 1960. His 1968 marriage to Martha Speers ended in divorce in 1975.

He is survived by three daughters, Monica, of Manhattan; Sharon Levine of Brooklyn, and Gina, of Vancouver, British Columbia, and two grandchildren.

Photo: Richard Yates. (Thomas Victor, 1986)

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