Oral history interview with Richard Yates, 1992
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- Name
- Yates, Richard, 1926-1992 (Interviewee)
- Bradfield, Scott (Interviewer)
- Title
- Oral history interview with Richard Yates, 1992
- Abstract
- This wide-ranging interview was with Richard Yates was conducted shortly before Yates' death from emphysema. He describes his thoughts on financial considerations, including book sales, film script writing, and teaching. He describes his experiences teaching at University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, and elsewhere. He gives his thoughts on The Easter Parade, Revol utionary Road, Cold Spring Harbor, A Special Providence, and other works. He describes his working relationship with editor Seymour Lawrence of Delacorte Press, experiences with Knopf, and other editors. He discusses other authors and their work, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Kurt Vonnegut. He shares opinions on treatments for mental health, including psychoanalysis and medication. He also describes his family. He describes experiences as a speechwriter for Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s and a book he was writing at the time of the interview on 1960s politics. He also shares thoughts on politics the early 1990s, analyzing Dan Quayle, Bill Clinton, Michael Dukakis, and the Democratic Party. Yates' failing health is a recurring topic of conversation
- Collection Name
- Individual interviews oral history collection
- Subjects
- Authors; Authors as teachers; Booksellers and bookselling; United States Politics and government 20th century; Yates, Richard, 1926-1992; Delacorte Press; Democratic Party (U.S.)
- Format
- oral histories
- Genre
- Interviews
- Date
- 1992
- Physical Description
- 101 pages; sound file : digital preservation master, WAV files (96 kHz, 24 bit)
- Note (Biographical)
- Richard Yates (1926-1992) was a novelist and short story writer. He was the author of Revolutionary Road (1961), Eleven Kinds of Loneiness (1962), A Special Providence (1969), The Easter Parade (1976), Cold Spring Harbor (1986), and other works
- Note
- Interviewed by Scott Bradfield on October 11, 1992
- Note (Provenance)
- Scott Bradfield, Gift, 2016 2015.2016.M100
- Language
- English
- Library Location
- Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University
Browse Location’s Digital Content - Catalog Record
- 11696123
- Also In
- Oral History Archives at Columbia
- Time-Based Media
- Time-Based Media
- Persistent URL
- https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/nz5m-r697
- Related URLs
- Available digital content for this interview.