A Tragic Honesty

The Life and Work of Richard Yates

Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book A Tragic Honesty by Blake Bailey, Picador
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Blake Bailey ISBN: 9781466848856
Publisher: Picador Publication: June 18, 2013
Imprint: Picador Language: English
Author: Blake Bailey
ISBN: 9781466848856
Publisher: Picador
Publication: June 18, 2013
Imprint: Picador
Language: English

The first biography of acclaimed American novelist and story writer Richard Yates

Celebrated in his prime, forgotten in his final years, only to be championed anew by our greatest contemporary authors, Richard Yates has always exposed readers to the unsettling hypocrisies of our modern age. Classic novels such as Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade are incomparable chronicles of the quiet and not-so-quiet desperation of the American middle-class. Lonely housewives, addled businessmen, desperate career-girls and fearful boys and soldiers, Yates's America was a panorama of high living, self-doubt and self-deception. And in the tradition of other great realistic writers of his time (Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Cheever and Updike), Yates's fictional world mirrored his own. A manic-depressive alcoholic and unapologetic gentleman, his life was a hornets' nest of childhood ghosts, the horrors of war, money woes, and ebullient cocktailed evenings in New York, Hollywood, and the Riviera.

A Tragic Honesty is a masterful evocation of a man who in many ways embodied the struggles of the Great American Writer in the latter half of the twentieth century. Fame and reward followed by heartbreak and obscurity, Richard Yates here stands for what the writer must sacrifice for his craft, the devil's bargain of artistry for happiness, praise for sanity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The first biography of acclaimed American novelist and story writer Richard Yates

Celebrated in his prime, forgotten in his final years, only to be championed anew by our greatest contemporary authors, Richard Yates has always exposed readers to the unsettling hypocrisies of our modern age. Classic novels such as Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade are incomparable chronicles of the quiet and not-so-quiet desperation of the American middle-class. Lonely housewives, addled businessmen, desperate career-girls and fearful boys and soldiers, Yates's America was a panorama of high living, self-doubt and self-deception. And in the tradition of other great realistic writers of his time (Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Cheever and Updike), Yates's fictional world mirrored his own. A manic-depressive alcoholic and unapologetic gentleman, his life was a hornets' nest of childhood ghosts, the horrors of war, money woes, and ebullient cocktailed evenings in New York, Hollywood, and the Riviera.

A Tragic Honesty is a masterful evocation of a man who in many ways embodied the struggles of the Great American Writer in the latter half of the twentieth century. Fame and reward followed by heartbreak and obscurity, Richard Yates here stands for what the writer must sacrifice for his craft, the devil's bargain of artistry for happiness, praise for sanity.

More books from Picador

Cover of the book At Home in the World by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Privacy by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book A Short History of Rudeness by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book The Housekeeper and the Professor by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Land's End by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Treeborne by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book The Paris Review Book by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book The Verificationist by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Close to the Machine by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Elizabeth and After by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Daughters of the House by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book The Third Bank of the River by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book A Clue to the Exit by Blake Bailey
Cover of the book Only Human by Blake Bailey
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy