A Tragic Honesty (97 page)
Authors: Blake Bailey
Twice a week ⦠WGSM: Int. Fred Rodgers Jr.
“crack
The New Yorker
”: Ruth Rodgers to Peter Rodgers, undated, Rodgers papers.
“a mellow sort of man”: Int. Ruth Rodgers Ward.
“we would order ⦠Jack Daniel's”:
RYAW,
55.
“a big deal for me”: RY to DeWitt Henry, November 21, 1972.
“The first time I met Sam Lawrence”: Joseph Kanon was quoted thus in Lawrence's obituary in the
New York Times,
January 7, 1994, A22.
Background on Lawrence: Int. DeWitt Henry, Merloyd Lawrence, and Dan Wakefield.
“The psychology ⦠true”: Lawrence to McCall, February 10, 1954.
“frankly stumped”: McCall to RY, December 23, 1954.
“a little masterpiece”: McCall to RY, September 24, 1954.
“The B.A.R. Man â¦
New Yorker
”: McCall to RY, November 1, 1954.
“a beauty as usual”: McCall to RY, December 6, 1954.
“Oh Bob,⦠better-looking”: Int. Robert Riche.
“get the hell out”: Int. Ann Barker.
“engineering square”: Int. John Kowalsky.
“Stop this clownlike behavior”: Int. Sharon Yates Levine.
“In Connecticut you ⦠cops”: Ibid.
“I hate the thought”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 14, 1962.
“He kissed her ⦠a little uncertain”: Ms. of “The End of the Great Depression,” BU-RY.
“get so involved ⦠daydreams”: Quoted in McCall to RY, January 3, 1955.
“The Walter Mitty scenes ⦠clichés”: Quoted in McCall to RY, November 15, 1957.
“Are you awareâyou must be”: Richard Mitchell to RY, undated. RY's response was written on the back of Mitchell's letter, and may not have been sent.
“I never thought of that”: Int. Tim Parrish.
“that absolutely supreme ⦠editor”: McCall to RY, March 22, 1955.
“Like all publishers”: McCall to RY, April 14, 1955.
“daily watching the mails”: McCall to RY, October 21, 1955.
“I hope your silence”: McCall to RY, January 10, 1956.
“real ability and ⦠worth”: Quoted in McCall to RY, May 8, 1956.
“I thought of the girl dying”:
Ploughshares,
66.
“
Very
much impressed”: Lawrence to McCall, May 31, 1956.
“as a vote of our confidence”: Lawrence to McCall, June 8, 1956.
“one of the many imitators”:
RYAW,
56.
“narrative competence”: Quoted in McCall to RY, August 8, 1956.
“Most of my first drafts”:
Ploughshares,
68.
“Who's got my armâ¦?”: Int. Sharon Yates Levine.
“felt like a million dollars”: RY to Booghie Salassie, December 29, 1979 (unmailed).
“your best [work has] ⦠writer”: Lawrence to RY, April 25, 1957.
“gotten away ⦠women-hating”: Quoted in McCall to RY, July 15, 1957.
“encouragingly”: McCall to RY, September 9, 1959.
“I used to get a headache behind my eyes”: Int. Robert Andrew Parker.
Background on the stomach-punching episode: Int. Tony and Elspeth Vevers, Peter Kane DuFault, Robert Parker, and Robert Riche.
“They seemed to connect”: Int. Dot Parker.
singing a ribald ditty: Int. Robert Riche.
“Ever since I first met you”: Sheila Yates to RY, c. January 1962.
Conrad Jones affair: “Bright Young Men in America,”
Esquire,
September 1958.
“Greetings! I feel a little pale”: Conrad Jones to Robert Parker, September 8, 1958, papers of Robert Andrew Parker.
“I surely do say âyes'”: Parker to Jones, undated. This letter and the ones that follow, though signed by Parker, were all but entirely written by Yates. Parker was kind enough to send me both the typed, polished versions of these letters, as well as holograph drafts (lovingly preserved) in Yates's handwriting.
“Margaret Truman” ⦠“druggist's daughter”: E-mail to author from Robert Riche.
precise ugly grimace: Int. Tony Vevers.
“kept cracking each other up”: RY's memories of his first meetings with R. V. Cassill are contained in “Appreciation,”
December
23, nos. 1â2 (1981), 41â44.
“a happy and peaceful solution”: McCall to RY, March 7, 1958.
“I have absolute faith”: Lawrence to RY, April 30, 1958.
“I fully appreciate your longtime”: McCall to Lawrence, May 13, 1958.
Reviews of
Short Story 1
: William Peden,
New York Times Review,
October 26, 1958; Granville Hicks,
Saturday Review of Literature,
September 13, 1958; R. H. Glauber,
New York Herald Tribune,
January 18, 1959; Kenneth Millar,
San Francisco Chronicle,
October 19, 1958.
“I can't remember when”: Gina Berriault to RY, October 8, 1958.
“Richard Yates is my guardian angel”:
RYAW,
19.
“It seems to me now ⦠Frank's idea ⦠psychoanalyzed”: Sheila Yates to RY, c. July 1962.
“needless expense” of divorce: RY to Barbara Beury, September 9, 1960.
“other commitments”: RY to Paul Engle, c. August 1959.
Chapter Seven
A Glutton for Punishment: 1959â1961
“thirty-three years ago”: Peter Najarian,
The Great American Loneliness
(San Francisco: Blue Crane, 1999).
“My New School class”: RY to Barbara Beury, September 30, 1960.
“If you were teaching”: Int. Sidney Offit.
“Emphasis is on the craft and art”: Yates's course description in the
New School Bulletin,
Fall 1960.
“He didn't seem into teaching”: Int. Peter Najarian.
“a nineteen-year-old ⦠delinquent”: RY to R. V. Cassill, May 5, 1960.
“Theodore Schwertheim”: RY to Peter Najarian, undated.
“You are worth a thousand”: Najarian to RY, September 2, 1960.
“I've had a real ball”: RY to Cassill, May 5, 1960.
“There was something broken”: Int. Betty Rollin.
“I thought I was witnessing”: Int. Gail Richards Tirana.
“It was exhausting”: Int. Warren Owens.
“I felt we deserved ⦠contempt”: Susan Grossman to RY, c. March 1961.
“Baked Alaska!” â¦
A Star Is Born
: Int. Warren Owens.
“some of the finest autobiographical fiction”:
Ploughshares,
71.
“the greatest cocksman”: Int. Anne Bernays.
“Dick was forthright ⦠Broyard was the opposite”: Int. R. V. Cassill.
“one of the most fruitful”: Lawrence to RY, October 2, 1959.
“[T]his option was very important”: Charles Scribner Jr. to RY, October 22, 1959.
“every sentence right”:
RYAW,
56.
“Although you may not learn”: Lawrence to RY, March 30, 1960.
“Congratulations on your Bread Loaf”: Lawrence to RY, June 22, 1960.
“funny evening”: Lawrence to RY, July 8, 1960.
“[I]'s practically impossible”: Lawrence to RY, July 12, 1960.
“Owing to its autobiographical”: RY's undated Guggenheim statement, BU-MM.
“a work of history and not”: Lawrence to RY, July 12, 1960.
“We have a terrific novel”: Int. Dan Wakefield.
RY's various titles for
Revolutionary Road
are among his notes at BU. Robin Metz was the friend to whom RY mentioned his favorite,
The Bullshit Artist
.
“He used to stand around”: Robert Parker, “A Clef,” unpublished ms., papers of Robert Parker.
Kay Cassill remembers ⦠“awe”: Int. Kay Cassill.
“A deft, ironic, beautiful novel”: Styron's comment was used by Little, Brown in promotion of the first edition, and appeared as a cover blurb on most later editions of the novel.
“grubby little writing for hire”:
YHC,
168.
“I smoke too much”: Styron is quoted in Streitfeld, “Book Report,”
Washington Post,
December 27, 1992, X15.
“Dick was always lubricating”: Int. William Styron.
“He's a great guy”: RY to DeWitt Henry, January 20, 1972.
met the poet Marianne Moore: Int. Robert Parker.
“Booo, Dartmouth!”
: Int. Robert Riche.
“drunken and frantic”: RY to Barbara Beury, September 23, 1960.
“Dreadnought Dick”: Int. John A. Williams.
“I well remember”: John Williams to RY, November 5, 1970.
“And speaking of incredible”: RY to Barbara Beury, September 30, 1960.
“premature ejaculation”: RY to Grace and Jerry Schulman, May 18, 1962.
Yates's “Lost Soul quality”: Int. Edward Kessler.
hallucination? “Because that's”: RY to Beury, December 22, 1960.
“A massive lethargy”: RY to Cassill, May 5, 1960.
The NIMH study on manic-depressive disorder is discussed in Jamison,
Touched with Fire
.
“Zelda and F. Scott FitzYates”: Int. Barbara Beury McCallum.
“drunk and self-absorbed”: RY to Beury, September 30, 1960.
“The worst possible way”: RY to Beury, September 9, 1960.
“Tell this dumb son of a bitch”
: Int. Seymour Epstein.
“real beds, chrome-and-leatherette”:
DP,
55.
“I have given the Bellevue authorities”: RY to Beury, September 9, 1960.
“Bellevue was an epiphany”: Int. Grace Schulman.
“Yates was always the smart one”: Int. Dr. Winthrop A. Burr.
“For God's sake, take it easy”: RY to Najarian, September 24, 1960.
“beautiful” ⦠“very well-written”: RY to Beury, September 9, 1960.
“I wish you wouldn't âworry'”: RY to Beury, September 23, 1960; Beury's side of the exchange is surmised from RY's reply.
“I think it's a very swell”: RY to Beury, September 30, 1960.
“This excellent novel is a powerful”: Kazin's edited blurb appeared on the first edition of
RR
; the whole quote was included in Little, Brown promotional material found among RY's papers.
“After Little Brown got that letter”: RY to Beury, September 23, 1960.
“delighted to work with [Yates]”: Saul David to McCall, October 27, 1960.
“never read a more brilliant”: Quoted in RY to Beury, November 11, 1960.
“The Presentation today”: RY to Beury, November 21, 1960.
“very nice and un-awesome”: RY to Beury, September 30, 1960.
“a gruesome failure”: RY to Beury, November 11, 1960.
“[Anatole] has expressed”: Ibid.
“The whole three days”: RY to Beury, October 24, 1960.
“formal divorce talk”: RY to Beury, September 23, 1960.
“The only nice thing”: RY to Beury, November 11, 1960.
“big Celebrity Interview”: RY to Beury, December 22, 1960.
“shocking”: Gingrich to McCall, January 22, 1961.
“You are free to remarry”: Leonard Golditch to RY, February 9, 1961.
“Got my final divorce”: RY to Beury, c. February 15, 1961.
“Dick would hand you a tumbler”: Int. Alan Cheuse.
“For God's sake”: RY to Edward Kessler, March 6, 1961.
“Maureen seemed like a tough”: Int. Edward Kessler.
“I was fascinated”: Updike's blurb for
RR
was included in Little, Brown promotional material found among RY's papers.
“Here is more than fine writing”: Lawrence mailed RY a copy of Tennessee Williams's remarks on February 27, 1961; Williams's blurb has appeared on most subsequent editions of
RR
.
“Oh yes,” he responded:
Contemporary Authors
interview, 1981.
Reviews of
Revolutionary Road
: J. C. Pine,
Library Journal,
February 1, 1961; R. D. Spector,
New York Herald Tribune,
March 5, 1961; W. E. Preece,
Chicago Tribune,
March 5, 1961; Martin Levin,
New York Times Book Review,
March 5, 1961; Orville Prescott,
New York Times,
March 10, 1961; “Briefly Noted,”
The New Yorker,
April 1, 1961; David Boroff,
Saturday Review of Literature,
March 25, 1961; Jeremy Larner,
New Republic,
May 22, 1961; Dorothy Parker,
Esquire,
June 1961; F. J. Warnke,
Yale Review,
June 1961; Theodore Solotaroff,
Commentary,
July 1961.
“remains one of the few novels”: James Atlas, “A Sure Narrative Voice,”
Atlantic,
November 1981, 84â85.
“a cultish standard”: Richard Ford, “American Beauty (Circa 1955),”
New York Times Book Review,
April 9, 2000, 16.
“strikes too close to home”: Fred Chappell, essay on
RR,
in
Rediscoveries,
ed. David Madden (New York: Crown, 1971), 247.
“Doesn't it sound like a real name?”: Int. Robin Metz.
“You threaten the intellectuals”: Andrew Sinats to RY, March 16, 1961.
“If this was indeed”: Donn C. McInturff to RY, April 5, 1962.
“Not knowing where else”: Thalia Gorham Kelly to RY, May 30, 1961.
“very healthy indeed”: Lawrence to RY, March 7, 1961.
“We are over 9,000”: Lawrence to RY, April 4, 1961.
“I cannot recall ⦠launched”: Lawrence to RY, May 1, 1961.
“the lousy way the book”: RY to DeWitt Henry, November 21, 1972.
“[I]n my more arrogant or petulant”:
Ploughshares,
74.
Chapter Eight
The World on Fire: 1961â1962
“re-read Fitzgerald's âCrack Up'”: RY to Beury, c. January 1961.
“The idea of the writer”: Int. David Milch.
“Dick was both melancholy”: Int. James Whitehead.
“How's the
schoolteaching
”: Int. Robert Riche.
