A Tragic Honesty (99 page)
Authors: Blake Bailey
“The business of teaching”: Venant, “A Fresh Twist in the Road.”
“I must admit I'm a little leery”: RY to Cassill, February 7, 1963.
“few places interesting to eat”: Cassill to RY, February 25, 1964.
His car ⦠caught fire: Tom Gatten,
Workshop,
731.
“I found myself talking”: Int. William Kittredge.
“Turn at the sign”: Int. Loree Wilson Rackstraw.
cartoon of a sad daddy: Int. Monica Yates Shapiro.
“I think we all wanted”: Lacy, “Remembering Richard Yates,” 211.
“What's this â¦
club tie
?”: Int. Robin Metz.
“sublime, rugged presence”: Luke Wallin,
SLOT,
66.
“rhetorical style ⦠âFlowering Judas'”: Int. Loree Wilson Rackstraw.
“I'm going to the Airliner”: Int. James Crumley.
“Now that is fucking good writing!”: Int. Murray Moulding.
“Now, if that's Daisy talking”: Int. Robert Lacy.
trashing of
All the King's Men
: Int. James Crumley.
“Oh c'mon, you don't really mean that!”: Int. Geoffrey Clark.
“smelly and shy”: Int. Dan Childress.
“Yates had no doubt”: Robert Lehrman,
Workshop,
746.
Mark Dintenfass was startled: Int. Mark Dintenfass, Robert Lehrman.
“Dick demonstrated the keenest”: Clark, “The Best I Can Wish You,” 29.
“They're rushing you”: Int. John Casey.
“I hope this won't ⦠sore”: RY to DeWitt Henry, May 13, 1968.
“I simply can't imagine”: RY to DeWitt Henry, November 21, 1972.
“Hm, did you really”: Int. William Keough.
“You motherfuckers”
: Int. William Kittredge.
“Milch was a slasher”: Int. Robin Metz.
“
That
many writers”: Int. Seymour Epstein.
“Andre wanted ⦠tough guy”: Int. Peggy Rambach.
“Most of the clowns here”: RY to Miller Williams, October 3, 1964.
“Getting a letter from Richard Yates”: Dubus to RY, July 1, 1970.
“Richard Yates is one of our great writers”: Andre Dubus, “A Salute to Mister Yates,
Black Warrior Review
15, no. 2 (Spring 1989), 160.
“God, how we loved that song!”: Lacy, “Remembering Richard Yates,” 217.
“If that goddamned movie”: Int. Geoffrey Clark.
“hug [him] to pieces”: Wendy Sears to RY, October 26, 1964.
“Steve Salinger sneaked in”: Jonathan Penner,
Workshop,
724.
“I don't think I'm at all cut out”: RY to McCall, November 1, 1964, BU-MM.
“Dick saw more in me”: Int. Lyn Lacy.
“He talked of prospects”: RY to DeWitt Henry, November 21, 1972.
“I resigned from Knopf”: Lawrence to RY, November 7, 1964.
“Sam's attitude ⦠deplorable”: McCall to RY, November 19, 1964.
“I know apologies are a bore”: RY to the Schulmans, January 10, 1965.
“people don't stop caring”: Grace Schulman to RY, March 4, 1965.
“lonesome as hell”: RY to the Schulmans, February 28, 1965.
“a crash program”: RY to the Schulmans, January 10, 1965.
“[T]he âteaching' routine”: RY to the Schulmans, February 28, 1965.
“tinkered and brooded and fussed”:
Ploughshares,
74.
“Verlin Cassill's verdict”: RY to the Schulmans, February 28, 1965.
“What will
you
do?”: Int. Robin Metz.
“a cherry when I got married”: Dubus to RY, February 2, 1967.
“I've wanted to publish you”: Robert Gottlieb to RY, February 15, 1965.
“Was Sam ever useful”: McCall to RY, March 22, 1965.
“mustn't worry”: McCall to RY, March 4, 1965.
“making notes and ⦠spooky”: RY to the Schulmans, February 28, 1965.
“If calling me when ⦠panic”: McCall to RY, May 7, 1965.
Yates scribbled on his bill: found among RY's papers.
“ridiculous amounts of money”: RY to Schulmans, July 11, 1965.
“Hitler's car”: Int. Frances Doel. As a patriotic vet, RY deplored his having bought the Führer's infamous “people's car.”
“grubby white edifice”:
DP
, 210.
“the Goddamn movies”: Int. Frances Doel.
“Guess what, hey”: RY to Wendy Sears, July 2, 1965, BU-RY.
“[W]hatever kind of place”: RY to Schulmans, July 11, 1965.
“[Corman] turns out to be”: Ibid.
“I poke around trying”: RY to Robert and Dot Parker, July 24, 1965.
“funny Hollywood story”: RY to Schulmans, July 11, 1965.
“friendly but reserved”: Int. Roger Corman.
“There's really not much”: Catherine Downing to RY, September 12, 1975.
“West Hollywood Sheriff's Office”: Discarded draft of
DP,
BU-RY.
Bill Reardon, who caught a flight: Int. Sharon Yates Levine.
“In the bughouse”: Int. Frances Doel.
“We have had a wonderful”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 22, 1965.
“the right thing”: Bowen to RY, September 13, 1965.
“spread any unfortunate”: Marc Jaffe to RY, August 30, 1965.
“The fact of talent”: Rust Hills to RY, August 27, 1965.
“he is
not
my doctor”: RY to McCall, October 6, 1965, BU-MM.
“the kind of place ⦠suicide”: Int. Frances Doel.
“People found it very warm”: Rust Hills to RY, August 27, 1965.
“There are several good things”: RY to Cassill, January 18, 1966.
“fine well-focused script”: Dubus to RY, February 10, 1966.
“This is your third breakdown”: Sheila Yates to RY, September 29, 1965.
“He's a very, very touchy”: RY to DeWitt Henry, July 24, 1972.
“never seen such a change”: RY to Cassill, March 23, 1966.
“I'm John Gregory Dunne”: Letter to author from Carolyn Gaiser.
“you are one of the very few”: Joan Didion to RY, September 13, 1970.
hourly tormented ⦠Portis: Int. Murray Moulding.
“Haven't done any more wrestling”: RY to Cassill, January 18, 1966.
“Is just âfunctioning'”: Quoted in Dubus to RY, February 25, 1966.
“I'm feeling pretty jaunty”: RY to Cassill, March 23, 1966.
“Not an unhappy experience”: Marc Jaffe to RY, June 1, 1966.
“[Yates] has been in Hollywood”: Cassill to Carolyn Kizer, c. May 1966.
“take the curse off”: RY to Cassill, January 18, 1966.
“Is this some kind of AA thing?”: Int. Jerry Schulman.
“The purpose of this letter”: Craige âââ to RY, May 28, 1966.
“[The story] is all tricked out”: RY to Cassill, January 18, 1966.
Wolper ⦠fired Yates: RY wrote to Frances Doel (September 7, 1966), “It's [i.e., a $10,000 grant] the same amount I lost in being fired from the Remagen Bridge flick.” The details of RY's dismissal are unknown.
“I wouldn't want to try it”:
Contemporary Authors,
1981, 536.
“We are delighted”: Bourjaily to RY, June 7, 1966.
“Still hate [Hollywood]”: RY to Cassill, March 23, 1966.
“Forgive me ⦠but I called”: Frances Doel to RY, July 15, 1966.
“brilliant,” an “emotional genius”: Carole âââ to RY, c. June 1970.
Chapter Eleven
A Natural Girl: 1966â1968
“Dick's helplessness”: Int. Mark Costello.
“get [his] brains ⦠focus”: RY to Frances Doel, September 7, 1966.
“If we stick together”: Ruth Rodgers to RY, September 15, 1966.
“bowled over”: Int. Martha Speer.
“I'm sorry your friend”: Martha Speer to RY, September, 1966.
“traumatic and cowardly”: Carole âââ to RY, c. June 1970.
“I was afraid to face”: Martha Speer to RY, November 2, 1976.
“As an occasional palindromist”: Roger Angell to RY, October 3, 1966.
“one of the best books”: Vonnegut wrote this blurb for the 1971 Dell reprint of
RR,
and it has appeared on perhaps every edition since.
“a very unpopular lecture”: Int. Kurt Vonnegut.
“From Coover I learned”: Kittredge,
SLOT,
66.
“Well, I'm just a dumb guy”: Int. Mark Dintenfass.
“a seething mix”: Robert Lehrman,
Workshop,
745.
“faggots” and worse: Int. Robert Lehrman.
“in the past four or five”: RY to Cassill, April 2, 1967.
“Good work to you”: Dubus to RY, February 28, 1967.
“Dick, guess what we're doing?”: Int. Joseph Mohbat.
“We would be prepared”: Lawrence to RY, September 16, 1966.
“I do know that the pressures”: McCall to RY, April 5, 1967.
“repay the outstanding”: Lawrence to RY, January 6, 1968.
“In the end I told Sam”: RY to DeWitt Henry, November 21, 1972.
“lugubrious” ⦠“roaring drunk”: Int. Gordon Lish.
“clear impression”: Int. Peter Davidson.
“The Workshop ⦠incestuous”: Int. William Murray.
“Where's the pencil pusher?”
: Ibid.
“[He was] clearly upset”: Robert Lehrman,
Workshop,
746.
“I thought âthis is life'”: Martha Speer to RY, November 2, 1976.
“No chance of finishing”: RY to Cassill, April 2, 1967.
“I hope you're not sorry”: Sheila Yates to RY, July 9, 1967.
“about the sex lives of graduate”: RY to Dewitt Henry, May 13, 1968.
“I have so many daughters”: Int. Grace Schulman.
“She's twenty years younger”: RY to Cassill, January 7, 1968.
“We wanted ⦠happier life”: Lehrman,
Workshop,
746.
Chapter Twelve
A Special Providence: 1968â1969
“chummy, bubbly, tolerant”: Int. Martha Speer.
“wiped out with admiration”: RY to E. B. Prettyman, February 23, 1968.
“Straight ahead: don't look right”: Int. Martha Speer.
“sick, in shock”: Int. Fred Rodgers Jr.
“Your brother killed”: Int. Louise Rodgers.
“more hopeful now”: RY to Prettyman, May 9, 1968.
“hideous loss”: RY to Prettyman, August 4, 1968.
“that scares the shit”: RY to Cassill, December 1, 1968.
“[The novel] may not ⦠good”: RY to Prettyman, February 20, 1969.
“idle, boozy”: RY to Robert Lehrman, June 10, 1969.
“
very
high on [his] book”: McCall to RY, June 11, 1969.
“moving and sensitive”: McCall enclosed Rosenthal's letter with hers of September 4, 1969.
“because it is much harder”: Carole âââ to RY, c. June 1970.
“What kind of
guy
 ⦠Bennington?”: Int. William Keough.
“With time on my hands”: Sharon Yates to RY, December 7, 1968.
“dropping [his] pants in Macy's”: Int. Dr. Winthrop A. Burr.
“I imagine you are now”: Vonnegut to RY, September 24, 1969.
“It is a beautiful book”: Joan Didion to RY, October 14, 1969.
HOPE YOU SAW
: Styron to RY, October 27, 1969.
“I remember how many times”: Dubus to RY, November 12, 1969.
“What do Alice Prentice's dreams”: Robin Metz to RY, November 25, 1969.
“a lot of people ⦠much of it”: RY to Prettyman, December 14, 1969.
Reviews of
A Special Providence
: Joyce Carol Oates,
The Nation,
November 10, 1969; John Thompson,
Harper's,
November 1969; Elizabeth Dalton,
New York Times Book Review,
December 14, 1969.
“the true enemies of the novel”: Quoted in Ronald Baugham, “Richard Yates,”
Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook
(Detroit: Gale, 1992), 301.
“the two terrible traps”:
Ploughshares,
70.
considered omitting it:
RYAW,
59.
“better and easier”: RY to Prettyman, December 14, 1969.
“Let's see”: Clark, “The Best I Can Wish You,” 34.
Chapter Thirteen
Fun with a Stranger: 1970â1974
“But you must not brood”: McCall to RY, January 21, 1970.
“most desirous of establishing”: Howard Gotlieb to RY, April 14, 1970.
“the added disadvantage”:
Ploughshares,
74.
“I've sort of decided”: RY to DeWitt Henry, December 13, 1967.
“require the same kind”:
Contemporary Authors,
1981, 534.
“had it in for him.”: Int. Jack Leggett.
“slinking around with a secret”: Int. Martha Speer.
“Martha seemed a nurse”: Int. William Harrison.
“A problem has come up”: William Murray to RY, June 15, 1970.
“80% of the writing faculty”: Hayes B. Jacobs to RY, July 6, 1970.
“progressively, irredeemably crazy”:
Ploughshares,
73.
“Hollywood writers”: Int. Jayne Anne Phillips.
“I recall trying to say”: RY to John A. Williams, October 26, 1970.
“the âbook' might be in the form”: Ibid.
“the mediocre ⦠soldiers”: Williams to RY, November 5, 1970.
“about the hideous whim”: RY to Williams, early 1971.
“Do you know ⦠out of print”: Clark, “The Best I Can Wish You,” 40.
“All the time I praise”: Vonnegut to RY, September 14, 1970.
“deep” into his new novel: RY to DeWitt Henry, May 7, 1971.
“There's a great deal of interest”: Bruce Cutler to RY, June 22, 1971.
“dream up an original”: McCall to RY, October 27, 1971.
“break [his] heart”: Quoted in McCall to RY, November 9, 1971.
“in something of a muddle”: RY to the Schulmans, November 23, 1971.
“Say, Geoff, tell me”: Clark, “The Best I Can Wish You,” 33.
