A Tragic Honesty (96 page)
Authors: Blake Bailey
plerb
(“a synonym for⦔): from the 1944
Winged Beaver
yearbook. Macaulay's role in introducing RY to Sheila was mentioned by the latter.
For background on Sheila's father, Charles Bryant, I'm greatly indebted to Gavin Lambert,
Nazimova
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997).
Marjorie would go on ⦠John Birch: Int. Sharon Yates Levine.
“very good at acting the actress”: Int. Ann Barker.
“the movies had proved”:
CSRY,
301.
“terribly good-looking”: Int. Doris Bialek.
“half-phoney art talk”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 1, 1953.
found the two in bed together: The friend was Jerry Cain, and the anecdote was supplied by a May 17, 1953 letter from Sheila to RY: “Do you know why [Cain] was so cool to me when we first knew them? Well, it seems they thought I was some loose Village girl you'd got mixed up with who was ruining your life and sleeping around for laughs.”
“[Y]ou had [my writing] figured”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 8, 1953.
“I borrowed three hundred dollars”:
CSRY,
304.
Blanchard “Jerry” Cain: E-mail to author from Robin Cain.
Cain would later remark: Ibid.
“Hansel and Gretel cottage”: Int. David Bigelow.
“Unusual free-lance opportunity”: Sheila Yates confirmed that Yates did indeed ghostwrite for a cabbie as described in “Builders.”
The editors of
Harper's
: Letters from the magazine to RY, December 7, 1949, and January 3, 1950.
“in meekness and urgency”:
CSRY,
304.
“sweating out the ax”: Ibid., 161.
“right in the middle”: Ibid., 168.
winding up toy kittens: Robin Cain confirmed that Yates actually held such a job.
“badly printed”:
CSRY,
72.
“unabashed worshiper”: Robert Lacy, “Remembering Richard Yates,”
North Stone Review
12 (1995), 215.
“formal introduction to the craft”: “Some Very Good Masters,” 3.
“to Fitzgerald and Lardner”: “Authors Comment on Living Author They Most Admire,”
New York Times Book Review,
December 4, 1977, 3.
“the essence of aplomb”: Letter to author from Natalie Bowen.
Yates attempted suicide: Int. Sheila Yates.
“big, ambitious, tragic novel”:
CSRY,
169.
“Mr. Yates may understand”: RY to Barbara Beury, October 24, 1960.
“[A]ll I knew then”:
CSRY,
317.
“I think death was on”: Ms. of “Regards at Home,” BU-RY.
“Harvard, Yale, and Princeton”:
RYAW,
61.
“without whose work”: “Some Very Good Masters,” 21.
“that cat belongs”: Int. John Kowalsky.
“grass widow”: Int. Ann Barker.
“wait-and-see basis”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 10, 1953.
“you're the only person”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 11, 1953.
“anywhere in the world”:
CSRY,
317. Letters to RY from the Veterans Administration confirm the exact monthly sum of $207.
“steer clear of the conventional”: RY to Stephen Benedict, March 8, 1951.
“Our only plans”: RY to Stephen Benedict, March 25, 1951.
“cramped farewell ⦠I had luck”:
CSRY,
318â19.
Chapter Five
The Getaway: 1951â1953
“walked himself weak”:
RR,
132.
“[grind] out short stories”: RY to Stephen Benedict, April 10, 1953.
“that awful feeling”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 7, 1953.
“[Pinner's] old broken espadrilles”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 10, 1953.
“Yates is without question a writer”: Monica McCall to Charles Bryant, January 15, 1952.
Background on Monica McCall: Int. Mitch Douglas, Robert Gottlieb, and Richard Frede; also McCall's Social Security SS-5 form.
“please call [him] Dick”: McCall to RY, February 1, 1952.
McCall responded ⦠critique: McCall to RY, March 6, 1952.
“At its best and sunniest”: E-mail to author from Stephen Benedict.
“semi-separation in Cannes”: Sheila Yates to RY, January 17, 1962.
“Yates has a lot of talent”: this and other rejections were quoted in McCall's letter to RY dated April 4, 1952.
“perfectly handled”: Quoted in McCall to RY, October 22, 1952.
“
Why
does he have to write”: Quoted in McCall to RY, c. September, 1952.
“What a good story”: McCall to RY, April 24, 1952.
“[T]he playboy setting”: Quoted in McCall to RY, c. September, 1952.
“The cruelty which forms”: Quoted in McCall to RY, February 1, 1955.
“let-down”: Quoted in McCall to RY, July 15, 1957.
“Hope you ⦠will let us”: Quoted in McCall to RY, February 20, 1958.
“Rust Hills did have the grace”: McCall to RY, May 15, 1958.
“too pat”: Quoted in McCall to RY, May 28, 1958.
“for fairly obvious”: Quoted in McCall to RY, May 21, 1958.
“I'm a jazz snob”: Int. Vance Bourjaily.
“It is a good story”: McCall to RY, April 4, 1952.
“Close, but no cigar”: Quoted in McCall to RY, September 16, 1952.
“You are progressing well”: McCall to RY, July 1, 1952.
“swell story”: McCall to RY, July 8, 1952.
“an esoteric little”: Quoted in McCall to RY, September 16, 1952.
“[they] should be more acted out”: McCall to RY, August 18, 1952.
“readable and amusing”: Quoted in Rosalie Becker to RY, July 28, 1953.
“on the basis ⦠God's sake”: RY to Sheila Yates, c. August 1953.
“suffers from a confusion”: Quoted in McCall to RY, October 1, 1952.
play games like: Int. Sharon Yates Levine.
“snarky and sick”: Sheila Yates to RY, July 22, 1953.
“perfect ⦠outside aspects”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 11, 1953.
“quarreling had belonged”:
CSRY,
240.
“Number 15 off the production”: RY to Stephen Benedict, April 10, 1953.
“Oh the new one”: McCall to RY, September 16, 1952.
“by the narrowest margin”: Quoted in McCall to RY, October 15, 1952.
ATLANTIC BUYING JODY
: McCall to RY, October 21, 1952.
“Sweet of you”: McCall to RY, October 27, 1952.
“That was one grand”: Frances Phillips to RY, January 30, 1953.
“I should like ⦠opportunity”: Jacques Chambrun to RY, January 28, 1953.
“I want to tell ⦠Jody”: Seymour Lawrence to RY, February 6, 1953.
“Stand in the stream”: from the class notes of RY's student, Loree Wilson Rackstraw.
“You've done it with âJody'”: J. S. Dorsey to RY, c. February 1953.
“sensitive ⦠basic trainee's”: Lt. Col. Roger Little to RY, July 26, 1965.
“prick with ears!”: Int. Sharon Yates Levine.
“If he were free”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 7, 1953.
“Bryant family emergency”: RY to Stephen Benedict, April 10, 1953.
“Talk about
missing
”: RY to Sheila Yates, March 26, 1953.
“Dear Rich ⦠I felt so sad”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 2, 1953.
“Sheila and Ruth and Sheila's mother”: Elsa Maurer to RY, May 3, 1953.
“knick-knacky and scatter-ruggy”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 7, 1953.
“Charlie's hate is making him sick”: Sheila Yates to RY, c. April 1953.
“far, far too American”: Dorothy Daly to RY, April 17, 1953.
“[she] showed ⦠Sweetheart”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 12, 1953.
“I know nothing ⦠pictures”: McCall to Sheila Yates, April 23, 1953.
“[M]ost of my ideas”: RY to Stephen Benedict, April 10, 1953.
“trying to explain ⦠sentimentality”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 10, 1953.
“Oh that is a
wonderful
story!”: McCall to RY, May 18, 1953.
“ever seems to
talk
about”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 1, 1953.
“[I]t'll be nice ⦠to share”: RY to Sheila Yates, March 31, 1953.
“In the past three months”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 23, 1953.
“a beautiful sunlit garden”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 7, 1953.
“completely recessed”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 12, 1953.
“Haf a chicherette, gramer”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 7, 1953.
“âinnumerable things' he didn't write”: Sheila Yates to RY, April 20, 1953.
“a far cry from the drab”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 5, 1953.
“decidedly not queer”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 10, 1953.
“seem[ed] to spend ⦠money”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 21, 1953.
“Here's this month's alimony”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 5, 1953.
“I sort of forgot”: Sheila Yates to RY, c. May 1953.
“Charlie's offer of the $165”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 10, 1953.
“Everything you say about us” Sheila Yates to RY, May 17, 1953.
“income just over the horizon”: Sheila Yates to RY, late May, 1953.
“pray that the time comes soon”: Elsa Maurer to RY, May 3, 1953.
“pretty childish attitude”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 30, 1953.
“wasteland”: Sheila Yates to RY, May 17, 1953.
“The Levittown houses”: Sheila Yates to RY, late May 1953.
“creative slump”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 21, 1953.
“completely aimless, pointless”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 16, 1953.
“bitter astringency of tone”: Jean Malcolm to RY, June 11, 1953.
“[didn't] have room ⦠boy”: Quoted in McCall to RY, June 12, 1953.
coronation ⦠“terrific show”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 8, 1953.
“grubby, homely Village type”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 16, 1953.
“about a million ⦠biddies”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 8, 1953.
“wolloping good party”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 23, 1953.
“there mightn't be anyone”: Sheila Yates to RY, June 29, 1953.
“We're never going to get rich”: RY to Sheila Yates, May 30, 1953.
“If you had a job”: Sheila Yates to RY, June 4, 1953.
“violent opposition”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 8, 1953.
“demand[ing] restitution ⦠rights”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 23, 1953.
“rush around trying to do their best”:
Ploughshares,
69.
“stay of execution”: Sheila Yates to RY, June 19, 1953.
“I am praying”: Sheila Yates to RY, June 29, 1953.
“She'd never stimulate me”: Sheila Yates to RY, June 1, 1953.
“If I do come home before August”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 8, 1953.
“[kick] up an awful row”: Sheila Yates to RY, June 29, 1953.
“feed [Mussy] lots of ice cream”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 9, 1953.
“For a while ⦠zenith”: Ms. of “The Game of Ambush,” BU-RY.
“pretty good B-plus”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 16, 1953.
“[I]t's
technically
as good”: RY to Sheila Yates, June 23, 1953.
“as good or perhaps better”: Sheila Yates to RY, July 9, 1953.
“It came to me in a flash”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 9, 1953.
Sheila changed “(âpretty good')”: Sheila Yates to RY, July 1, 1953.
“I remember thinking ⦠cliché”: Sheila Yates to RY, mid-July 1953.
“I love the story”: McCall to RY, July 14, 1953.
“stubborn as a mule”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 24, 1953.
“funny and nice letter”: Rosalie Becker to RY, July 28, 1953.
“continue[d] to be interested”: Quoted in McCall to RY, August 27, 1953.
“drearier and drearier”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 1, 1953.
COSMOPOLITAN BUYING
: McCall to RY, July 14, 1953.
“How much money â¦
stand
?”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 17, 1953.
“[McCall] has left me ⦠jam”: RY to Sheila Yates, July 24, 1953.
“what an odd view”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 11, 1953.
“Absence ⦠grow fonder”: RY to Sheila Yates, August 17, 1953.
“quaint and Villagy”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 9, 1953.
“it might be a bit awkward”: RY to Sheila Yates, early September.
“all about meats”: RY to Sheila Yates, August 21, 1953.
“with some temerity”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 20, 1953.
“The main illustration”: RY to Sheila Yates, early August, 1953.
“quite tasteful”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 11, 1953.
“So I looked into cat-baskets”: RY to Sheila Yates, August 21, 1953.
“a coloring book with
water
”: Sheila Yates to RY, August 20, 1953.
“best-looking kind of suit”: RY to Sheila Yates, early August 1953.
“[they'd] been ⦠1066”: RY to Sheila Yates, August 12, 1953.
“I don't think ⦠depressed”: RY to Sheila Yates, early September.
the food was “wonderful”: RY to Sheila Yates, September 12, 1953.
Chapter Six
A Cry of Prisoners: 1953â1959
Andy Borno (the physical modelâ¦): Int. Robert Riche. Riche, who also wrote freelance PR for Remington Rand, was very helpful in explaining the nature of Yates's assignments.
“All this ⦠boring stuff”:
Contemporary Authors,
vol. 10, ed. Deborah A. Straube, New Revision Series (Detroit: Gale, 1981), 535.
“no different than I ever was”: Riche to RY, March 21, 1991.
there was no flirtation: Int. Pamela Vevers.
“You know ⦠mother works?”: Int. Seymour Epstein.
Background on Dookie and the City Center: Jean Dalrymple,
From the Last Row
(Clifton, N. J.: James T. White and Co., 1975); “City Center Adds an Art Gallery,”
New York Times,
September 15, 1953; “Art Gallery Opens in City Center Corridor,”
New York Times,
September 30, 1953; Int. Louise Rodgers.