Richard Yates, born in Yonkers on February 3, 1926, and passed away in Birmingham on November 7, 1992, was an American writer, journalist, professor, and screenwriter. He gained popularity as a chronicler of the American lifestyle in the mid-20th century. Yates shone brightly upon the publication of his first novel, Revolutionary Road, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 1961. This novel drew unbridled praise and branded Yates as an important, new writer.

Kurt Vonnegut claimed that Revolutionary Road was the Great Gatsby of his time. William Styron described it as "A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic." Tennessee Williams went one further and stated, "Here is more than fine writing; here is what, added to fine writing, makes a book come immediately, intensely, and brilliantly alive. If more is needed to make a masterpiece in modern American fiction, I am sure I don't know what it is." In 1962, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness was published, his first collection of short stories.