A window into short-story construction: Richard Yates’ “Builders” and questions of the autobiographical content of his work

Abstract

Richard Yates, most remembered for his Revolutionary Road (1961), was also the author of two fine and exceptionally well-crafted collections of short stories, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (1963) and Liars in Love (1981). Yates was a writer of exceptional perception and unflinching clarity, yet some have criticized his work as drawing too heavily on autobiographical content. This article seeks to examine Yates’ 1963 story “Builders” to gain insight into this extraordinary author’s understanding of the writing process, his use of autobiographical or semi-autobiographical content, and to suggest new approaches for work on this still under-appreciated twentieth century author.

Keywords

• richard yates, autofiction, self-narrative, short stories.