Richard Yates's Boston

"Revolutionary Road," based on the Richard Yates novel of 1950s suburban life, opens tomorrow in Boston. Yates lived in Boston from 1976 to 1988, according to DeWitt Henry, author of a reminisce published in the Globe back in 2003. In Boston, Yates hung out with Henry, Dan Wakefield, whose essay about their friendship appeared in the Globe last Sunday, and Andre Dubus. During those Boston years, Yates published "A Good School" (1978), "Liars in Love" (1981), "Young Hearts Crying" (1984), and "Cold Spring Harbor" (1986). He advised and contributed to Ploughshares. He taught briefly at the Harvard Extension, Boston University, and Emerson College.

Both Henry and Wakefield recall Yates holding court at the Crossroads bar in Boston. His physical and mental health weren't good and he died in 1992 down in Alabama where he had been teaching.

Yates always wanted to be published in The New Yorker. That didn't happen until after he died. Wakefield recalls a poignant moment from "A Tragic Honesty," Blake Bailey's biography of Yates, in which his daughter, upon hearing about The New Yorker publishing one of his stories, gave the box of his ashes a shake and said, "Way to go, Dad!"