Young Hearts Crying was published by Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence in 1984 and represents Yates’s most expansive attempt to chronicle an entire American generation. The novel follows Michael Davenport — a Harvard-educated World War II veteran who wants to be a poet — and his wife Lucy, who has money and artistic ambitions of her own, from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. It is Yates’s longest novel and his most comprehensive portrait of how the cultural promises of the postwar period — creativity, freedom, self-realization — curdled into disappointment for an entire class of educated Americans.
The Novel
Michael Davenport comes home from the war with a Bronze Star and a determination to write poetry. He has talent but not genius; ambition but not the ruthlessness that separates major artists from minor ones. He marries Lucy, whose family money provides the material security that should, in theory, allow him to write without commercial pressure.
But the money becomes a trap. Michael cannot respect himself as a kept man, yet he cannot give up the comfort. He publishes a few poems in good magazines, receives a few grants, teaches at a few colleges — but the major work never materializes. He is not bad enough to quit and not good enough to justify the sacrifices his artistic ambitions require.
Lucy, meanwhile, discovers her own creative energies — first in sculpture, then in various artistic projects — and her success, however modest, threatens Michael’s fragile self-image. Their marriage becomes a competition that neither can win, because in Yates’s world, artistic ambition without proportionate talent is a prescription for mutual destruction.
The novel spans thirty years: the bohemian optimism of the late 1940s, the conformist anxiety of the 1950s, the liberating chaos of the 1960s, the disillusioned aftermath of the 1970s. At each stage, Michael and Lucy redefine themselves, divorce, take new partners, pursue new projects — but the fundamental problem remains. They are not exceptional enough for the exceptional lives they want to lead.
The Problem of the Minor Artist
Young Hearts Crying is Yates’s most sustained meditation on what it means to be talented but not brilliant — to have enough artistic sensibility to recognize greatness in others without being able to achieve it oneself. Michael is not a fraud; he has genuine aesthetic sensitivity and real craft. But he lacks the transforming vision that would make his work necessary.
This theme connects to Yates’s deepest preoccupation: the gap between self-image and reality. Michael believes he is a poet. The world does not disagree violently enough to force a crisis, but it does not confirm his belief either. He exists in a limbo of moderate recognition that is, in some ways, worse than outright failure — because it provides just enough encouragement to prevent him from accepting his limitations and finding another way to live.
Publication and Reception
The first edition was published by Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, New York, in 1984. First printings can be identified by:
- Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence imprint on title page
- First edition/first printing indicators on copyright page
- Cloth binding with dust jacket
Reviews were respectful but noted the novel’s bleakness. By 1984, Yates’s consistent commercial failure had made publishers wary, and the novel received limited promotion. It sold poorly.
Critical Standing
Young Hearts Crying is regarded by Yates scholars as one of his most important works — the novel that most fully embodies his vision of American life as a slow diminishment of possibility. It has been compared to Updike’s Rabbit novels in scope and ambition, though Yates’s vision is darker and his prose more austere.
The novel’s long time span and its engagement with the cultural history of postwar America give it a sociological richness that complements the psychological intensity of Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade. It is the Yates novel that most clearly demonstrates what was lost when his work fell out of print in the 1990s.
Collecting Young Hearts Crying
First edition (Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence, 1984): Fine copies in dust jacket bring $100–$300. The novel had a small first printing — by 1984, Yates’s sales history made publishers cautious — and fine copies are not especially common.
Signed copies are rare. Yates’s alcoholism and declining health limited his public appearances in the 1980s. Signed firsts bring $400–$1,200.
The title sits in the middle tier of Yates collectibles — below Revolutionary Road, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness, and The Easter Parade, but valued by completists and by readers who consider it Yates’s most ambitious work.