At Bard, Yellen studied creative writing with Texas novelistWilliam Humphrey, was named John Bard Scholar in his sophomore year and received the Wilton E. Lockwood Award for Literature upon graduation. In later years he received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters. He attended graduate school atColumbia University where he studied 18th centuryEnglish Literature.
Yellen's first play wasNew Gods For Lovers, which was produced at the HB Playhouse in New York.[2] This play, entered in a playwriting competition, won the Hallmark Award, and he began to writetelevisiondramas for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. Yellen also wroteBeauty and the Beast, andAn Early Frost, television films forNBC.[3][4][5][6]
He later incorporated the music of popular songwriter Jimmy McHugh into a new musical about young journalists in Paris in 1927,Lucky in the Rain, which had a successful run at the Goodspeed Opera. His collaboration with composerWally Harper onSay Yes created a light hearted-musical comedy about the1939 New York World's Fair, produced in 2000 for theBerkshire Theatre Festival. InJosephine Tonight!, a musical biography of the early life ofJosephine Baker produced byTheatre Building Chicago, Yellen was librettist and lyricist to composer Harper. "Josephine Tonight!" was recently revived as "Blackbird" and was staged in Washington, D.C., and Florida.[13]
Yellen's most recent straight play,December Fools, a comedy-drama about a composer's widow and her daughter, was produced by Abingdon Theatre Company in 2006. The same year,Josephine Tonight was produced byTheatre Building Chicago.[14][15]
Yellen has written numerous op-ed columns forHuffPost, focusing on culture and American politics from a left-wing perspective.[16]
As an undergraduate atBard College, Yellen met Joan Fuhr. The couple wed after their graduation and have two sons, Nicholas and Christopher.[17][18] Yellen lives on theUpper East Side ofManhattan.[19]
