Mary Bader Yost Crowley

Mary Bader Yost Crowley passed away peacefully on March 28, 2022, at the age of 93 in Shelburne, Massachusetts in loving witness by her sons Jonathan Robarts Crowley, Patrick Manning Crowley and daughter-in-law Carolyn Michele Crowley.

Mary was born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on January 31, 1929. She attended Ursinus College in Collegeville PA and was an author for the college's Lantern Literary Magazine and Editor-in-Chief of the Ursinus Weekly in 1951. She went on to become an editor at The New Yorker between 1954 and 1956 before launching Mary Yost Associates in 1958, one of the first woman-owned literary agencies in New York City. In 1960, she married Dr. Ralph Manning Crowley, a psychiatrist and foremost interpreter of Harry Stack Sullivan and had three sons, Daniel, Jonathan and Patrick.

Mary Yost Associates is best known for contracting the works of existential psychologist author Rollo May, an originator of humanistic psychology, who wrote Love and Will (1969), The Meaning of Anxiety (1977) and The Courage to Create (1975). Mary Yost also agented the critically acclaimed novel, Jeeney Ray and Boy Gravely by Iris Dornfield McWilliams (1962 & 1965); Move! by Joel Lieber (1968); Open Marriage by Nena and George O'Neil (1972), which was on the NY Times best seller list for 40 weeks; This Was Radio by Joseph Julian (1975), who was a radio voice for the famous radio drama, The Shadow; Admissions: Notes from a Woman Psychiatrist by Judith Benetar (1975); Dark and Brilliant Places by Sondra Till Robinson (1977); Friends in High Places by Lucianne Goldberg (1979); Freud Rediscovered by Lucy Freeman (1980); Meditations for Men Who Do Next to Nothing (and Would Like to Do Less) by N. K. Peske (1994); Translating History: 30 Years on the Front Lines of Diplomacy with a Top Russian Interpreter by Igor Korchilov (1997); and Cultivating Inner Peace by Paul R. Fleischman( 2004), among many other fiction and non-fiction titles.

Mary is survived by her twin sons Jonathan and Patrick, her nephews Steven and John Yost; niece and nephew Susan and Ross Bookheimer; grandchildren Torielle Mari Lee; Julian Sheth Crowley; Christopher and Julien Yost; Danielle Hannah Kumandan and Leah Elena Cohen. Mary was predeceased by her husband Ralph and son, Daniel Yost Crowley.

One of Mary's nephews reflected that she "was a forceful presence. The last time I saw her was at my Dad's memorial. She always gave her honest thoughts and offered a different perspective on our family. I appreciated her raucous laugh and her insightful comments. Mary spent many years taking care of our grandmother, especially during Granny's last years. I saw a great many influences of Granny in Mary but also a unique, fierce, independence. The life she built in New York is testament to that and yet she retained a grace she inherited from Granny."

The family of Mary Crowley wish to thank the staff and nurses at Quabbin Valley Healthcare, our Compassus Hospice team, Erika Lim and Tahn Pamutto for their loving kindness with Mary in the last years, months and days of her life.