Anne Tyler Net Worth

What is Anne Tyler's Net Worth?

Anne Tyler is an American author and former literary critic who has a net worth of $10 million. Anne Tyler's novels include "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant," "The Accidental Tourist," "Breathing Lessons," "A Spool of Blue Thread," and "Redhead by the Side of the Road." She has earned numerous honors for her work, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "Breathing Lessons" in 1989.

Early Life and Education

Anne Tyler was born on October 25, 1941, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the eldest of four children of social worker Phyllis and industrial chemist Lloyd. Both of her parents were Quakers, and the family lived in various Quaker communities during Tyler's youth, including Celo Community in North Carolina. Growing up, she learned art, carpentry, and cooking, and was heavily inspired by the books "The Little House" and "Little Women." When Tyler was 11 years old, she left Celo with her family and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. There, she attended public school for the first time, feeling like an outsider. At Needham B. Broughton High School, Tyler found encouragement from her English teacher Phyllis Peacock. She went on to attend Duke University on a full scholarship, and majored in Russian literature. After graduating in 1961 at the age of 19, Tyler earned a fellowship to attend graduate school at Columbia University. She ultimately left Columbia before completing her degree and returned to Duke, where she worked as a Russian bibliographer in the library.

Writing Career

Before becoming a novelist, Tyler published a plethora of short stories, for which she won many awards. Some of her stories appeared in the New Yorker and the Saturday Evening Post, among other papers. Tyler published her first novel, "If Morning Ever Comes," in 1964. She followed that with "The Tin Can Tree" in 1965. Later in her career, Tyler would disown both novels. She didn't write another book for a while, as moving to Baltimore with her husband and having two children largely drained her of energy and time. Instead, Tyler started to write literary reviews for journals and newspapers. She finally published her third novel, "A Slipping-Down Life," in 1970. That was followed by "The Clock Winder" in 1972 and "Celestial Navigation" in 1974. With the latter book, Tyler began rising in critical esteem. She earned more acclaim for "Searching for Caleb" (1975) and "Earthly Possessions" (1977), both of which were praised by author John Updike. Tyler's next novel, "Morgan's Passing," won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction in 1980 and was shortlisted for the American Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Tyler had her breakthrough in 1982 with her ninth novel, "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant." A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award, it is considered by Tyler as her best work. She continued her critical success with her next novel, "The Accidental Tourist," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1985 and was later a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Tyler finally won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989, for her 11th novel, "Breathing Lessons." In the 1990s, she published the novels "Saint Maybe," "Ladder of Years," and "A Patchwork Planet." Her first novel of the 21st century, "Back When We Were Grownups," came out in 2001; it was written in memory of her late husband. Tyler's subsequent novels were "The Amateur Marriage" (2004), "Digging to America" (2006), and "Noah's Compass" (2009). In 2015, she published her 20th novel, "A Spool of Blue Thread," which was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize. Tyler's novels since then have included "Vinegar Girl" (2016), "Redhead by the Side of the Road" (2020), and "Three Days in June" (2025).

(Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Film Adaptations

Many of Tyler's novels have been adapted into films, starting with "The Accidental Tourist" in 1988. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, the film was a hit, earning four Academy Award nominations and winning Best Supporting Actress for Geena Davis. Next, Tyler's "Breathing Lessons" was adapted into an acclaimed 1994 television film for the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" anthology program. In 1998, "Saint Maybe" became a television film on the same program. The following year, "A Slipping-Down Life" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and "Earthly Possessions" was made into an HBO television film. The sixth Tyler book to be adapted into a film was "Back When We Were Grownups," which aired as part of "Hallmark Hall of Fame" in late 2004.

Personal Life

In 1963, Tyler married Taghi Modarressi, a resident in child psychiatry she had met while working at Duke. A political refugee from Iran, he was also a novelist, having written two award-winning Persian books. The couple had two daughters, Tezh and Mitra, and lived in Baltimore, Maryland. Tezh became a professional photographer and painter, and Mitra became a professional illustrator. In 1997, Modarressi passed away from lymphoma.

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