ERICH SEGALAn American author, screenwriter, and educator Erich Wolf Segal (16 June,
1937- 17 January, 2010) shot to fame as the author of Love Story . The
tragic novel was later adapted into a motion picture which was also a
major hit.
Son of a teaher, Segal attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn,
USA.He travelled to Switzerland to take summer courses. He attended
Harvard College, graduating both as the class poet and Latin salutorian in
1958, after which he obtained his master’s degree in 1959 and a
doctorate degree in 1965 in comparative literature from Harvard
University.
Later he joined the teaching profession. Erich Segal used to teach Greek
and Latin literature at Harvard University, Yale University and Princeton
University. He also had been a Supernumerary Fellow and subsequently an
Honorary of Wolfson College at Oxford University.
His first academic book was the Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus
which had revolutionized the great Roman comic playwright widely known
today as the inspiration for Broadway hit, A Funny Thing Happened on the
Way to the Forum. In 2001 Harvard published his The Death of Comedy ,
the all-encompassing literary history.
The book for which Segal is world famous today is Love Story, a 1970
romance novel. A film adaptation was released on December 16, 1970.
While teaching at various universities Segal published a number of
scholarly works. He was a visiting professor to the University of Munich,
Princeton University, and Dartmouth College. He wrote widely on Greek
and Latin literature. His novel The Class published in 1985 was a saga
based on the Harvard Class of 1958.It was a bestseller, and won literary
accolades in France and Italy. Doctors was another New York Times
bestseller from Segal.
Erich Segal died of a heart attack on January 17, 2010 after suffering from
Parkinson’s disease.? Read More Read Less