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Wikipedia / Robert Nathan

Robert Gruntal Nathan (January 2, 1894 – May 25, 1985) was an American novelist and poet.

Biography

Nathan was born into a prominent New York Sephardic Jewish family. He was educated privately in Switzerland and attended Phillips Exeter Academy, then entered Harvard University in 1912. It was there that his short fiction and poetry was first published, in the prestigious literary magazine The Harvard Monthly, where he also became an editor. However, he never graduated, choosing instead to drop out and take a job at an advertising firm to support his family (he married while a junior at Harvard). It was while working in 1919 that he wrote his first novel—the semi-autobiographical work Peter Kindred—which was a critical failure. But his luck soon changed during the 1920s, when he wrote seven more novels, including The Bishop's Wife, which was later made into a successful film under the same title starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young in 1947.

During the 1930s, his success continued with more works, including fictional pieces and poetry. His 1933 novel One More Spring was filmed in 1935. In 1940, he wrote his most successful book, Portrait of Jennie, about a Depression-era artist and the woman he is painting, who is slipping through time. Portrait of Jennie is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fiction and was made into a film, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.

In 1942 Nathan wrote a poem "Dunkirk: A Ballad", then became a screenwriter for MGM, where he added additional poetry to update Alice Duer Miller's poem for the film The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). He then wrote the screenplay of The Clock (1945), in which he had a cameo role. His screenplay for 3 Godfathers (1948) was rejected, but he made contributions to the screenplay of Pagan Love Song (1950).

In January 1956 the author wrote, as well as narrated, an episode of the CBS Radio Workshop, called "A Pride of Carrots, or Venus Well-Served".

Nathan's seventh wife was the British actress Anna Lee, to whom he was married from 1970 until his death. He came from a talented family—the activist Maud Nathan and author Annie Nathan Meyer were his aunts, and the poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo his cousins.

Works

Novels

Novel collections

Plays

Children's books

Screenplays

Nonfiction

Poetry

Radio programs

  • CBS Radio Workshop, "A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served," 1956

  • CBS Radio Workshop, "Report on the We'Uns," 1956

Television programs

  • The Mark Twain Television Theatre, 1953.

Miscellaneous

  • Two Robert Nathan Pieces, 1950 (book containing an interview with Mr. Nathan by Harvey Breit and the poem "Advice to My Son")

  • "Robert Nathan Reading His Poems with Comment at His Home in Los Angeles, Calif., in April 1962", 1962 (tape reel sound recording)

References

  • The Married Look, Robert Nathan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950 (author bibliography)