Born in
Brooklyn in 1937, he graduated from
Harvard with a
Bachelors in 1958, a
Masters
in 1959, and his
Doctorate in 1964. At
commencement in 1958, he became the first
person in Harvard history to be selected as
both
Latin Salutatory Orator and
Class Poet.
He taught at Harvard before moving to
Yale in
1964 and has since been Visiting Professor
in Classics at
Princeton and the
University of
Munich. In 1987 he retired as
Adjunct Professor
of Classics at Yale and is now a
Fellow of
Wolfson College, Oxford.
Known more for his
fictional work than academics, Professor Segal
has actually published widely on Greek Tragedy,
Latin Poetry and ancient athletics. He has delivered
papers before the American Philological Association,
The American Comparative Literature Association, as well
as the German, Italian, and British Classical
Societies. In addition, his most important academic
book is Roman Laughter: The Comedy of Plautus, and
over the past quarter-century, his verse translations
of the Roman playwright Plautus have won considerable
acclaim.
His parallel, and more conspicuous, career
in "pop" literature began as a schoolboy hobby. He
then collaborated on the famous Harvard Hasty Pudding
Club show in 1958. While pursuing his PhD and
beginning his academic career, he also wrote several
screenplays--the most successful being The Beatles'
1968 animated film Yellow Submarine. He spent his
summers in Hollywood and his winters at Yale.
His quietly equilibrated existence was upset overnight
in 1970, when his first novel was published. Love Story
was an immediate sensation, ultimately selling more than
twenty-one million copies in thirty-three languages.
For his screenplay to Love Story, Mr. Segal received
the 1970 Golden Globe Award as well as one of the
film's seven Oscar nominations.
Also important -- and very much so, to Mr. Segal --
is that he enjoyed a conspicuously unsuccessful career
as a long-distance runner and was at one time one
of the world's best known mediocre athletes. He completed
over forty full-length marathons, winning only one:
March 17, 1963 in Washington, DC. As fate would have
it, The New York Times was on strike, but the Washington
Post duly recorded the historic event.
Erich Segal's bestselling novels include,
The Class, Doctors, Acts of Faith, and Prizes,
as well as Oliver's Story, the sequel to Love Story.
Many thanks to
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