Erich Segal

Erich Segal (June 16, 1937 – January 17, 2010) was an American author, screenwriter, educator, and classics scholar best known for his 1970 novel and screenplay Love Story, a cultural phenomenon that sold over 21 million copies worldwide and inspired a blockbuster film.

Born Erich Wolf Segal in Brooklyn, New York, to Rabbi Samuel Michael Segal and Cynthia Shapiro Segal, he grew up in a Jewish family and developed an early passion for literature and classics. He attended Harvard University, where he earned bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in comparative literature, serving as class poet and Latin orator during his time there. Segal began his academic career as a professor of classics at Yale University in the 1960s, later holding visiting positions at Princeton, Oxford, and the University of Munich, where he specialized in ancient Greek and Latin literature.

In addition to academia, Segal made significant contributions to screenwriting and popular fiction. He penned the screenplay for the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine featuring The Beatles. His breakthrough came with Love Story, which blended romance and tragedy in a tale of star-crossed Harvard lovers, earning him a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and seven Oscar nominations for the film adaptation. Following its success, Segal authored sequels like Oliver's Story (1977) and other bestsellers including The Class (1985), a Harvard reunion saga that topped the New York Times bestseller list, Doctors (1988), and Acts of Faith (1992). Later in life, he returned to scholarship with The Death of Comedy (2001), a critical study of humor in ancient Greek drama.

Beyond writing and teaching, Segal was an avid marathon runner, completing the Boston Marathon more than a dozen times and breaking the three-hour mark, and he served as a commentator for the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics. He married artist Karen James in 1975, with whom he had two daughters, Francesca and Miranda; he resided in London at the time of his death from a heart attack, after battling Parkinson's disease for 25 years. Segal's work bridged highbrow classics with mass-market appeal, influencing romantic fiction and leaving a legacy in both entertainment and education.