Robert Nathan


Robert Gruntal Nathan 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 Philips 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. 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. He then wrote the screenplay of The Clock, in which he had a cameo role. His screenplay for 3 Godfathers was rejected, but he made contributions to the screenplay of Pagan Love Song.
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

Peter Kindred, 1919Autumn, 1921The Puppet Master, 1923Jonah, 1925The Fiddler in Barly, 1926The Woodcutter's House, 1927The Bishop's Wife, 1928 There Is Another Heaven, 1929The Orchid, 1931One More Spring, 1933 Road of Ages, 1935The Enchanted Voyage, 1936 Winter in April, 1938Portrait of Jennie, 1940 They Went On Together, 1941The Sea-Gull Cry, 1942But Gently Day, 1943Mr. Whittle and the Morning Star, 1947Long After Summer, 1948 The River Journey, 1949The Married Look, 1950The Innocent Eve, 1951The Train in the Meadow, 1953Sir Henry, 1955The Rancho of the Little Loves, 1956So Love Returns, 1958The Color of the Evening, 1960The Weans, 1960,The Wilderness-Stone, 1961A Star in the Wind, 1962The Devil with Love, 1963The Fair, 1964The Mallott Diaries, 1965Stonecliff, 1967Mia, 1970The Elixir, 1971The Summer Meadows, 1973Heaven and Hell and the Megas Factor, 1975

Novel collections

The Barly Fields, 1938. Introduction by Stephen Vincent Benét.The Bishop's Wife and Two Other Novels, 1946 Armed Services Edition, published by the Council on Books in Wartime

Plays

Jezebel’s Husband & The Sleeping Beauty, 1953 Juliet in Mantua, 1966

Children's books

Journey of Tapiola, 1938Tapiola's Brave Regiment, 1941The Adventures of Tapiola, 1950 The Snowflake and the Starfish, 1959Tappy, 1968

Screenplays

Nonfiction

The Concert, 1940Journal for Josephine, 1943

Poetry

Youth Grows Old, 1922A Cedar Box, 1929Selected Poems, 1935A Winter Tide: Sonnets and Poems, 1940Dunkirk: A Ballad, 1942Morning in Iowa, 1944The Darkening Meadows, 1945The Green Leaf, 1950The Married Man, 1962Evening Song: Selected Poems 1950-1973, 1973

Radio programs

CBS Radio Workshop, "A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served," 1956CBS Radio Workshop, "Report on the We'Uns," 1956

Television programs

The Mark Twain Television Theatre, 1953.

Miscellaneous

Two Robert Nathan Pieces, 1950
  • "Robert Nathan Reading His Poems with Comment at His Home in Los Angeles, Calif., in April 1962", 1962