One of the best biographies of a screenwriter yet written.
~Tom Stempel, author of Framework: A History of Screenwriting in the American Film
This is one of the best-written and most enjoyable biographies I have read in ages. Real can't-put-it-down material.
~Eve Golden, author of Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn't Help It
Meticulously researched and elegantly composed, Jon Krampner's book is a splendid, irresistible page-turner; it's also a significant work of Hollywood history that fills a woeful lack in the history of entertainment lore—a volume devoted exclusively to the life and work of the master screenwriter Ernest Lehman. I knew Ernie very well for over thirty years, and Krampner brings him to vivid life. I am deeply impressed by and immensely grateful for this fine book.
~Donald Spoto, author of 29 books including The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock
A page turner but with wonderful insights into Ernest Lehman as a writer. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in moviemaking and screenwriting as well as Hollywood intrigue. A fantastic biography!
~Lisa Seidman, two-time Emmy winner and author of Killer Ratings
Historian and biographer Krampner (The Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley) focuses on the professional relationships in the 1950s and 1960s of screenwriter Lehman (1915–2005). His appetite for writing first found expression in magazine short stories and early TV dramas, culminating in his best-selling 1977 novel The French Atlantic Affair. An elusive, perfectionist New Yorker, Lehman proved his varied compositional skills in North by Northwest (considered his only original screenplay) and the screen adaptations of Sweet Smell of Success (cowritten with Clifford Odets but based on Lehman's own novella), The King and I, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hello Dolly!, and Portnoy's Complaint (which he also directed). Nominated for an Academy Award six times, he finally won the first Honorary Academy Award for screenwriting in 2001. Movie mavens and amateurs will appreciate this crisp, often jocular, book based on interviews and archival research. VERDICT With the marginalization of screenwriters in stories about the entertainment industry, which both Lehman and Krampner resent, this life-history fills a chasm in the literature.
~Library Journal
Who would have expected the juiciest Hollywood biography of the year to be about a screenwriter? The meticulously researched Ernest Lehman, written by Jon Krampner (Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley), is so delectable that it's impossible to put down.
~Kevin Howell, Shelf Awareness
This highly readable biography of one of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters is as welcome as it is overdue... This book makes for good reading.
~Leonard Maltin
A meticulously researched and well-balanced portrait of a classic Hollywood talent.
~Kirkus
