Ephron, Nora Louise

Ephron, Nora Louise, 1941–2012, American writer and film director, grad. Wellesley College (B.A., 1962). Witty, tough, self-deprecating, and ironic in all her guises, she was a reporter for the New York Post and later an essayist for Esquire, New York, and other magazines. Turning to scriptwriting, she wrote first for television and then for film, producing 15 screenplays in all. Silkwood (1983), her first, which she cowrote, established her as a first-rate Hollywood talent. She transformed her wrenchingly sad and edgily funny novel Heartburn (1983), based on her divorce from journalist Carl Bernstein, into the 1986 film. A string of successful romantic comedies followed: When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and You've Got Mail (1998), the last two of which she directed. She also wrote and directed a film tribute to Julia Child, Julie & Julia (2009). From 1970's Wallflower at the Orgy to 2010's I Remember Nothing, Ephron published half a dozen essay collections that are probably her finest works. Characterized by humor and honesty, many deal with the joys and woes of being a woman and, later, explore the indignities of aging. She was also a witty and prolific blogger. Ephron wrote several plays; her final work, Lucky Guy, about a New York journalist, was produced on Broadway in 2013.

See The Most of Nora Ephron (2013).

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