LOVE STORY - Do you remember Erich Segal

Hello,

Erich Segal, writer and academic, was born on June 16, 1937. He died of a heart attack on January 17, 2010, aged 72.

A Classics professor and author of scholarly books on the Ancient Greeks and Romans he knocked off a little novel called Love Story during his holidays. The book ended up being a bestseller in USA in 1970 and then becoming a high grosser film in 1971.

Read the start and you get hooked to it.

“What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.”

Sometimes an author, an artist, a scientist and / or any living Human Being comes up with something so exceptional that it even surpasses his wildest dreams. 'Love Story' was one of such events.

Segal taught classics at Yale University got inspired by a conversation he overheard in 1968 about a girl who supported her husband through graduate school and then died. “I sat down and started writing immediately,” he said. “The story poured out of me.”

The success of Love Story surprised virtually everyone, particularly in the movie business, where it was felt that such old-fashioned weepies were outdated.

But the themes of love against the odds, parental disapproval, misunderstandings and the cruel hand of fate, in the form of leukaemia, remained as powerful as ever. The public appreciated the book, its simple style and emotions, but it proved too big a challenge for many critics (though not all). Several judges threatened to resign if it were not removed from consideration for the National Book Award. They got their way.

Erich Segal will live in the hearts of every youngster who has experienced true love.

Best regards,

Manoj