Nora Ephron (1941-2012) was a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. Her classic rom-coms include Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, and You’ve Got Mail.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. And this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today’s storyteller was a journalist, writer, and filmmaker. Her classic rom-coms include Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, and You’ve Got MailBut before hitting Hollywood she also wowed readers with witty essays and pithy takedowns. Let’s talk about Nora Ephron.
Nora Ephron was born on May 19, 1941, in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She was the oldest of four girls, born to Hollywood Screenwriters Henry Ephron and Phoebe Wolkind.
Because of her parents’ careers, Nora was immersed in the world and culture of professional writers from an early age. Nora was especially enchanted by the poet and satirist Dorothy Parker. Inspired by her parents and the other writers who frequented her family’s New York home, Nora dreamed of making a living by her wit.
Nora took from her parents’ example in more than just her career path. She followed in their footsteps when it came to subject material, too. Henry and Phoebe pulled material for their films from events in their real lives and character traits from their real-life family and friends. Nora would go on to draw heavily from her own life to write some of her screenplays and personal essays.
When Nora turned 4, her family moved to Beverly Hills, where she would live through high school. Then in 1958, she attended Wellesley where she wrote for the school newspaper. She was also interested in politics. One summer, Nora interned in the Kennedy White House.
After graduating college in 1962, Nora moved back to New York City and started work as a “mail girl” at Newsweek magazine. At that time, women weren’t allowed to write articles with bylines. They were largely relegated to providing research support for male journalists.
During the 1962 newspaper strike, Nora wrote for a parody version of The New York Post. Her writing earned her a job at the real New York Post, where she worked for 5 years. Nora later wrote that The Post was “a terrible newspaper” when she was working there. She was forced to be inventive with her writing. She often had to write about subjects who refused to give her much interview material.
After The Post, Nora moved on to magazine journalism with publications like Esquire and New York Magazine. She wrote humorous personal essays with a strong voice. For example, one piece in her first collection entitled “Wallflower at the Orgy” was a self-deprecatory essay about Nora’s insecurity about having small breasts. Other columns she wrote took down people she saw as pretentious or hypocritical. She wrote sharp and often controversial profiles of people like Ayn Rand and she criticized Betty Friedan for feuding with Gloria Steinem.
Nora was writing in an era of great change in the1970’s. Growing feminist ideology intersected with a renewed journalism industry that valued opinion and style. It was the perfect environment to cultivate her career.
Around 1976, Nora’s personal and professional life underwent a significant change. She fell in love with Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters who broke the Watergate story. He would become her second husband, and helped kick off her foray into screenwriting. The couple attempted to rewrite the screenplay for the movie adaptation of Carl and Bob Woodward’s book, “All the President’s Men.” Though their version of the script never hit the screen, Nora learned from the experience and her screenwriting career began in earnest. .
Nora’s first screenplay was for the 1983 film “Silkwood,” about a woman named Karen Silkwood who mysteriously died while investigating work abuse at a plutonium plant. We covered Karen’s story on a previous episode of Encyclopedia Womannica. The movie was a hit and would earn Nora an Oscar nomination.
But it was her script for “When Harry Met Sally” in 1989 that cemented Nora’s name in the cultural consciousness. Nora would prove to have a gift for writing poignant romantic comedies, including “Sleepless and Seattle” and “You Got Mail.” Both “When Harry Met Sally” and “Sleepless in Seattle” also earned Nora Oscar nominations.
Throughout her screenwriting career, Nora continued writing best-selling personal essays about life and aging. She also wrote multiple plays. Though her marriage with Carl Bernstein also ended in divorce, she married again to author Nicholas Pileggi.
Nora’s professional success continued throughout the early 2000’s, but her personal life was marked by tragic illness. She discovered that she had a rare, pre-leukemic bone marrow disorder. She chose to keep her diagnosis a secret from all but those closest to her, and kept up with her usual busy routine for several years.
On June 26, 2012, Nora Ephron died of complications from leukemia.
Nora’s incredible work lives on through her beloved films, treating viewers to comfort, entertainment, and humor.
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