About the Author

Nat Segaloff is a writer, producer, teacher, and journalist. He is the author of Arthur Penn: American Director, Hurricane Billy: The Stormy Life and Films of William Friedkin and author of A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison. He is the producer of the A&E Biography documentary, Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop, and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews

""A biography of noted film director Arthur Penn (1922 - 2010) is long overdue. Segaloff... knew Penn personally and might have written the definitive text." -- Choice" --

""A model of what such things ought to be and seldom are, namely a lucid and gripping survey of your subject's work and personality, a professional's account of a professional."--Christopher Hampton, winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1988 for Dangerous Liasons" --

""An excellent biography.... Meticulously researched and a fitting tribute to a man who was one of our most innovative and creative directors."-- Tuscon Citizen" --

""An important book about an important director." -- Paul Cronin, editor of Herzog on Herzog" --

""An impressive amount of well-researched material, logically arranged."-- Sight and Sound" --

""Fascinating.... Segaloff contextualizes Penn's film and TV work against his theatrical innovations and adds new dimensions to our understanding of a modern master."--DGA Quarterly" --

""Nat Segaloff's affectionate... appreciation of director Arthur Penn is the precise opposite of a patho-biography, the slash and burn literary genre that delights in dishing dirt and trashing its cover boy... the book is enlivened by Penn's blunt, ungaurded recollections and infused with the author's boundless, unapologetic admiration." -- Cineaste" --

""Thematic chapters lucidly convery the story of Penn's life and career, as well as pertinent events in the history of American film, theater and television. In the process of tracing the full spectrum of Penn's career, Arthur Penn: American Director reveals the enormous scope of Penn's talent and his profound impact on the entertainment industry in an accessible, engaging account." --Turner Classic Movies" --

"A first-rate biography of a man whose film output was relatively small but exceedingly choice." -- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

"A welcome account of an underappreciated talent" -- Booklist

"If director Arthur Penn (1922-2010) had made no other films, he would be well known today for 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, now considered a groundbreaking movie." -- Publishers Weekly

"No doubt Arthur Penn was among the greatest of American directors. In Arthur Penn, Nat Segaloff captures the essence of the man and the talent -- his nobility. If nobility can rub off on a reader, this book is its most likely source." -- Norman Lear

"Reveals the enormous scope of Penn's talents and his profound impact on the entertainment industry in an accessible, engaging account of the well-known director's life." --Turner Classic Movies

"Thanks to author Nat Segaloff we now have a sharply defined chronicle of master craftsman Arthur Penn. Much of this superb delineation of Penn's creative output derives from the author's several years of conversations and interviews with Penn. What emerges is a detailed, highly readable study of a master talent who made enormous contribution to Hollywood films, the Broadway stage, and the Golden Age of television." -- James Robert Parish, author of It's Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks

"This book is a great read, and should be on the shelf of anyone who is thinking about a career in movies." -- Sacremento Review

"This is a very well-written, highly appreciative biography of one of the greatest and most versatile directors (stage, screen, television) of the last half of the twentieth century. The fruits of Segaloff's interviewing prowess are evident in every chapter, providing the reader with an intimate view of Penn's life and work. The author takes the reader on a fascinating tour of all of Penn's projects, and made this reader eager to see all the movies again." -- Larry Ceplair, author of The Marxist and the Movies: A Biography of Paul Jarrico

"This welcome and valuable book offers more than a mere survey of Penn's films: it's a portrait of the man, with especially revealing insights into his process, his work on Broadway, and his significant work in live television drama." -- Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian