Ephron, Nora (1941-2012), was an American journalist, essayist, screenwriter, and director. She first gained fame for her fresh and witty magazine columns about modern life. These writings were collected in her first three books—Wallflower at the Orgy (1970), Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women (1975), and Scribble, Scribble: Notes on the Media (1978). Other collections were published as Nora Ephron Collected (1991), I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman (2006), and I Remember Nothing (2010). Her 1983 novel Heartburn, the story of a failing marriage, was widely assumed to be based on her relationship with journalist Carl Bernstein, her second husband.
Ephron was born on May 19, 1941, in New York City but raised in Beverly Hills, California, where her parents, Henry and Phoebe Ephron, were screenwriters. She was a reporter for the New York Post from 1963 to 1968 and wrote columns for Esquire magazine from 1972 to 1978 and for New York magazine in 1973 and 1974. Ephron was coauthor of scripts for such films as Silkwood (1983) and adapted Heartburn into a 1986 movie. She also wrote the screenplay for When Harry Met Sally (1989). Ephron directed the films This Is My Life (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Michael (1996), and Lucky Numbers (2000). She co-wrote and directed You’ve Got Mail (1998), Hanging Up (2000), and Julie & Julia (2009). She also wrote the play Imaginary Friends (2002). Ephron died on June 26, 2012.
