Alan Jay Lerner

Alan Jay Lerner 1918-86, American lyricist and librettist, b. New York City. After two years as a radio scriptwriter, Lerner began an association with the composer Frederick Loewe that resulted in several popular musicals, including Brigadoon (1947, film 1954), Paint Your Wagon (1951, film 1969), Camelot (1960, film 1967), and the Academy-Award-winning film Gigi (1958). Their highly successful My Fair Lady (1956, film 1964), an adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion, has been translated into many languages. Lerner also wrote Love Life (1948) with Kurt Weill and the book for the film An American in Paris (1951).

Bibliography: See his autobiography, On the Street Where I Live (1978, rev. ed. 1994); biography by E. Jablonski (1996); studies by G. Lees (1990) and S. Citron (1995).

Lerner, Alan Jay (1918–86), born in New York City, after graduation from Harvard (1940) met Frederick Loewe (1904–88), an Austrian‐born composer, for whose music he wrote lyrics in their successful collaboration on musical comedies including Brigadoon (1947); My Fair Lady (1956), adapted from Shaw's Pygmalion; Camelot (1960), based on T.H. White's Arthurian tale The Once and Future King; and the motion picture Gigi (1958), based on the story by Colette. The Street Where I Live (1978) is a memoir. The Musical Theatre (1986) follows the London and New York musical stages from the 19th century.