Erich Wolf Segal was an American author, screenwriter, and educator. He was best known for writing the novel Love Story (1970), a best-seller, and writing the motion picture of the same name, which was a major hit.
Segal was a professor of Greek and Latin literature at Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University. He had been a Supernumerary Fellow and subsequently an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College at Oxford University.
In 1967, from the story by Lee Minoff, he wrote the screenplay for The Beatles‘ 1968 motion picture, Yellow Submarine.
In the late 1960s, Segal collaborated on other screenplays, and also had written a synthetic romantic story by himself about a Harvard student and a Radcliffe student, but failed to sell it. However, literary agent Lois Wallace at the William Morris Agency suggested he turn the script into a novel and the result was a literary and motion picture phenomenon called Love Story. A New York Times No. 1 bestseller, the book became the top selling work of fiction for 1970 in the United States, and was translated into 33 languages worldwide. The motion picture of the same name was the number one box office attraction of 1970.