Nora Ephron, essayist, novelist, humorist, journalist, playwright, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and movie director "in the Dorothy Parker mold (only smarter and funnier, some said)," died last night, the New York Times reported. She was 71.
A Facebook post from Alfred A. Knopf/Vintage Books observed that Ephron "brought an awful lot of people a tremendous amount of joy. She will be sorely missed." Her books include Heartburn, Crazy Salad, I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing.
Ephron also wrote and directed You've Got Mail, the 1998 movie that centered on an online romance between Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan). Fox worked for his family's Fox Books, a major chain, and Kelly owned a children's bookstore in New York City that was suffering because of a new Fox Books that opened around the corner. For a time, neither knows the true identity of the other online persona. Much of the movie was filmed on location, including a faux Fox Books branch in the old Barney's store on Seventh Avenue and 17th Street.
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Anthony M. Schulte, a publishing executive "who was an early proponent of audiobooks and among the first to tap the ready-made audience for books written by trusted television personalities like Alistair Cooke, Carl Sagan and Walter Cronkite," died June 17, the New York Times reported. He was 82.