Literate Lifetime

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." -- W. Fusselman
Looking for something great (and free) to read? Enter an author's name and/or a key word from a book title to search for entries in our database of public domain works.


Hoffenstein, Samuel, 1890-1947

We have 1 book for this author.

Samuel "Sam" Hoffenstein (October 9, 1890 - October 6, 1947) was a screenwriter and a musical composer. Born in Russia, he immigrated to the United States and began a career in New York City as a newspaper writer and in the entertainment business. In 1931 he moved to Los Angeles where he lived for the rest of his life where he wrote the scripts for over thirty movies. These movies included Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Phantom of the Opera (1943), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Tales of Manhattan (1942), Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Laura (1944), and Ernst Lubitsch's Cluny Brown (1946).

In addition, Hoffenstein, along with Cole Porter and Kenneth Webb, helped compose the musical score for Gay Divorce (1933), the stage musical that became the film The Gay Divorcee (1934).

He died in Los Angeles, California. A book of his verse, Pencil in the Air, was published three days after his death to critical acclaim. Another book of his work was published in 1928, titled Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing. The book contained some of his work that had been formerly published in the New York World, the New York Tribune, Vanity Fair, the D. A. C. News, and Snappy Stories.

This is a poem from Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing.

Love Song
Your little hands,
Your little feet,
Your little mouth --
Oh, God, how sweet!

Your little nose,
Your little ears,
Your eyes, that shed
Such little tears!

Your little voice,
So soft and kind;
Your little soul,
Your little mind!


External links



This biographical information was gathered from the Samuel_Hoffenstein page, courtesy of the Wikipedia project.

Books

The Broadway Anthology

Pick of the Day



Lists of Interest

Modern Library 100 Best Novels Modern Library 100 Best Novels: In 1998, Modern Library picked the top 100 Novels of the century. This list contains all of the bo ...

Webmaster's Favourites Webmaster's Favourites: These are my selections, humbly presented as books that I particularly enjoyed.



Other ways of browsing