Great photo from the NYPL’s Billy Rose Theatre Collection, via the library’s new Lunch Hour NYC Tumblr.
Many know Nora Ephron as the writer and director of classic films like You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally. She was also a magnificent, witty writer outside of film, crafting stories published in newspapers, magazines, and novels. On Tuesday night, she passed away of pneumonia brought on by acute myeloid leukemia.
What you may not know about her is that she “was a foodie in the best way: driven not by snobbery but by the joy of discovery and eager not to one-up you with her latest bliss, but to share it with you, guide you toward it.” In this loving tribute to Nora’s foodie side (a side this intern found surprising), her friend Frank Burni writes:
Her sublime comic novel “Heartburn” is studded with recipes for dishes that are metaphors for sorrow, for lust, for comfort, for joy. Nora understood that nothing talked more loudly, or more eloquently, than food. Nothing better defined people.
If you would like a taste of her novels, you may find Heartburn and her last book, I Remember Nothing, and Other, at your local library.
Rest in peace, Nora.
Photo Credit: Billy Rose Theatre Collection
