Ira Levin

Ira Marvin Levin was an American novelist, playwright, and songwriter. The son of a New York City toy importer, he grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx. He was educated at the Horace Mann School, attended Drake University, and earned a degree in 1950 from New York University in Philosophy and English, followed by a brief stint in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He is best known for Rosemary's Baby, which was made into an Oscar-nominated movie; later in his life he lamented that its success triggered a wave of similar books and movies featuring occultism and Satanism, to which he ascribed a regrettable rise in religious fundamentalism. His works received three Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Awards, and in 1996 he was recognized with a Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Horror Writers Association.