Ira Levin  

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Ira Levin (August 27 1929 - November 12 2007) was an American writer, best known for Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives.

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Life and work

Levin studied at the prestigious Horace Mann School and New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English. After that, he wrote training films and scripts for television. He wrote his first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, when he was 22 years old, and it was well received, earning him the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Levin is a versatile writer whose work includes thrillers and comedy. He wrote the play No Time for Sergeants (adapted from Mac Hyman's novel), which later became a popular film that launched the career of Andy Griffith. Levin's best known play is Deathtrap, which holds the record as the longest running comedy-thriller on Broadway and brought Levin his second Edgar Award. In 1982, it was made into a film starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine.

Levin's best known novel is Rosemary's Baby, a horrifying tale of satanism and the occult. It was made into a film as were four of his other novels, A Kiss Before Dying (twice), The Boys from Brazil, The Stepford Wives (twice) and Sliver.

Stephen King has described Ira Levin as "the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels, he makes what the rest of us do look like cheap watchmakers in drugstores." Chuck Palahniuk, in Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories, calls Levin's writing "a smart, updated version of the kind of folksy legends that cultures have always used."

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Bibliography

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Novels

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Plays

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Musicals

Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Ira Levin" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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