Martin Gottfried was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 9, 1933. He graduated from Columbia College in 1955, attended Columbia Law School, and served in the Army in Europe. He worked as a classical music critic for The Village Voice and an Off Broadway critic for Women's Wear Daily before becoming a drama critic for The New York Post in the mid-1970s and then for the Saturday Review near the end of the decade. His first book of criticism, A Theater Divided: The Postwar American Stage, was published in 1968 and won the George Jean Nathan Award for dramatic criticism. His other works include Broadway Musicals and More Broadway Musicals. He also wrote several biographies of entertainers and… playwrights. His first biography, Jed Harris: The Curse of Genius, was published in 1984. His other biographies include All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse, George Burns and the Hundred Year Dash, and Arthur Miller: His Life and Work. He died from complications of pneumonia on March 6, 2014 at the age of 80.