Prolific playwright, educated at the University of North Dakota and Stanford University. Collaborated with Laurence Stallings in the World War I comedy What Price Glory? (1924). Also wrote two historical dramas in verse, Elizabeth the Queen and Mary of Scotland (1933). Won a Pulitzer Prize for his satire Both Your Houses (1933). Also remembered for Winterset (1935), High Tor (1936) Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Lost in the Stars (1949). Knickerbocker Holiday was a musical play, for which he collaborated with composer Kurt Weill, and for which they wrote the song "It Never Was You".

Composer, arranger, pianist and vocalist. Born Hyman Arluck, February 15, 1905, in Buffalo, New York, the son of a cantor, he showed exceptional musical talent in childhood. He dropped out of school and formed a band, and made a living primarily as an arranger and a performer. He began concentrating on composition in the late 1920s, collaborating with Ted Koehler in 1929 on the song "Get Happy".

From the late 1920s to the mid 1930s, Arlen wrote many songs which were featured in shows at Harlem's Cotton Club, including "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" and "I've Got the World on a String". In the early 1930s, he began writing music for Broadway musicals, including You Said It (1931), Life Begins at 8:40 (1934), Hooray for What? (1937), Bloomer Girl (1944), St. Louis Woman (1946) and Saratoga (1959), collaborating with Johnny Mercer and Truman Capote, among others. He also wrote songs for Hollywood musicals, including "It's Only a Paper Moon", "Let's Fall in Love" and "Lydia the Tatoo'd Lady", in addition to the songs listed below.

Certainly one of the most gifted and prolific composers of the twentieth century.