Nathan was born into a prominent New York Sephardic family. He was educated in the United States and Switzerland and attended Harvard University for several years beginning in 1912. It was there that he began writing short fiction and poetry. However, he never graduated, choosing instead to drop out and take a job at an advertising firm to support his family (he married while a junior at Harvard). It was while working in 1919 that he wrote his first novel—the semi-autobiographical work Peter Kindred—which was a critical failure. But his luck soon changed during the 1920s, when he wrote seven more novels, including The Bishop's Wife, which was later made into a successful film starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young in 1947.

During the 1930s, his success continued with more works, including fictional pieces and poetry. His 1933 novel One More Spring was filmed in 1935. In 1940, he wrote his most successful book, Portrait of Jennie, about a Depression-era artist and the woman he is painting, who is slipping through time. Portrait of Jennie is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fiction and was made into a film, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.

In 1942 Nathan wrote a poem "Dunkirk: A Ballad", then became a screenwriter for MGM, where he added additional poetry to update Alice Duer Miller's poem for the film The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). He then wrote the screenplay of The Clock (1945), in which he had a cameo role. His screenplay for 3 Godfathers (1948) was rejected,^[1] but he made contributions to the screenplay of Pagan Love Song (1950).

In January 1956 the author wrote, as well as narrated, an episode of the CBS Radio Workshop, called "A Pride of Carrots, or Venus Well-Served".

Nathan's seventh wife was the British actress Anna Lee, to whom he was married from 1970 until his death. He came from a talented family—the activist Maud Nathan and author Annie Nathan Meyer were his aunts, and the poet Emma Lazarus and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo his cousins.

Novels edit

Novel collections edit

• The Barly Fields, 1938 (collection containing The Fiddler in Barly, The Woodcutter's House, The Bishop's Wife, The Orchid, and There Is Another Heaven). Introduction by Stephen Vincent Benét.
• The Bishop's Wife and Two Other Novels, 1946 Armed Services Edition, published by the Council on Books in Wartime (shortened version of The Barly Fields, containing The Bishop's Wife, The Orchid, There Is Another Heaven, and Benét's introduction)

Plays edit

• Jezebel’s Husband & The Sleeping Beauty, 1953 (collection of two plays)
• Juliet in Mantua, 1966

Children's books edit

• Journey of Tapiola, 1938
• Tapiola's Brave Regiment, 1941
• The Adventures of Tapiola, 1950 (collection containing Journey of Tapiola and Tapiola's Brave Regiment)
• The Snowflake and the Starfish, 1959
• Tappy, 1968

Screenplays edit

• The White Cliffs of Dover, 1944 (additional poetry)
• The Clock, 1945
• Pagan Love Song, 1950

Nonfiction edit

• The Concert, 1940
• Journal for Josephine, 1943

Poetry edit

Radio programs edit

• A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served, 1956
• Report on the We'Uns, 1956

Television programs edit

• The Mark Twain Television Theatre, 1953.^[3]

Miscellaneous edit

• Two Robert Nathan Pieces, 1950 (book containing an interview with Mr. Nathan by Harvey Breit and the poem: Advice To My Son)
• "Robert Nathan Reading His Poems with Comment at His Home in Los Angeles, Calif., in April 1962", 1962 (tape reel sound recording)

• The Married Look, Robert Nathan. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950 (author bibliography)

• Robert Nathan Library – "the official library"
• Works by Robert Nathan at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Robert Nathan at Internet Archive
• "A Pride of Carrots (Venus Well Served)", MP3 file at the "CBS Radio Workshop" section of Internet Archive
• Robert Nathan at Library of Congress, with 88 library catalog records
• Robert Nathan Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.