Fran Landesman (b. 1927) is an American lyricist and poet. A lyricist is an author of song lyrics. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

Landesmann was born Frances Deitsch on October 21, 1927 in New York City. Her father was a dress manufacturer, her mother was a journalist; she has one brother, Sam. October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Empire State Building (right) and the Chrysler Building (left) are easily recognized symbols of New York City to the world. ...

She was educated at private schools, then at Temple University, Philadelphia, and finally at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Her first career was in the fashion industry in New York, where she met writer Jay Landesman, whom she married in July 1950, and with whom she had two sons, Cosmo and Miles Davis. Temple University is a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... Philadelphia is a village located in Jefferson County, New York. ... The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a State University of New York college of art and design located in New York City, New York, United States. ...

They moved to her husband's home of St Louis, where he and his brother started up the Crystal Palace, a cabaret. This was a successful venture, attracting big-name acts as well as producing avant-garde theatre. Fran Landesmann's experiencs sitting in the bar of the Crystal Palace, listening to musicians and audiences, led her to begin writing song lyrics in 1952, including one of her best-known: “Spring can really hang you up the most”. The Palace's pianist, Tommy Wolf, set this to music, and it became a hit, leading to more Landesman–Wolf creations, including the songs for The Nervous Set (a Broadway musical by Landesman's husband) and Molly Darling (a musical by her husband and Martin Quigley). The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue - a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a [[leap year starting on Tueday] (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1964 the Landesmans moved to London, where Fran wrote lyrics for a number of well-know musicians (with an emphasis on jazz), as well as for another of her husband's musicals, Dearest Dracula. She also started writing poetry, for which she has become even better known than for her lyrics (though there, is of course, much overlap between the two). For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ...

Bibliography

• More Truth Than Poetry
• Invade My Privacy
• The Ballad of the Sad Young Men and Other Verses
• Rhymes at Midnight
• Is It Overcrowded In Heaven?
• The Thorny Side of Love
• Scars and Stripes

Sources and external links

• University of Missouri-St Louis — biographical introduction
• Fran's Official Web Site
• Women of the Beat Biography for Fran Landesman