Robert Kaplow

Early years

Kaplow graduated in 1972 from Westfield High School in Westfield, where he wrote his first satirical sketches as a student. He graduated from Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey. Kaplow used to teach English at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey.

Me and Orson Welles

Kaplow conceived the idea for the book while being a student at Rutgers University. He saw a photo in the periodical Theatre Arts Monthly from 1937 with Orson Welles with a young man. Kaplow wondered what the young man might have been thinking. He wrote the story, but it took about nine years to find a publisher. It was made into a film by director Richard Linklater which was released in 2009. The Guardian critic Sophie Martelli described the film as a "schmaltzy yet charming coming-of-age story." Me and Orson Welles was a The New York Times bestseller and the film in 2008 starred Zac Efron and Claire Danes. The movie was filmed in the Gaiety Theatre on the Isle of Man. Kaplow's most recent novel is a satire of writers, critics, and publishers. For National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Mr. Kaplow created "Moe Moskowitz and the Punsters," a series of musical and satirical pop-culture parodies. He is currently completing Nobody's Heart: A Novel About Teachers

He has been a resident of Metuchen, New Jersey.

Books published