Norman Zierold is an American author. He is best known for his biographies of Hollywood figures, particularly in classic cinema. Zierold often focused on the behind-the-scenes stories and personal lives of notable figures in the entertainment industry.
Norman Zierold was born and raised in southeast Iowa. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and earned MA in English literature at the University of Iowa.
Zierold taught English in France and then moved to New York City, where he worked for Theatre Arts Magazine and SHOW magazine before becoming a full-time writer.
His eight books include four histories of Old Hollywood—The Child Stars (1965), The Moguls (1969), Garbo (1970), and Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen (1973)—and two acclaimed works of true crime—Little Charley Ross (1967) and Three Sisters in Black (1968).
Three Sisters in Black was An Edgar Award finalist. It is the real story of a gothic, gaslight nightmare that fascinated, shocked, and baffled the nation—and the disturbed woman who almost got away with murder.
His last work, That Reminds Me: A Conversational Memoir, came out in 2013.
Zierold passed away in Iowa in 2018, where he lived and worked on the pastoral campus of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield.
