Collaborating primarily with composer Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick is one of the most gifted lyricists of Broadway musicals. He is a man of the theater, whose songs for such popular shows as Fiorello! (1959) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964) are wed intrinsically to character and plot. As a result, Bock and Harnick's songs only occasionally appealed to a broader public that was increasingly uninterested in live theater. He emerged as a songwriter as musicals surrendered their primacy in American entertainment to movies and recordings and as rock and roll began its domination of popular music. Nevertheless, Harnick wrote enduring lyrics of trenchant wit, empathetic emotion, and sophisticated charm for musicals that were often innovative and unconventional.

Born in Chicago on 30 April 1924, Harnick was the second of three children of Harry Harnick and the former Esther Kanter. His father, born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in what is now Romania, came...