Oscar Hammerstein II, (born July 12, 1895, New York, New York, U.S. died August 23, 1960, Doylestown, Pennsylvania), American lyricist, musical comedy author, and theatrical producer influential in the development of musical comedy and known especially for his immensely successful collaboration with the composer Richard Rodgers.
The grandson of the opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein, he studied law at Columbia University before beginning his career in the theatre. Between 1920 and 1959 he wrote all or part of about 45 musical dramas for stage, film, or television. Until he became exclusively Rodgers’ librettist in 1943, Hammerstein wrote lyrics for several other composers, among them Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg (“Lover Come Back to Me”; “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise”), and Jerome Kern (“All the Things You Are”; “The Last Time I Saw Paris”). Among Hammerstein’s best known early works are