Married twice and has three children: Peter, Matthew and John.
Wrote a number of works of poetry, novels and plays, but never achieved equivalent success to his Jacques Brel work.
Was introduced to the music of Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel by his wife Elly Stone, who had first heard Brel's music through an acquaintance at a record company.
Served in Europe during World War II in the United States Army Signal Corps, where he wrote poems for French journals that he had translated into French.