He wrote some of the most pristine, romantic words in Broadway history, the genius behind My Fair Lady and Camelot, with three Oscars and three Tonys to his name. Yet the same man married eight times, battled a two-decade amphetamine addiction, and died owing the IRS over a million dollars. This is the staggering disconnect between the art and the artist.

We explore the life of Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist and librettist who helped architect Broadway's Golden Age, and ask how his greatest personal struggles fueled his most iconic art. From a privileged upbringing and a fateful boxing injury to the partnership with Frederick Loewe and a chaotic personal freefall, his story is often more tragic than anything he staged.

• How a boxing punch that cost him an eye kept him out of WWII and led him to lyric writing and partner Frederick L ...