An influential biographer, he published 17 biographies, 15 of which were related to French culture, commerce, or politics; including works on Albert Camus, Colette, Gustave Flaubert, Henri Philippe Pétain, Jules Verne, and the Rothschild banking family of France.
[3][4] Born in Brooklyn, Lottman was the son of a Broadway press agent.
He won a Fulbright Scholarship which enabled him to pursue further studies in Paris.
[2] In 1956 Lottman moved to Paris where he briefly attempted to pursue a career as a novelist.
He ultimately settled on managing the Paris branch of the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux, writing freelance articles for magazines, and working as a biographer, publishing his first book, Detours From the Grand Tour, in 1970.