Bessie Breuer

During World War II, Breuer worked for the United States Office of War Information. She also wrote for periodicals such as World's Work, House Beautiful, Mademoiselle, and The New Yorker until the 1960s. She died at the age of 81 at her home in New City, New York. She had two children, Peter and Anne, and three grandchildren.

Breuer's first novel Memory of Love (1935) was made into a film in 1939 titled In Name Only. The film starred Cary Grant and Carole Lombard. Her other novels include The Daughter (1938), The Actress (1955), and Take Care of My Roses (1961). A prolific writer of short stories, she won four O. Henry Awards between 1943 and 1947. One of her stories is included in 55 Short Stories from the New Yorker and a collection of her stories was published, titled The Bracelet of Wavia Lea and Other Stories (1947). Sundown Beach, her only play, which was about World War II fliers suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, premiered on Broadway in 1948. It was directed by Elia Kazan. It featured the young, then-unknown actress Julie Harris and was the first Broadway venue of the Actors' Studio.

In 1925, she married her third husband, the painter Henry Varnum Poor (previously she had been married to Mr. Breuer and Carl Kahler). This third marriage of 45 years ended with Poor's death in 1970.

Part of the expatriate movement, Breuer moved to France in the early 1920s and began writing fiction under the encouragement of Kay Boyle and Laurence Vail. Her first works of fiction to be published were short stories in Story and Harper's magazines. She began using the name Bessie Breuer when she began to write fiction to differentiate it from her work as a journalist.

Bessie Breuer (October 19, 1893 – September 26, 1975) was an American journalist, novelist, and playwright. She was an O. Henry Award winner.