Millicent Dillon Explained

Millicent Dillon
Birth Name:Millicent Gerson
Birth Date:24 May 1925
Birth Place:New York City, U.S.
Occupation:Writer
Nationality:American
Alma Mater:Hunter College
San Francisco State University
Awards:O. Henry Awards (x5)
Children:Wendy Lesser

Millicent Dillon (née Gerson; born May 24, 1925) is an American writer.[1] She was born in New York City and studied physics at Hunter College. She also worked variously at Princeton University, Standard Oil Company, Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft, and Northrop Aircraft. In 1965, at the age of 40, Dillon enrolled in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University. Subsequently, she taught at Foothill College in Los Altos, California. She also worked at Stanford University for nearly a decade.

Millicent became a full-time writer in 1983. She is best known for her scholarly works on the American writers Jane Bowles and Paul Bowles. These include a couple of biographies and a collection of letters, as well as The Viking Portable Paul and Jane Bowles (1994) which Dillon edited. Besides these, she also wrote short stories, novels, and plays. Her novel Harry Gold (2000) was nominated for the PEN Faulkner Award. She won five O. Henry awards and also received a Guggenheim Fellowship.[2]

Dillon is the mother of the author Wendy Lesser.[1]

Notes and References

  1. "Millicent (Gerson) Dillon." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2017-06-10.
  2. "Biographical sketch" in "Millicent Dillon: An Inventory of her Papers" (finding aid for an archival collection). Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2017-06-10.