Millen Brand Papers

Millen Brand was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on January 19, 1906. He married Pauline Leader, an author, in 1932. They had three children. In 1943 he married Helen Mendelsohn and they had one daughter. Both marriages ended in divorce. Brand was a graduate of Columbia University School of Journalism, 1929, with a B.A. and B. Lit.

He worked for the New York Telephone Company as a writer from 1929-1937. From 1940-1950, he was a lecturer at the University of New Hampshire and the Writing Center, New York University. He worked as an editor for Crown Publishers, New York, New York, from 1953-1974. He also worked as a psychiatric aide in treatment centers and with private physicians for a year and a half. Some of his poems have been published in the New Yorker. He and Frank Partos wrote the screenplay for The Snake Pit, 20th Century-Fox, 1948.

In 1953 Brand refused to tell a hearing of the United States Senate Investigation sub-committee, under the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, whether he had engaged in what were termed by the sub-committee as "treasonable activities". Later that year, he was one of sixteen authors named in a confidential State Department directive banning their works in United States Information Service libraries abroad.

Earlier plans to make a movie of his 1947 novel, Albert Sears, did not come about; RKO Pictures dismissed Adrian Scott, writer-producer, and Edward Dmytryk, director, for refusing to tell a Congressional Panel whether they were members of the Communist Party. They formed a corporation to film the novel, but went to prison for their refusal to cooperate with the committee.

The Snake Pit, 1948, was nominated for an Academy Award for best script and best picture. Brand was co-recipient of the Robert Meltzer plaque and Screenwriters Guild award for The Snake Pit.

Millen Brand died after a short illness in New York City on March 19, 1980.