Alice Duer Miller

Born in New York on July 28, 1874, Alice Duer Miller became known as an American poet, novelist, and screenwriter with a gift for mixing elegance, humor, and argument. After studying mathematics at Barnard College, she built a writing career that moved easily between poetry, fiction, journalism, and film.

She is especially remembered for her satirical poems supporting women's suffrage, many of them published in the New York Tribune and later collected in Are Women People? Her writing helped make political ideas feel vivid and accessible, using irony and wit rather than heavy speeches.

Miller also wrote popular novels, several of which were adapted for stage and screen, and she found a huge audience with The White Cliffs in 1940. She died on August 22, 1942, but her work still stands out for its intelligence, charm, and clear-eyed feminist spirit.