Miriam Allen De Ford

Born in Philadelphia in 1888 and later dying in San Francisco in 1975, Miriam Allen deFord built an unusually varied literary life. She is best known as an American writer of mysteries and science fiction, but she also worked in journalism and wrote on public issues beyond fiction.

In the 1920s, she contributed to left-wing publications including The Masses, The Liberator, and the Federated Press Bulletin. That background helps explain the brisk, thoughtful quality often associated with her writing: she was engaged with ideas as well as storytelling.

DeFord continued writing for decades and became especially noted in genre circles for crime and speculative fiction. She is also associated with works such as Xenogenesis and the anthology Space, Time and Crime, and her story "A Death in the Family" later reached television through Night Gallery.