Alice Duer Miller
Woman's Suffrage Activist, Writer of Satirical Poems Advocating Suffrage; Journalist, Writer
Dates: July 28, 1874 - August 22, 1942Alice Duer Miller was born and raised in the wealthy, influential Duer family of New York. After her formal debut into society, her family's wealth was lost in a bank crisis. She studied mathematics and astronomy at Barnard College beginning in 1895, earning her way through publishing short stories, essays and poems in national magazines.
She graduated in June 1899 and married Henry Wise Miller in October of that year. She began teaching and he initiated a career in business. As he succeeded in business and as a stock trader, she was able to give up teaching and devote herself to writing.
Her specialty was in light fiction. She also traveled and worked for woman suffrage, writing a column "Are Women People?" for the New York Tribune. Her columns were published in 1915 as Are Women People? and more columns in 1917 as Women are People!
By the 1920s her stories were being made into successful motion pictures, and she worked in Hollywood as a writer and even as acted (a bit part) in Soak the Rich.
Her 1940 story, The White Cliffs, is perhaps her best-known story, and its World War II theme of a marriage of an American to a British soldier made it a favorite on both sides of the Atlantic.
About Alice Duer Miller
- Categories: writer, poet
- Organizational Affiliations: Harper's Bazaar, New York Tribune, Hollywood, New Republic
- Places: New York, Hollywood, California, United States
- Period: 20th century
Also on this site
- Are Women People?: satirical pro-suffrage verse
- Alice Duer Miller Quotations
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Text copyright 1999-2009 © Jone Johnson Lewis.
