Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter. He is best known for the critically-acclaimed, best-selling novel “The Outward Room”(1937), and the Oscar-nominated screenplay (with Frank Partos) for ”The Snake Pit”(1948). Born Elmer Millen Brand in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was the son of Elmer Brand and Carrie E. Myers. In 1929, he graduated from the Columbia University School of Journalism. In the 1930’s, he worked as a copywriter for the New York Telephone company, and as a psychiatric aide. He was also on the faculty of the University of New Hampshire and New York University. In 1934, a Simon and Schuster editor saw one of his articles in the magazine,”Trend”, and asked to see his works in progress. On May 1, 1937, Simon and Schuster published “The Outward Room”. It contained many of Brand’s later themes of mental illness, institutions, and healing. Nobel Prize winner, Sinclair Lewis, received an advanced copy and wrote an enthusiastic letter. Theodore Dreiser described the novel as “one of those firmly painted, exquisite miniatures of life, rare among modern books, that contrive to be unsparing and honest, and at the same time refreshing and lovely.” The”Outward Room” made a brief appearance on the stage. “The World We Make”, a theatrical adaptation written and directed by Sidney Kingsley, ran for eighty performances on Broadway in the fall of 1939. His 1947 novel ,“Albert Sears”, described racial intolerance.  In 1948, with Frank Partos, he received an academy award nomination for the screenplay adaptation of Mary Jane Ward’s novel,”The Snake Pit”. One of the many themes was confinement in a mental health institution.  In 1953, because of his association with the Hollywood Ten, he was questioned before the House Un-American Activities Committee.  He refused to cooperate, invoking the Fifth Amendment.   His books were later removed from United States Information Service libraries in many foreign countries.  From the early 1950’s to the early 1970’s, he was an editor at Crown Publishers. In 1955, he wrote “Some Love, Some Hunger”, about Puerto Ricans in New York.  His novel, “Savage Sleep”, published in 1968, fictionalizes the career of Dr. John N. Rosen, pioneer of “direct analysis.”  Brand  wrote two books of poetry. His 1966 “Dry Summer in Provence”, was a poetic treatment about the south of France. “Local Lives” was a 1975 book of poems  about the Pennsylvania Dutch.  In 1970, he wrote the text to George Tice’s  photographs in “Fields of Peace: A Pennsylvania German Album”.  Toward the end of his life, he was active in opening up poetry publications to minorities and youth, with the author June Jordan. His final book,“Peace March: Nagasaki to Hiroshima”(1980), was a poetic account of his 1977 participation in the Peace March, published six months after his death.  Millen Brand died March 19, 1980, in New York City.  He was 74. (bio by: Thomas)