Award-Winning Writer, Educator, and Political Activist. She was born in St. Paul (Minnesota) and died in Mill Valley (California). She studied architecture at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati. In 1929 the Crosbys’ Black Sun Press published Boyle’s first book of fiction titled Short Stories. Kay Boyle’s short stories won two O. Henry Awards (for The White Horses of Vienna and Defeat). In 1936 she wrote a novel titled Death of a Man that was an attack on the growing threat of Nazism. In the 40’s, she married Baron Joseph von Franckenstein. They were blacklisted by most of the major magazines. During this period, her life and writing became increasingly political. She participated in numerous protests, and in 1967 was arrested twice and imprisoned. In her later years, she became an active supporter of Amnesty International and worked for the NAACP. She also wrote “Process”, “A Frenchman Must Die”, “The Underground Woman” and “Nothing Ever Breaks Except the Heart.”