Millicent Dillon

Millicent Dillon (née Gerson; May 24, 1925 – January 27, 2025) was an American writer. She was born in New York City and studied physics at Hunter College. She also worked variously at Princeton University, Standard Oil Company, Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft, and Northrop Aircraft. In 1965, at the age of 40, Dillon enrolled in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University. Subsequently, she taught at Foothill College in Los Altos, California. She also worked at Stanford University for nearly a decade.

Millicent became a full-time writer in 1983. She is best known for her scholarly works on the American writers Jane Bowles and Paul Bowles. These include a couple of biographies and a collection of letters, as well as The Viking Portable Paul and Jane Bowles (1994) which Dillon edited. Besides these, she also wrote short stories, novels, and plays. Her novel Harry Gold (2000) was nominated for the PEN Faulkner Award. She won five O. Henry Awards and also received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Dillon was married to Murray Lesser and David Dillon; both marriages ended in divorce. She was the mother of the author Wendy Lesser, and one other daughter. Dillon died in Daly City, California, on January 27, 2025, at the age of 99.

• The One in the Back is Medea (1973)
• The Dance of the Mothers (1991)
• Harry Gold (2000)
• A Version of Love (2003)

• Baby Perpetua and Other Stories (1971)

• A Little Original Sin: The Life and Work of Jane Bowles (1980)
• Out in the World: Selected Letters of Jane Bowles, 1935-1970 (1985, editor)
• After Egypt: Isadora Duncan and Mary Cassatt (1990)
• The Portable Paul and Jane Bowles (1994, editor)
• You Are Not I: A Portrait of Paul Bowles (1998)