Sally Benson ('' née'' Sara Smith; September 3, 1897 – July 19, 1972) was an American writer of short stories and screenwriter. She is best known for her humorous tales of modern youth collected in '' Junior Miss'' and her semi-autobiographical stories collected in ''

Meet Me in St. Louis ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas film, Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith famil ...

''.

Early life and career

Benson was born in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, the youngest of five children of Alonzo Redway and Anna Prophater Smith. She attended the Mary Institute until she moved with her family to New York. She attended the

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , countr ...

, studied dance and then started working when she was 17 years old. At age 19, she married Reynolds "Babe" Benson. The couple had a daughter, Barbara Benson, and later divorced. She began her career writing weekly interview articles and film reviews for the ''New York Morning Telegraph''. Between 1929 and 1941, she published 99 stories in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', including nine signed with her pseudonym Esther Evarts. Her stories "The Overcoat" and "Suite 2049" were selected as O. Henry prize stories for 1935 and 1936. Her collection, ''People are Fascinating'' (Covici Friede, 1936) includes almost all the stories Benson had then published in ''The New Yorker'', plus four from ''

American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...

''. She followed with another collection, ''Emily'' (Covici Friede, 1938). ''Stories of the Gods and Heroes'' (Dial Press, 1940) was juvenile fiction adapted from Thomas Bulfinch's ''Age of Fable''. ''Women and Children First'' was a collection published by Random House in 1943.

''Junior Miss''

''Junior Miss'' was published by Doubleday in 1941. This collection of her stories from ''The New Yorker'' was adapted by

Jerome Chodorov Jerome Chodorov (August 10, 1911 – September 12, 2004) was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He co-wrote the book with Joseph A. Fields for the original Broadway musical ''Wonderful Town'' starring Rosalind Russell. The musi ...

and Joseph Fields into a successful play that same year."New Play in Manhattan", ''Time'', December 1, 1941.
/ref> Directed by

Moss Hart Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director. Early years Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother ...

, ''Junior Miss'' ran on Broadway from 1941 to 1943. In 1945, the play was adapted as the film '' Junior Miss'' with George Seaton directing

Peggy Ann Garner Peggy Ann Garner (February 3, 1932 – October 16, 1984) was an American child actress. As a child actress, Garner had her first film role in 1938. At the 18th Academy Awards, Garner won the Academy Juvenile Award, recognizing her body of c ...

in the lead role. The ''Junior Miss'' radio series, starring Barbara Whiting, was broadcast weekly on CBS in 1949.

''Meet Me in St. Louis''

MGM's ''

'' (1944) was one of the more popular movies made during World War II. The stories in Sally Benson's book ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' were first written as short vignettes in a series titled ''5135 Kensington'', which ''The New Yorker'' published from June 14, 1941 to May 23, 1942. Benson took her original eight vignettes and added four more stories for a book compilation with each chapter representing a month of a year (from 1903 to 1904). When the book was published by Random House as ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' in 1942, it was titled after the MGM film, then in the very early stages of scripting. At MGM, Benson wrote an early draft of the screenplay, but it was not used.

Works

* ''People Are Fascinating'' (1936, Covici-Friede Publishers) * ''Emily'' (1938, Covici-Friede Publishers), published in England as ''Love Thy Neighbour'' (1939) * ''Stories of the Gods and Heroes'' (1940, Dial) * ''Junior Miss'' (1941, Doubleday) * ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' (1942, Random House) * ''Women and Children First'' (1943, Random House)

References

External links