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Harvey Breit

Harvey Breit
Born 1909
Died April 9, 1968
New York City
Nationality American
Citizenship American
Years active 1943-1957
Employer New York Times
Known for reviewer for New York Times Book Review
Spouse(s) Alice S. Morris, Patricia Rinehart

Harvey Breit (1909 - April 9, 1968) was an American poet, editor, and playwright as well as reviewer for the New York Times Book Review from 1943 to 1957.

Breit began his writing career at TIME, where he worked from 1933 to 1934.

He wrote for the New York Times including the New York Times Book Review from 1948 to 1957.

In 1951, writer Anita Loos told him in an interview about her new book, A Mouse Is Born:

I'm the oldest motion picture writer in the business. I am endlessly grateful to the movies, and I'll tell you why. Because a writer can always make a living writing for the movies when he hasn't anything to say. If it hadn't been for the movies, I would have had to turn out novels when I had nothing to say... You can do a good job on other people's material... The movies help writers over their bad periods.

In 1952, he interviewed Whittaker Chambers at the publication of his memoir Witness:

From the casual talk, he went on to a point that one heard raised a good deal. The question of Mr. Chambers' memory. He remembered so many things and he had failed to remember a number of other things.

In 1955, he interviewed William Faulkner after his National Book Award best fiction (A Fable).

He was one of the last people to talk to poet Dylan Thomas before his death:

That week Thomas called an old friend and said: "I'm tired of all the goddam writers around here. Why don't you give me a party with no writers, only beautiful women?" Late that Saturday night, after the party, Thomas showed up at his favorite tavern, the White Horse, a dark-paneled, homey bar on the western outskirts of Greenwich Village. His eyes were glazed, bloodshot, heavy-lidded. Some pals bought him drinks, and he downed three or four boilermakers in 15 minutes. Later, he went on to another bar, then retired to his hotel room for a warm beer and whisky nightcap with a friend. Three days and several parties later, New York Times Critic Harvey Breit telephoned him at his hotel. "He seemed bad," Breit recalls. "I wanted to say, 'You sound as though from the tomb.' I didn't.

He lectured at Sarah Lawrence College.


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