Howard Breslin

Howard Mary Breslin (23 December 1912 – 30 May 1964 ) was an American novelist and radio script writer. He mainly wrote novels of historical fiction and is most notable for The Tamarack Tree and "Bad Time at Honda", a short story that was the basis of the film Bad Day at Black Rock. He also published under the nom de plume Michael Niall.

Biography Howard Mary Breslin was born in New York City to Kathryn Veronica (née Connelly) and Thomas Niall Breslin, both parents of Irish descent. Later adapted for the 1955 film Bad Day at Black Rock, Breslin's short story "Bad Time at Honda" first appeared in The American Magazine in January 1947. He left a lucrative job writing radio scripts, making $750 a week by 1946 (an estimated $9757.54 in 2018 dollars), to become a novelist because he was unhappy. That story became the film Bad Day at Black Rock, the script adapted by Don McGuire and Millard Kaufman, directed by John Sturges, and starring Spencer Tracy.

The Tamarack Tree (1947) set Breslin on his path as a novelist, earning him a Literary Guild and receiving critical acclaim.

He used his Irish family and childhood for his novel Let Go of Yesterday (1950) which is set in the Irish South Bronx.

Another one of his short stories was the basis for the film Platinum High School (1960; MGM), directed by Charles Haas, with the screenplay by Robert Smith, and starring Mickey Rooney.

At the end of his life he was living at 331 East 71st Street in Manhattan. Breslin died after a short illness at St. Luke's Hospital, New York City.

Books 1945: The Piper's Son – (Springfield, OH: Crowell Publishing Company) 1947: The Tamarack Tree – (New York: Whittlesey House) 1950: Let Go of Yesterday – (New York: Whittlesey House) 1953: The Bright Battalions – (New York: McGraw-Hill) 1954: The Silver Oar – (New York: Crowell) 1954: Bad Day at Black Rock – (New York: Fawcett Publications) 1978 (reprint): Bad Day at Black Rock – (as "Michael Niall"; Mattituck, NY: Aeonian Press) Novelization of the screenplay based on his original short story 1955: Shad Run – (New York: Crowell) 1956: Autumn Comes Early – (New York: Crowell) 1956: Thunder on the River – (Collins) 1958: The Gallowglass – (New York: Crowell) 1960: A Hundred Hills – (New York: Crowell) 1962: Run Like a Thief – (as "Michael Niall"; New York: M. S. Mill co. and Morrow) 1963: Concert Grand – (New York: Dodd, Mead)