Lillian Day

Lillian Day Lederer or Lillian Ethel Abrams (June 27, 1893 – March 29, 1991) was an American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and biographer. Some of her work was produced on Broadway and adapted to film. She married and collaborated with mystery writer Lyon Mearson.

Early life Lillian Ethel Abrams was born on June 27, 1893, in Manhattan, New York City. Fendler-Abrams testified that her husband was consistently under the influence of alcohol.

Career She began her career writing for magazines in the 1920s under Lillian Day. Her work appeared in The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post. She continued to use her first husband's surname, Day, as her pen name, despite a divorce and two additional marriages. The play was made into the 1941 film Our Wife by Columbia Pictures.

She co-wrote the screenplay for Wayward, a film released by Paramount in 1932. She collaborated with her third husband, Norbert Lederer, to write the mysteries Murder in Time in 1933 and Death Comes on Friday in 1937.

Day's short story, "Living up to Lizzie", was adapted into the film Personal Maid's Secret, released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1935. The Youngest Profession, a novel she wrote in 1938, was made into a play, A Woman of Fifteen, in 1943 and a film, The Youngest Profession, in 1943. She also co-wrote the play, Collector's Item, which ran on Broadway in the Booth Theatre on in February 1952.

Day also wrote several biographies. Her book on violinist Niccolò Paganini was published in 1929. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, "Until this gossipy, but informing biography by Miss Day appeared his profile to posterity was a caricature." In 1946, she wrote a biography for children about composer and Edvard Grieg.

Personal life She married three times. The couple married in 1928 and divorced in early 1934. However, Walter Winchell reported that they had been seen together in October 1934, and implied a rekindling of the relationship. She announced her engagement to Dr. Norbert Lewis Lederer in December 1934 and married him around 1946. He was a chemical engineer, former attache to Scotland Yard, and author on crime, tropical fish and chess.

In 1950, Day moved to France with Lederer. Our Wife. with Lyon Mearson. New York: 1932.

Biographies Paganini of Genoa. New York: Macauley Co., 1929. Ninon, a Courtesan of Quality. New York: Doubleday, 1957.

Films Wayward (1932), co-wrote screenplay with Gladys Unger Personal Maid's Secret, based on "Living up to Lizzie" (1935) Our Wife (1941) The Youngest Profession (1943)