Quick Facts
Biography
Marjorie Kellogg (July 17, 1922 – December 19, 2005) was an American author born in Santa Barbara, California.
Kellogg attended the University of California, Berkeley where she later dropped out and left for San Francisco to pursue a career in writing. In San Francisco she worked at the San Francisco Chronicle as a copyeditor.
She later received a job for Salute Magazine, where she was sent to write about the aftermath of World War II in France and Spain. When she returned to the United States, Kellogg earned a master's degree in social work at Smith College. She relocated to New York City, where she worked in various social agencies as a social worker, which has been credited as her inspiration for the characters in her books, plays and films.
She wrote the screenplay for her novel Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, her most famous work, which was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Liza Minnelli. She later wrote a screenplay adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar. Her second novel was Like the Lion’s Tooth, which was about three emotionally distraught children. Carl Williams directed The Oldest Trick in the World, which was Kellogg's first work as a playwright. She later followed with The Smile of the Cardboard Man and After You’ve Gone, both of which starred Sylvia Short, who became her lover. Kellogg wrote the book for a musical Skybound that was produced by the ASCAP workshop. In 1989, she returned to Santa Barbara with Sylvia Short to live.
Kellogg died from complications of Alzheimer's disease in 2005, at the age of 83, at her home in Santa Barbara.