Niven Busch

Niven Busch (April 26, 1903 – August 25, 1991) was an American novelist and screenwriter of movies such as the acclaimed The Postman Always Rings Twice. His novels included Duel in the Sun (1944) and California Street. He was married to actress Teresa Wright for ten years beginning in 1942.

Early career

Born in New York City, Busch began his writing career in the early twenties, when he went to work for Time Magazine (co-founded by Busch's cousin, Briton Hadden). Before departing for Hollywood a decade later, Busch had risen to editor at the weekly, working simultaneously for The New Yorker, where he contributed profiles on famous Americans. (These articles were collected into his first book, the non-fiction Twenty-One Americans.)

In 1932, realizing he had gone as far as he was likely to go as a New York-based magazine writer/editor, Busch re-connected with agent Myron Selznick, whom Busch knew through his father, an executive who had worked for Myron's father Lewis in the teens and early twenties.