JOHN BECKER (1901- 1982) after graduating from Harvard, Becker had a column in the Chicago Daily News. He worked in Chicago for the Institute for Juvenile Research and for a time in the Illinois State Penitentiary. In 1929 he opened the John Becker Gallery in New York, giving shows to many artists who have since become household names, among them Léger, Picasso, Arp, Le Corbusier and Noguchi. Before the war, when he was Public Relations Advisor for the Council against Intolerance in America, he published his first book, The Negro in American Life (1944). During the war he was in Italy with the American Red Cross. He afterwards settled with his family in Rome, and later lived in Vienna and in London. His published work includes collections of short stories: After Geneva (1975), Jamie (1981), Parting Gift (1984);three children's books: Melindy's Medal with Georgine Faulkner (1945), New Feathers for the Old Goose (1956), Near-Tragedy at the Waterfall (1964) and Seven Little Rabbits (2007).