Kay Boyle

Kay Boyle (1902 – 1992) was an American writer, educator, and political activist. 

Her greatest influence came from her mother, Katherine Evans, a literary and social activist who believed that the wealthy had an obligation to help the less well off. In later years Kay Boyle championed integration and civil rights. She also advocated banning nuclear weapons, and American withdrawal from the Vietnam War.

Boyle lived 20 years in Europe and returned to the US shortly before WWII broke out. Her warnings about the eminent war were not listened to.

Under McCarthyism she lost her post as foreign correspondent for the New Yorker and was blacklisted by most of the major magazines. She travelled to Cambodia in 1966 as part of the "Americans Want to Know" fact-seeking mission. She participated in numerous protests, and in 1967 was arrested twice and imprisoned. Boyle was an active supporter of Amnesty International.