Born Beatrice Bakrow in Rochester, New York, to businessman Julius and Sarah (Adler) Bakrow. She attended Wellesley College and the University of Rochester between 1913 and 1915. In 1916, she met the journalist and future playwright, George S. Kaufman, at the wedding of a mutual friend, Allan Friedlich. On March 15, 1917 she married George S. Kaufman at the Rochester Country Club. The couple moved to Manhattan, where George Kaufman's plays secured them a place at the famous Algonquin Round Table(along with Alexander Woollcott, Edna Ferber, Harold Ross, Dororthy Parker, and Franklin Pierce Adams). Some of their best friends were Moss Hart, the Marx brothers, Oscar Levant, and the Gershwins. In 1918 she became assistant to the press agent for the Talmadge sisters. Later, she was hired as a reader for publisher Al Woods and the Broadway producer, Morris Gest. In 1920, she became head of the editorial department for the publishing company Boni & Liveright. During her five years at Boni & Liveright, she solicited and edited works by T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, e.e. cummings, John Steinbeck, George S. Kaufman, and Eugene O'Neill. She helped Ernest Hemingway's first book, "In Our Time," overcome Horace Liveright's initial objections. She wrote four, short stories for The New Yorker, and was profiled by Ring Lardner in the same magazine. In the 1930's, she was eastern story editor for Samuel Goldwyn and fiction editor at Harpers Bazaar. After her close friend and theater critic, Alexander Wollcott died in 1943, Kaufman and Joseph Hennessey brought out an edition of his letters for Viking Press. She was an avid bridge player, and occasional member of the Thanatopsis Inside Straight and Literary Club, a group of mainly men in the Algonquin circle who played a weekly poker game. She was also a member of the Dramatists Guild, The Seeing Eye (an organization for training dogs to lead the blind), and the Lucy Stone League. After several years of poor health, she died at six o'clock in the evening, Oct 6, 1945, at 410 Park Avenue. She was cremated at Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium. She was 51. (Galchinsky, Michael. "Beatrice Kaufman." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive)
Born Beatrice Bakrow in Rochester, New York, to businessman Julius and Sarah (Adler) Bakrow. She attended Wellesley College and the University of Rochester between 1913 and 1915. In 1916, she met the journalist and future playwright, George S. Kaufman, at the wedding of a mutual friend, Allan Friedlich. On March 15, 1917 she married George S. Kaufman at the Rochester Country Club. The couple moved to Manhattan, where George Kaufman's plays secured them a place at the famous Algonquin Round Table(along with Alexander Woollcott, Edna Ferber, Harold Ross, Dororthy Parker, and Franklin Pierce Adams). Some of their best friends were Moss Hart, the Marx brothers, Oscar Levant, and the Gershwins. In 1918 she became assistant to the press agent for the Talmadge sisters. Later, she was hired as a reader for publisher Al Woods and the Broadway producer, Morris Gest. In 1920, she became head of the editorial department for the publishing company Boni & Liveright. During her five years at Boni & Liveright, she solicited and edited works by T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, e.e. cummings, John Steinbeck, George S. Kaufman, and Eugene O'Neill. She helped Ernest Hemingway's first book, "In Our Time," overcome Horace Liveright's initial objections. She wrote four, short stories for The New Yorker, and was profiled by Ring Lardner in the same magazine. In the 1930's, she was eastern story editor for Samuel Goldwyn and fiction editor at Harpers Bazaar. After her close friend and theater critic, Alexander Wollcott died in 1943, Kaufman and Joseph Hennessey brought out an edition of his letters for Viking Press. She was an avid bridge player, and occasional member of the Thanatopsis Inside Straight and Literary Club, a group of mainly men in the Algonquin circle who played a weekly poker game. She was also a member of the Dramatists Guild, The Seeing Eye (an organization for training dogs to lead the blind), and the Lucy Stone League. After several years of poor health, she died at six o'clock in the evening, Oct 6, 1945, at 410 Park Avenue. She was cremated at Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium. She was 51. (Galchinsky, Michael. "Beatrice Kaufman." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive)
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