John Breon collection

John Wallace Breon was born on August 31, 1923 in Rockford, Illinois. He studied at Beloit College for one semester before being drafted into the U.S. Army. While serving in France during World War II, he met Gertrude Stein, with whom he stayed in touch with for many years. Stein planned to draw from her conversations with Breon for a new book about American soldiers. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1946, Breon enrolled at Beloit College once more. As a student he wrote play reviews for the Round Table student newspaper and was inducted into Phi Sigma Iota (Theta), an academic honor society focused on the study of romance languages. In 1949, he graduated with a degree in English. His younger sister, Joanne A. Breon, also graduated from Beloit College in 1953.

After graduation, Breon traveled to several European countries, namely France and Italy, as he wrote his novel, The Sorrows of Travel (1955). He wrote another novel, Separation Center and a play, See Grady See but neither were published. After college, he worked as a reporter until the mid-1950s, when he began working as a copyeditor and technical writer. He worked at several different publishing companies in New York City, including McGraw-Hill Company, from which he retired in 1979. He lived with his companion Charles F. Cerbone until his death on April 21, 1984. Afterwards, many of his papers were donated to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale.