Jessamyn West was an American author of short stories and novels, born Mary Jessamyn West on July 18, 1902, in Vernon, to a Quaker family. She was a citizen of the United States who wrote in English across a career that encompassed both novels and screenwriting.

West graduated from Fullerton Union High School in 1919 and went on to Whittier College, where she helped found the Palmer Society in 1921. She completed her undergraduate degree at Whittier College in 1923. The college later awarded her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1946, more than two decades after she had first studied there as an undergraduate.

West worked as a novelist, screenwriter, and writer of short fiction throughout her career. Her notable work, The Friendly Persuasion, is the title most directly associated with her name. In 1975, she received the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, a recognition of her work as a writer of fiction. These two markers — the notable work and the prize — represent the most prominent formal distinctions of her writing career.

West died in Napa in February 1984, with sources placing the date as either February 22 or February 23. She was a Quaker from Indiana whose published output spanned short stories and novels written in English. The Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, awarded to her in 1975, stands as the most specifically dated recognition she received during her lifetime as a working writer.