PB
was a prolific novelist who published over fifty works in approximately sixty years. Her two best-known works,
Private Worlds and
The Mortal Storm, were made into popular American films. In addition to novels,
PB
wrote a biography of psychologist
Alfred Adler
, who greatly influenced her life and work; three volumes of autobiography; and numerous essays and short stories. Most of her writings are concerned with issues of social justice—poverty, mental illness, women's work, and especially anti-Semitism. In her fiction and non-fiction,
PB
fervently attacked the
Nazis
' treatment of European Jews and appealed to Britain and America to take responsibility for the plight of Jewish refugees.