Miles J. Breuer was born in Chicago on January 3, 1889, but the family moved to Crete, Nebraska when he was four years old so his father could attend medical school. He attended the University of Texas and went on to medical school at Rush Medical Center. He worked as an internist, specializing in tuberculosis at Lincoln General Hospital in Nebraska. He often bylined his work with his credentials as an M.D.

In 1916, he married Julia Strejc and they had three children, Rosalie, Stanley (who died at 18 when he fell from St. Isabel Glacier), and Mildred. During World War I, he served in France and achieved the rank of first lieutenant in the Medical Corps. Upon his return to the U.S., he joined his father’s medical practice and began publishing medical articles in Czech language newspapers and a monthly medical column in a Czech-language agricultural magazine. He published the Index of Physiotherapeutic Technic in 1925, outlining physical therapy practices.

His first English language science fiction story, “The Man with the Strange Head” appeared in the January 1927 issue of Amazing Stories, however, it was previously published as “Muž se zvláštní hlavou” in a Czech language almanac published in Chicago. He also appears to have published “The Man without an Appetite” in the Czech magazine Bratrský věstník in 1916, although it didn’t see English publication until 1963. His Czech stories tended to be published under the name Miloslav J. Breuer, and he continued to publish in Czech throughout his early writing career.

The majority of his work, more than two dozen stories, were published within a five year period, with only half that number appearing in the following decade. While his fiction included gadgets and other standard tropes of science fiction of the time, Breuer tended to look at how those things impacted humans rather than focus on the cool gizmos. His earlier works tended to be stronger stories and better written than works he published later in his career.  One of his most famous stories was 1930’s “The Gostak and the Doshes,” whose seemingly nonsensical title became a catch phrase in early fandom.

Breuer collaborated with Jack Williamson on the story “The Girl from Mars” and novel The Birth of a New Republic. The idea for the novel was Breuer’s, with Williamson doing the majority of the writing. He also collaborated with Clare Winger Harris on the story “A Baby on Neptune.”

The majority of Breuer’s fiction was published in either Amazing Stories or Amazing Stories Quarterly, but he did publish “The Problem of Communication” in Astounding, “Mars Colonizes” in Marvel Tales, “The Disappearing Pages” in Future Fiction, and “The Oversight” in Comet.

In 1942, Breuer suffered a nervous breakdown and moved to Los Angeles as a means of giving himself a fresh start, setting up a medical practice there. Breuer died on October 14, 1945 in Los Angeles and is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery. His father died the following year.

In 2025, Jaroslav Olsa, Jr. published Dreaming of Autonomous Vehicles: Miroslav (Miles) J. Breuer: Czech-American Writer and the Birth of Science Fiction.

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Steven H Silver is a twenty-one-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.