Fannie Hurst

Born in Ohio to secular parents of German Jewish heritage, Fannie Hurst grew up in a middle-class household in St. Louis. She graduated from Washington University in 1909 and continued her education at Columbia University. Hurst was one of the most prolific and successful American authors, writing more than three hundred short stories, nineteen novels, and scripts, most of which focused on the life of working women and immigrants. Many of her works were made into films, including “Humoresque” (1919, film 1946) and Imitation of Life (1933, film 1934). Hurst’s politics were progressive. In addition to her literary output, she was a member of the Urban League and in the 1930s chaired president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s National Housing Commission and Committee of Workman’s Compensation. Concomitantly, Hurst’s literary work is marked by progressive ideals, and particularly a deep concern with American racism and its effects. But her interest in race, racism, and “passing”—arguably a concern shaped by her Jewishness—often reproduced stereotypes. Her relationship with the African American writer Zora Neale Hurston reflected a similar problematic duality: Hurston was Hurst’s confidante but also her chauffeur and secretary.