Hurst, Fannie

Hurst, Fannie, 1889–1968, American author, b. Hamilton, Ohio, grad. Washington Univ., 1909. She is noted for her sympathetic, sentimental novels including Lummox (1923), Back Street (1930), Imitation of Life (1933), and God Must Be Sad (1961).

Bibliography

See biography by B. Kroeger (1999).

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Hurst, Fannie (b. Danielson) (1889–1968) writer; born in Hamilton, Ohio. She studied at Washington University, Mo. (B.A. 1909) and Columbia University (1910–12). Settling in New York City, she held a variety of jobs ranging from working in restaurants and factories, to small acting parts in plays. Starting in 1920, she wrote an endless succession of novels, plays, screenplays, short stories, and articles. An immensely popular writer for several decades, she is best known for such novels as Lummox (1923), Back Street (1931), and Imitation of Life (1933). Serious critics dismissed her work as sentimental and lacking style, but she tried to deal with women's lives and in later years she became quite outspoken in calling for reforms in many areas of contemporary society.