Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this worthy successor to her 1994 book on journalist Nellie Bly, Brooke Kroeger offers another vivid biography of an important yet neglected female figure in American cultural history. This time, the subject of Kroeger's brisk narrative is Fannie Hurst (1885-1968), the bestselling author of such novels as Back Street and Imitation of Life, not to mention dozens of short stories that brought the lives of immigrants and working-class women into the literary mainstream. Out of fashion today, Hurst's work was praised in its time as a model of the storyteller's art and served as the basis for many popular films. She was also a staunch liberal, feminist, and forceful advocate of civil rights. Kroeger traces in lucid prose the action-packed trajectory of Hurst's busy life, from a middle-class childhood in St. Louis as the daughter of assimilated German Jews to her later years spent residing in a lavish New York City triplex apartment. Plentiful quotes from Hurst's letters and other writings give an attractive impression of her personality: strong, smart, frank, generous, and friendly, though tending to hold her innermost self aloof. Kroeger's portrait is a little short on psychological insights, but that would probably suit Hurst, who does not seem to have been inclined toward introspection. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

All but forgotten now, Fannie Hurst had one of the most celebrated American literary careers from the 1920s to the 1950s. Born in 1885 to a middle-class Jewish family in St. Louis, Hurst began writing in college; by 1928 (after six volumes of stories and five bestselling novels), she was earning an extraordinary $4000 per story. Her fiction, which features working women, often from immigrant backgrounds, struck a chord with a mostly female readership; 32 films were made from her works, including repeated remakes of the enormously popular Imitation of Life and Back Street. A popular columnist, lecturer, journalist and spokesperson for liberal causes, Hurst made headlines with her "modern" marriage, in which she and her musician husband lived apart. After WWII, Hurst's reputation faded; her 1968 obit was front-page New York Times news, but she was already publishing history. Kroeger succinctly lays out the basics of Hurst's career, including her friendship with Zora Neale Hurston, her problematic race politics and complex feelings about her Jewish identity, her personal vanity about her age and her feminist convictions. Too often, though, the contradictions vital to understanding Hurst's life and career are noted but not explored. Kroeger's writing is often hackneyed ("Hurst's success kept coming, like popcorn kernels exploding in hot oil"), but also is, like her subject's own (often melodramatic) prose, compulsively readable. Hurst is an important figure in U.S. popular culture and this biography, despite its flaws, goes a long way toward explaining why. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 478 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (August 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812924975
• ISBN-13: 978-0812924978
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,883,856 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imitation of Life, February 7, 2000

By	Charlene - See all my reviews

A gripping tale of a young black girl struggling with her identity - her mother trying to convince her to be herself. Definitely a tear jerker!

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imitation of Life, February 7, 2000

By	Charlene (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

A gripping tale of a young black girl struggling with her identity - her mother trying to encourage her to be herself. Definitely a tear jerker!