Fannie Hurst

The Vertical City (Dodo Press) Fannie Hurst

Fannie Hurst (1889-1968) was an American novelist. She was born in Hamilton, Ohio, the only surviving child of a well-to-do Jewish family. She spent the first twenty years of her life in St. Louis, Missouri, where she attended Washington University in St. Louis and graduated in 1909. In 1921, she was among the first to join the Lucy Stone League, an organization that fought for women to preserve their maiden names. She was active in the Urban League, and was appointed to the National Advisory Committee to the Works Progress Administration in 1940. She was also a delegate to the World Health Organization in 1952. Hurst is now best known for the screen adaptations of her works, such as the 1934 film Imitation of Life. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Star-Dust (1919), Lummox (1923), A President is Born (1927), Back Street (1931) and Imitation of Life (1933).