Laura Z. Hobson (June 19, 1900 – February 28, 1986) was an American fiction writer best known for Gentleman’s Agreement and the subsequent award-winning film of the same name.

Born Laura Kean Zametkin in New York City, she and her twin sister Alice grew up on Long Island. Their parents were highly educated refugees from czarist Russia. Her father was the first editor of the Jewish Daily Forward; her mother did social work.

Before she became a full-time novelist with the 1947 publication of Gentleman’s Agreement, she had been a successful writer of advertising and promotional copy on the staff of Luce publications, where she wrote for Time, Life, and Fortune. Read More→