From the 1999 Times Books edition of Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst by Brooke Kroeger:  In the first half of the twentieth century, Fannie Hurst was known as such for the startling particulars of her extraordinary life as for writing stories that penetrated the human heart.

Hers is the story of a Jewish girl from the Middle West turned dynamic celebrity author, the kid down the street who spoke her dreams out loud and then managed to fulfill every one of them.

Her name was constant newspaper fodder. It appeared in reviews of her twenty-six books; in reports of her travels, her lifestyle (including the marriage she curiously chose to hide from her friends as well as the public), her diet, and her provocative public statements; and in her obituary, which was front-page news, even in The New York Times. Read More→