On this day in ...... 1986, in New York, Laura Z. Hobson (right) died from cancer. She'd been born in the same city 85 years earlier, daughter of Jewish socialists who'd emigrated from Russia and were active in the labor movement. (photo credit) After studying at Hunter College and Cornell, she became a writer, producing "nine novels, an autobiography, hundreds of short stories and magazine articles, and news features and advertising copy in a career that spanned six decades." Hobson's works included The Trespassers (1943), about World War II refugees turned away from the United States; Gentleman's Agreement (1947), the best-selling story of a writer's inquiry into anti-Semitism in New York and Connecticut that soon became a movie starring Gregory Peck; and Consenting Adult (1975), a semi-autobiographical novel about the relationship of a mother and her gay son.
(Prior February 28 posts are here, here, and here)
