Voting Station

Laura Z. Hobson

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Author

The Resume

    (June 19, 1900-February 28, 1986)
    Born in Queens, New York
    Birth name was Laura Zametkin
    Wrote the novels 'The Trespassers' (1943), 'Gentleman's Agreement' (1947), 'The Celebrity' (1951), 'First Papers' (1964), 'The Tenth Month' (1971) and 'Consenting Adults' (1975)

Why she might be annoying:

    She rarely gave interviews or discussed her private life.
    After her divorce from publisher Francis Hobson, she had a son out of wedlock, but covered it up by adopting the child.
    'Gentleman's Agreement,' about a reporter who pretends to be Jewish in order to write about antisemitism, overshadowed all her other writing.
    Screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr., joked that the moral of 'Gentleman's Agreement' was 'You should never be mean to a Jew, because he might turn out to be a gentile.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her father was a Russian socialist who had been tortured by the tsar's secret police.
    She was hired by Henry Luce for Time's promotional staff, making her the first woman to work for the magazine in a position other than secretary.
    She edited the double crosstics puzzle in 'Sunday Review' for 27 years.
    After the Jewish Book Council named 'Gentleman's Agreement' the best Jewish novel of 1947, she refused the award, saying that the issue of antisemitism in the novel was important for all Americans.
    The film adaptation of 'Gentleman's Agreement' won the Oscar for Best Picture.
    At a dinner, when one of the guests cracked an antisemitic joke then quasi-apologized with 'I didn't know you were Jewish,' she replied, 'Only on my father's side and my mother's side.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 69.23% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying