Imitation of Life 1990

Fannie Hurst was born in Hamilton, Ohio, the daughter of a successful shoe manufacturer. Her parents were Bavarian-Jews who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1860. Hurst was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and received her A.B. degree from Washington University in 1909. She went to Columbia University in New York for graduate courses in 1910. She wanted to be a writer, both to support herself and to study people, she worked as a waitress and as a salesgirl. She also did bit acting roles in the theater, attended night court and studied people on the street. Although she was not a radical, she was interested in social issues such as equal pay for equal work, the right of a woman to retain her name